Appalachian Trail

[tas-man]

Here's a copy of an Appalachian Trail map for those of you wanting to take a closer look

[Kainas]

Wow. What a dream trip.

[tas-man]

Update from Roger - 132 miles to go after a forced rest break for a few days to allow an inflamed knee to recover.

[icefest]

Update from Roger - 132 miles to go after a forced rest break for a few days to allow an inflamed knee to recover.

Almost done!

[tas-man]

Update from Norts (Roger)
"My knee has held up, I have done 18,19, 18 miles the last 3 days. Katahdin here I come. 132 miles to go . . .
Did an interesting party of the trail yesterday. The At crosses the Kennebec River. There is no bridge and the river is too deep and too swift to ford. The trail becomes a canoe. There is a ferryman,Hillbilly Dave( with a missing front tooth) who is paid by the ATC to provide the ferry service. He can take 2 passengers, but one has to help paddle. The canoe has a white blaze on the floor. Dave has been the ferryman for 18 years.
I will get into Monson tomorrow (18 Aug) when I should be able to send this email. I will then head into the 100mile wilderness. I will have to do 110 miles before any civilization. Longest stretch of the trail with no resupply.
This will be my last update until I get to Katahdin and finish my thru hike.
Maine is very pretty with lots of lakes, we are camped beside one tonight, I can hear loons and coyotes while I type.
I hope ya'll are ok .
Keep your fingers crossed for me please.

Norts (Roger)"

[jacko1956]

Maine is beautiful and Katahdin a majestic finish.
Well done Norts.

[tas-man]

News from Norts (Roger) is that he has summited Mt Katahdin on August 26th.
CONGRATULATIONS!

[walkon]

Well done Norts, hats off to you. It's a damn impressive achievement.

Ps impressive beard

[DanShell]

Wow what a dream come true and an amazing effort. Congratulations to Norts and the others that have completed or attempted this hike.

[Nuts]

Gads, they've worn their feet off
Well done!

[whynotwalk]

Great job norts! You're making a few feet itchy back home. We're also looking forward to one heck of a trip report

cheers

Peter

[whitefang]

Great work, Norts. Looking forward to reading a trip report.

[north-north-west]

That's some impressive facial fuzz.

[jmac]

Inspiring effort Roger. Congratulations!

[Turfa]

Congratulations !!!
Looking forward to hearing all about it

Enjoy not walking for a while !

[wayno]

awesome, since he's over there he might as well knock of the Continental Divide, Pacific Crest and pacific North West Trails while he's at it...

[jjoz58]

Well done and it will be interesting to read a report or does he have a journal?

My start date nobo 13 Mar 2015 so need all the tips I can get.

[Turfa]

No journal....but looks like plenty of pressure for a trip report when he gets back

Read this whole thread as there could be some helpful information in the earlier pages. Best AT resource is www.whiteblaze.net. There will be a thread on just about any question you could think of ( use the site search to sort through the junk)

There are a few past thru hikers on here, so go ahead & post your questions !

[jjoz58]

On White Blaze and getting some emails from people that have finished it lately.

[norts]

Thank you everyone for your congratulations. Thanks Tasman for posting my updates that I have been sending out regularly.
Will try and put a report together when I am back on a proper keyboard. If anyone has any direct questions I will reply asap, get me on
norts60@hotmail.com
Back in Tassie on the 8 Sep.




