Hazards

There are many types of hazards that you have to deal with while hiking on the Appalacian trail and i'm going to categorize them as being either alive or dead.

The majority of the hazards that people encounter are of the dead sort. Weather is one of the main things under this category.

Rain, thunderstorms, snow, and cold weather are the main weather hazards. Thunderstorms and snow are pretty obvious, but rain is a big deal on the AT. Rain makes everything slippery. There are a lot of rock on the AT that become very hazardous. This makes people slip, fall, sprain ankles, and much more.

Also, cold weather creates more of a mental hazard than anything else. Backpacking in cold (and especially wet) weather makes hiking not so much fun. It makes many thru-hikers quit and many other hikers not enjoy their time near as much as they should.

In addition, tree roots and rocks create a major problem, especially in the fall. Rocks and roots are two things that you must walk on very regularly, and you have to make sure to get a sure foothold.

One of the main problems with hiking the AT is that many people sprain their ankles, usually as a result of rocks or tree roots, so be sure to watch out and step carefully.

The other classification of a hazard is the "alive" hazards. These hazards can be anything from poison ivy, to rattle snakes, to bears. For some reason, people look at these with much more fear than the dead hazards, but alive hazards are very rare.

The more major alive hazards like bears and other humans attacking people are extremely rare. The bears rarely attack humans (unless they get in between the mother and its cub), they are just there to eat your food. The number of bear attactks over the last few years can easily be counted on a hand or two. With the high number of hikers on the AT, this proves to be an incredibily small chance of happening.

In addition, there have only been something like 9 accounts of people being attacked by other humans over the last 20 years. So that should not be a major concern.

In conclusion, the Appalacian Trail can have its hazardous conditions, but overall, it's a safe place if you are carefull with wear you step. Don't fret yourself with things such as bear attacks and other humans, but it's always good to be aware.

Overlooks

One of the greatest things about hiking on the Appalacian Trail is the views that you can see while hiking on it. Many of these spectacular views comes from an overlook.

An overlook is an area, usually towards the top of one of the mountains, that has been cleared out by the members of the Appalacian trail and it's pupurse is to create a view over the nearby landscape.

These overlooks often look over streams, fields, and into the nearby mountains. On clear days, you can usually see many, many miles into the distance, and witness some of the most beautiful sights in the United States.

The thing that makes these overlooks so rewarding is that they are at the top of most mountains, or very high up at the very least. This means two things: 1) that the view will be amazing because of how high up you are and 2) you probably just hiked up hill for a long period of time, and nothing is better than taking your pack off and resting at such an amazing sight.

I don't know how many overlooks there are throughout the Appalacian Trail, but there are a lot. I rarely hike for more than a day or two with out coming to one, but each one is unique and awesome.

My favorite overlooks are the ones that have a huge drop off right at the edge, because it is an amazing feeling to walk up to the edge, and just look out and down, to see how far you have walked and how high up you are. It's a great feeling looking down into the valley and seeing where you were just hiking, and seeing how far you have come.

Overall, overlooks add an amazing aspect to the Appalacian Trail. It's one of the things that you can come back from the trip and tell your family and friends about.

Thru-hiking

This entry is about thru-hiking the Appalacian Trail. As I mentioned previously, thru-hiking means that you hike the whole trail, from Maine to Georgia (or Georgia to Maine) in one trip.

This means that you have to hike around 2,200 miles in a maximum time of 5 or 6 months. Not only do you have to hike this far, in a short period of time, but you must carry everything you need--on your back, over hills and mountains.

Hiking the Appalacian trail from start to finish is one of the hardest things anyone could reasonably set out to do. Many, many people set out each year to do so, and only about 10% of the people actually finish.

In addition to the mental and physical shape that a person must be in, they must also be aware of the weather. If you start in Tennesse and go to main (which most thru-hikers do), you have to deal with the snow in the mountains of Tennesse, and finish before it gets to cold up north. If you start in Maine, you have to wait longer to start due to cold weather in Maine, and you must hustle down to Georgia so you don't get caught in a blizzard in the mountains of the south.

One of my friends who attempted to thru-hike from Maine to Georgia made it all the way to Tennesse, when he got caught in a blizzard that dropped 2 feet of snow on him and he had to stop.

In addition, the trip must be very well planned out. To hike the whole trail, you must have all the right equipment and you must have your food and what not sent ahead to the post offices to pick up every week or two. This makes for a lot of planning.

As you can see, these are just a few of the obstacles, but it is very difficult to thru-hike the Appalacian Trail.

weekend trip 101

For college students, weekend trips are the most practical thing to do. I don't know about the rest of you, but every now and again I have to get away from Newark. The lights and noise and lack of nature gets to me and the best way to get away to is go backpacking.

The trip will usually go from friday afternoon till sunday night for a weekend trip. To start your search, do a google or yahoo search to find a place that is good to go backpacking. Once you find this spot, you must begin to compile the list of things that I put together in my last entry. Your best chance at renting this stuff is by going to EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports). There is on in the Christiana Mall and while their stuff is expensive to buy, it's fairly well priced to rent for a weekend.

