I have a schedule! Myself, Sondheim, and Isa will be starting out from Springer Mountain on March 21st, 2014. If you’re near to the AT and want to join me for a short stretch or if you perhaps have a warm shower that I could make use of for a night 🙂 , let me know! It’s impossible to predict exactly where we’ll be when, but I’ve laid out some rough estimations below:
- Northern Georgia: March 21st until late March. The trail starts about 2 hours north of Atlanta, near Gainesville, and goes to Hiawassee, GA.
- North Carolina / Tennessee (state line area): Early April to near the end of April. Starting near Franklin, NC, weaving up toward Gatlinburg, TN, and basically following the NC/TN state line up to the northern border of the states. I’ll pass near Hot Springs, NC (1 hour northwest of Asheville) and then to Erwin and Hampton in Tennessee.
- Virginia (western and northern): End of April through early June. The trail spends a plurality of its time in Virginia, and I’ll be going from Damascus to Roanoke to Waynesboro (30 mins west of Charlottesville) to Front Royal, VA (1h 15m west of D.C.).
- West Virginia / Maryland (state line area): Early/mid June. From Harpers Ferry, WV – the spiritual center of the trail, where the headquarters for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy is located – to Boonsboro, MD (1h 15m west of Baltimore). Soleil will also be joining us around Harpers Ferry.
- Pennsylvania (southern and eastern): Mid-June to late June. Starting in Waynesboro and then headed through Duncannon (15 mins north of Harrisburg) to Palmerton (midway between Allentown and Wilkes-Barre) and finally to the Delaware Water Gap.
- New Jersey (northwestern) / New York (Bear Mountain area) / Connecticut (Litchfield Co.): Late June to early/mid July. This is actually the easiest spot on the AT to get to via public transportation. Take Metro-North’s Harlem Line to the aptly-named “Appalachian Trail” stop, or their also nearby Pawling or Wingdale stations (see schedule here). We’ll start in Glenwood, NJ, head through Unionville, NY to Bear Mountain and then Pawling, NY. Finally, we’ll head through Connecticut in Kent, Cornwall, and Salisbury.
- Massachusetts (western) / Vermont (southern and eastern): Mid to late July. From Great Barrington to North Adams in Massachusetts, and then on to Bennington, Rutland, and Killington in Vermont. The AT is the same as the southern half of VT’s Long Trail.
- New Hampshire (Hanover through the Whites): Late July to mid-August. HANOVER, NH to to Mt. Washington and Lincoln, and finally through Gorham, NH. It may be a small state, but it’s very mountainous and slow-going. I’ll also definitely be spending some quality time at my old fraternity at Dartmouth College on my way through!
- Maine (northwestern): Mid- to late August. From Andover through Monson and the 100-Mile Wilderness, and finally to that last great pinnacle of the trail: Mt. Katahdin (2 hours north of Bangor)!
I think that I’ll have a relatively fast pace. I’m usually faster than most of my friends when I go on hikes and my athletic activities are all based on endurance; I’m a long-distance cyclist in my spare time. But we’ll see.
Let me know if you think you might want to meet up, and I’ll give you a call as I get close to see if you’re around! I’d love to see some friends and family along the way! Otherwise, keep up with me through my blog posts and the “Where Am I?” tab linked on the top of this blog.
Bounce in the Woods 