Sent from my RM-915_nam_usa_228 using Tapatalk

[norts]

A review of gear I used on my AT thru hike. My pack was above average for base weight The average I am talking about is for the ppl who actually finished the thru hike. At the beginning there was a lot of very big heavy packs.
Tent – Hilleberg Akto, I only slept in shelters 3 times. I had one issue with the Akto floor, it started to leak , not from punctures but all over the floor, seemed like the material had failed. I contacted Hilleberg, and dealt with Petra. They wanted proof the floor was leaking. I did a test and provided a photo. The inner was replaced immediately. This was on an approx 7 yr old tent. I sent the inner back to them for testing. I changed from the solid inner to a full mesh once the weather started to warm up. The Akto was a bit heavy compared to a lot of tents other hikers were using, but it was much more liveable than most of the others. I used a Hilleberg footprint with it.
Sleeping System -
• Thermarest Neoair All Season mattress. It was great.
• Sea to Summit Talus 1 , this was a good bag. Just warm enough in the cold weather but too warm for the rest of the trip and I used it as a quilt. It would have been nice to have been able to swap it out for a summer weight bag once the weather got hot. It was a good compromise.
• Exped inflatable pillow – very comfortable, wouldnt be without it. Exped replaced my first one as the internal baffler failed and it turned into a balloon. It was replaced with no problems.
• Mountain Designs – silk sleeping sheet. very good.
Cooking/Water
• Jetboil Sol - no problems, did try to do some cooking using my Titanium bowl. No good for cooking. I had no problems with obtaining canister fuel.
• Snow Peak bowl, mug and spork – no problems.
• billy grips – sent them home, wasn’t doing enough cooking in my bowl.
• a couple of chux and bandanas for drying things and cleaning up spills etc.
• Sawyer water filter – worked well but was very slow by the end of the trail, even after a lot of back flushing.
• Platypus bladders, worked well but had to be replaced half way. I think the rolling and squeezing of them to push water through the Sawyer wears them out.
Clothing
• Mont adventure light shorts, lasted the whole trip. Very comfortable
• Colombia Titanium L/S shirt – very good, a bit faded by the end.
• Darn Tough socks , lasted very well and will be sending a couple of pair that have started to wear thin back for replacement as they have a lifetime warranty.
• Jocks – 1 pr for walking, cheap Kmart Alpha made with coolmax, used them every day I walked the trail. Best value and still have plenty of hiking left in them. 1pr Macpac merino for sleeping in, put my thumb through them fairly early on, the hole has got slowly worse with every wash.
• Macpac bushshirt – my warm layer for walking in. no problems.
• Gaiters – started with ankle high sea to summit, then swapped to Dirty Girl style., but made by OR . Don’t need knee high for the AT. A lot of ppl don’t use any.
• Boots – started with Keen Targhee Mid. Will never buy another pair of Keen, not bad boots but their warranty service was terrible. Boots lasted for approx 700miles, but started to split after the first 200 miles. I contacted Keen and couldn’t get any satisfaction as I didn’t have an US address. They took at least 2 weeks to answer any email that I sent. Spoke to some outfitters over there and they all said Keen were terrible to deal with. I then purchased a pair of Garmonts, I cant remember what model they were, they lasted about another 700miles. My last pr of boots were Merrell Moabs Mids, these were the most comfortable boot I wore, wish I had had them from the start. I threw the last pair away once I had finished and purchased a new pair to travel home in. My feet are still swollen after being off the trail for 25 days.
• Macpac Legionaires cap – no problems but once I got into the central states I used a bandana as a sweat band. The humidity was terrible. As I was walking mainly under trees I didn’t need sun protection.
• Winter/warmth gear which wasn’t carried between Damascus Va. and Hanover Vt.( I was warned to carry it through the White Mts). Macpac twilight down jacket. Macpac merino thermals top and bottom. Fleece beanie. Had no problems with this gear, did definitely need it in the south but could have got away with not carrying it after Hanover, but the Whites are known for their fickleness when it comes to weather( a bit like Tassie).