The place that you find should be close by for a weekend trip. Assuming you have classes on friday, they should be done by the afternoon, and then if you head out you should be able to get to your start point by early evening. Thus, you're not going to want to travel more than 2 or 3 hours.

The reason for arriving early evening is so you can park and hike a mile or two with all your stuff to arive and set up your tent for your first night. To do this, it is most helpful for it to be light out at least untill you get to your campsite.

This will allow you to have all day saturday to hike. If you are a beginner, I would suggest that you stick to under 10 miles on any given day, even less if it is a mountainous stretch. Enjoy your night saturday night, and wake up and hike for a half a day on sunday. This will allow you plenty of time to arrive back and be ready for classes on monday.

Most places on the AT are areas that you start your hike at one point, and end it at another. For this reason, it is usually best to get enough people to reasonably take two cars along on the trip. If you take two cars, you can drop one off at your end point to avoid hitch-hiking. While hitch-hiking may have been widely accepted in the past, it is now frowned upon - so take two cars and enjoy your weekend trip.

what to take (continued)

For this entry, I am going to pick up where I left off with the last entry and talk about the following things: tent, sleeping bag, mat, clothes, tooth brush. These are the last of the essential items that you need, and technology plays a big part in many of these categories.

First, the tent is an item that must be kept light, but must also keep you warm and dry. If you are hiking by yourself, there are many good one man tents that have recently come out with. However, it is idea to have two people share a two person tent and each carry half of the tent. This usually minimizes weight because the tents for more than two people get extremely heavy.

For sleeping bags, you don't want just any sleeping bag - you want a mummy bag. A mummy bag is similar to a sleeping bag, except it's made of a lighter and warmer material, and has an exta part that comes up around your head. The mummy bags have different degree ratings. for example, my mummy bag is a 20 degree, but it goes as low as negative 20 degrees before you start paying a lot of money. A good mummy bag makes for a much better backpacking trip.

Next, you need some type of mat to sleep on so that you can be comfortable and well rested for the next days hike. There are two kinds of mats - the old and the new. The old are more durable, less comfortable, and more cumbersome. This is two negatives to one positive. The better option is a self-inflating mat. All the outdoors stores like EMS and northface sell them, but I prefer to buy mine from L.L. Bean.

The other things you must take are clothes and a toothbrush. For the toothbrush, I usually take along one of those that fold in half and stores inside itself. In terms of clothes, it's good to take something to hike in, and then a warm and cold set for night. Take along light clothes, like fleece material, not heavy stuff like jeans.

Good luck with packing, let me know if you have any questions.

What to take?

Last entry I talked a lot about weight, and this entry directly ties into weight. For this entry, I will discuss the items that you need to take on a backpacking trip if you are going for a two day trip or longer. In addition, I will briefly speak about some things that you do not have to (and should not) take along.

The key to deciding what to take along is to think, "Is this wieght worth taking along?" When backpacking on the AT, the main things that you need to take are the bare essentials: food, stove, tent, sleeping bag, mat, clothes, tooth brush.

First off, food is key. You need to have food that will keep you nourished, but it must also be light (usually dehydrated food is best), and come in disposable containers. For example, oatmeal is an excellent food to take along with you for breakfast because it is light, filling, and you throw the paper wrapper into the fire when you're done with it. You want to avoid taking along items that come in glass containers and that are heavy or cumbersome.

Nourishing food will help you get through a day of climbing up hills like this one. =====>

Next, you must take a stove with you when you go back- packing. Stoves are one of the areas of technology in backpacking that have improved greatly over the last ten years. The weight and size of stoves have drastically decreased (excellent for backpackers). You want to take a stove that has enough propane to get you through your trip, but not too much in that you are carrying excess. The main purpose of the stove is to heat up water, which will then be poured into your oatmeal, hot cocoa, or a dehydrated dinner. Sometimes, the stove is even used to bring water to a boil to make it potable.

I will discuss the other items to take along in my next entry. (To be continued)

Weight is key

Now that you all have a good base for what backpacking is, I want to go over what makes a good backpacker. There are three main things to being a good backpacker: 1) physically in good shape 2) mentally strong and 3) someone who can pack their backpack light.

The first two I have briefly touched on before. If you are going to backpack, you obviously have to be in good physical condition. This means both in good aerobic shape and have some muscle mass to you. In addition, you can not be a good backpacker if you can not mentally fight off a little bit of pain through out the day.

The part that I have not yet touched on, and that I want to spend the rest of this entry talking about, is weight factor. Of all the factors of backpacking, keeping your pack light is the most important.

So, what you're thinking is, "how do I keep my pack light?" Well, there's two things to this. First, is that you must have technological and somewhat up-to-date equipment such as stoves, sleeping bags, and mats specifically for backpacking.

In addition, you have to be willing to give up certain things such as: deoderant, amazing meals, clean clothes, etc.

I understand that this seems like a lot to give up, but you will be so thankful for the light technology and for giving up those things I just listed when you are hiking up a long incline or it is winding towards the end of the day and you are exausted.

This light pack not only keeps you from tiring as quickly, but it also helps your back and legs. When you have a heavy pack, it puts a lot of strain on both these parts of your body, and you will wear out quickly.

Remember, the lighter the better