Need some help with a clothing issue. Trying to decide if i need to take gore-tex jacket and bibbs or if i could get by with rain suite and pants with fleece under them. planning a march 1 or 2 start from Neels Gap to Dicks Creek Gap. Open to all suggestions, I have never been on the AT this time of year…
Bama Hiker
March 1 is an early start on the AT. The trail is high in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennassee. You will probably run into winter conditions. Be prepared to post hole through a snow storm or two.
So, for an outer layer, I’d recommend a full rain gear, both tops and bottoms, and fleece top and at least lightweight fleeece bottom.
Conventional wisdom is to keep the cold weather gear with you until after Mt. Rodgers
Peaks
Are you thru or section hiking?? We went through there in late Feb. and had windfleece pullovers, exp. weight fleece tops and bottoms, power fleece pants, goretex precip jackets and pants. We were plenty warm…and overburdened. If you’re section hiking, check the temps beforehand and go from there. It may be warm enough to forego extra layers. If we were to repeat our thru hike, we’d replace the windfleece with a down pullover or jacket like feathered friends and skip the power fleece. When we were postholing in the Smokies, we wore stretch nylon biking shorts or lightweight capilene pants under the precip pants. You really warm up after about a half hour of that!
Bramble 01