AT+IAT - Appalachian Trail

imported
#1

Has anyone out there heard of or done personally the AT and the International Appalachian Trail in a single season. Do you think it possible…or is it crazy to even consider?

jackie b

#2

Of course it’s doable - there are several who have hiked the entire “Eastern Continental Divide” - from Key West to Gaspee in one season, (starting in January). At the moment, the IAT is 417 miles - add that to the AT mileage and you are about 2600 miles - a little less than the PCT - which is doable in 5-8 months March to October would be your optimal time frame, with maybe February start if you aren’t too sure of your ability to do long miles. The main consideration if you want to do the AT + IAT is that you can’t lollygag along as you can on an AT hike. You can’t get caught up in group-think and spend a lot of time in towns. Better still, don’t get caught up in the shelter system - it makes it much easier to hike all day if you don’t have the mental note that you are hiking from shelter to shelter. A lot of thruhikers will stop hiking at 2 or 3:00 when they reach the shelter, but if you want to do more miles, you need to keep hiking until 5 or 6 or 7 p.m. On the PCT and CDT we didn’t even let water determine our daily mileage. We got water when we found it, and just kept on hiking until it was a little before dark. Sometimes we cooked dinner at lunchtime, or at 4:00 p.m. if we had a good water source – but we were not restricted to water sources for our campsites. That made it much easier to do long mileage. If you are hiking 11 or 12 hours a day, you can do 20-25 miles a day quite easily – and you won’t need to do that on the AT-IAT. You just need to average 14.5 miles a day on a six month hike - quite doable, really.

Spirit Walker

#3

Hi,

I know the only problem is when you reach the zone of
“Parc de la gaspésie” before july or after September.

There are a lot of trail that we closed because its a preserved area for the cariboo…

Excuse my english
For more info ===> sia-iat@sia-iat.com
or www.sia-iat.com

RPM

#4

My friend Nimblewill Nomad did the northbound AT+IAT in '98 and did a southbound '01 or '02. Nomad is a retired eye doctor in his late 60s I believe. He did have a web site but my link has gone bad. Do a google search if interested.

Farther

#5

JoJo Smiley did it last year and her journals are at this site. Go to her page and leave her a note on her guest page. She is a neat lady. She and Nimblewill Nomad were at Trail Days. The Florida Trail will give you plenty of information and maps. Also the Pinhoti Trail in Alabama. Flame and I hope to do the southern section sometime in the future. One section in FL is a 40 mile water (swamp) walk!

Papa Smurf

#6

Spur did both in 2000. His journal is on Trailjournals.com. He started at Springer in April, finished in Quebec in the beginning of October and then went back to Alabama to do the Pinhoti and Benton Mackaye trails.

nycman50

#7

My wife and i are doing the IAT this year. If you are planning on doing it you need to plan alot more for this hike than we had to on the AT. You will need alot of reservations and a passport fee, things like that.

zokwakii