• Waterproof Jacket( no such thing) – started with a Montane Superfly XT. Hopeless. Too heavy and didn’t keep me dry. Sent it home. Purchased a Marmot( not sure what model) didn’t keep me dry but was lighter and did keep the wind out when I was wet.
• Waterproof pants – rainbird , through them away as I wasn’t using them.
• Town clothes – light shorts and t shirt from Walmart. wore these while my other clothes were being washed. A lot of hostels have spare clothes for hikers but I preferred to have my own. That way I could stay at motels and not have to run around in a towel.
• Crocs- knock offs- camp shoes , ppl say you don’t need camp shoes and that you can get away with just having your walking boots/runners loosely laced. No! Give your feet a break. They need airing, some ppl were getting trench foot, I got a minor case of it from having wet feet. Also handy to get to the shower/ toilet in hostels.
Pack and Misc
• pack was an Exped Lightening 60 . A comfortable pack but had a lot of problems with durability. I used 2 packs, the first one was replaced under warranty after about 700miles. It was repalaced within an hour of me contacting Exped. There was an Outfitter that stocked them in the town I was zeroing at, that was why I contacted them. The hip belt then was replaced on the second one and it now needs more repairs.
• Mountain Design pack liners, I took two, they were useless. Both leaked. Very disappointed. Should have taken a couple of garbage bags.
• Head torch, started with a Princeton Tech Remix, it was eating batteries. Sent it home and bought a Petzl elight. at the 700mile mark. Used 2 sets of batteries for the rest of the trip and only put the second set in with about a week to go from the end. Great head torch for round camp but don’t plan on doing any serious night hiking.
• Ipood(trowel)- sent it home walking pole was enough to scrap a hole, mainly used the privies at the shelters.
• Walking pole – volkstaff from Rocky Mt Amblers. Only use 1 pole. Great pole if a bit heavy. Went through 5 rubber stoppers for the base, Always found ones lying on the trail so never had to purchase any.
• Phone and Sanyo battery charger. Carried a cheap windows phone from AT&T. Had dramas with the phone I brought over with me when I first arrived in the US. Long story but in the end I had run out of time in Atlanta and had to make do. Verizon is the way to go for the AT but Australian phones wont work with their sim cards. The spare battery had about 3 charges for my phone but I never used up all those charges before I got to town. I used the phone as a kindle so it was dual purpose.
• Camera Canon
• Homemade hydration system. Have been using the system for about 12 yrs.
• Leatherman mini with scissors. Handy for cutting nails, trimming moustache, cutting tape to cover blisters.
• numerous stuff bags and 1 waterproof one as a food bag.
• bear bag hanging kit. I had a very small stuff sack to use as a rock bag.,small carabiner and about 30m of spectra cord. Very funny to watch ppl trying to hang a bear bag early on in the walk.
That is all my main gear, there was other bits and pieces but they don’t need reviewing, journal, guide book, sunglasses.
Breakfast – was some sort of cereal and coffee
Lunch was usually tortillas, and lots of muesli, energy bars
Dinner was usually a Mountain House freeze dried meal. These meals are way better than Backcountry. Coffee
My daily routine was:
430 am breakfast, pack up.
6am on the trail
Lunch at about noon
Stop walking somewhere between 3- 6.
Because of the varying terrain there was never an average day for the amount of miles walked. I took 159 days to walk the 2185.3 miles. I had 13 zero days( no walking at all). I averaged 14.9 miles a day. Longest day was 24 miles.

Norts(Taz)

[ofuros]

Epic trip Norts........easy to dream & plan, mine is the High Sierra Route,
but the reality kicks in once you start stepping out those miles, through varied terrain & in all weathers.
A single lifetime, looked back on with a broad, content smile, well done mate.

[jjoz58]

That's great Norts, lots of interesting info there. I use the Merrell Moabs Mids and Darn tough socks so looks like that will be fine. Didn't know the socks had a lifetime warranty though.

Where did you send your winter gear, that's one of the problems I have at the moment? Did you use a bounce box?

I love the Mountain House and Backpackers Pantry meals, they are the only ones I buy. Taste is so much nicer than others I've tried.

[norts]

I had a friend in the USA. I didnt use a bounce box. You could post your winter gear forward to a hostel. Postage in the USA I thought was expensive.

Roger