Hello all! Going to thru hike the AT in 2015. Just wondering what the best way is to go about finding someone I could at least start this adventure with. I know that I’ve heard it’s safer than you’d think and you meet people right away but I think it would be great to have somewhat of a partner being that I’m female and EVERYONE I know wants to lock me up for even thinking of going alone. I do not personally know anyone interested in doing this adventure with me Thanks for the help!
Kelsey
There is a face book page for women hiking the trail…think that might be a good start for you. I don’t know that title of it…it was posted in the 2014 AT hikers journal within the last 2 weeks…you may want to read though the girls who posted.
Tim Kehoe
Kelsey I highly suggest you check out the Journal Section of this site if you haven’t already. So far the Class of 2015 is 34 members strong. We are close knit group already even though none of us have officially met.
I guess a “Trial Run” hike is in the planning stages for next year and there’s a site one of our members has started for asking questions and sharing comments, so that we don’t take away from the JOURNALING ASPECTS of this site. I know that the trail will be crawling with Pre-Determined Thru-Hikers, so I wouldn’t worry too much about a partner. From past experience, partners aren’t always compatabile with what YOUR GOALS may be, so just come on out and join up with a few hikers for a while and if they don’t match up with your hiking syle, move on to another group. I’m sure you won’t be hiking alone, not for the first 4 or 5 months anyway.
Hope this helps.:happy :mad
Gorp-Gobbler
That little MAD Icon is suppose to be up where I wrote, Partners Aren’t always Compatabile.
Gorp Gobbler
Gorp, thanks for the insight. I will try to get involved in that journal group for 2015 group. I have been pretty much obsessed with reading the journals for the past couple months! Haha, I guess that happens! A trial run would be so cool. The few things I’m worried about are pleasing those who care about me because they will harass me otherwise and I worry about getting off track alone. While I’m a strong hiker physically, I lack navigation skills at times. Yikes! need to work on that! I think I’m more interested in not so much a partnership where either of us feels obligated to stay with the other bit more of a contact to talk to and get started out with while everyone is mostly alone… I’m guessing you’re planning 2015 as well?
Kelsey
Talk about being OBSESSED, I’ve been trying to do a Thru-Hike for years, but something usually comes up and prevents it from happening. I sincerely believe 2015 will be the year, God willing.
Please don’t dwell on thoughts of having to please anyone out there on the trail, you’re not going to do it, nor do you have to do it, just go out to HIKE YOUR OWN HIKE.
Believe me, it’s easy to get screwed up over navigation skills. I often had to think and look a sight over before leaving in the morning when I’ve been section hiking. I gave Sunflower (in the Class of 2015) some tips concerning this problem. You’ll do fine.
I know there will be so many hikers out there, that the shelters will be full and you’ll either pass or be passed by hikers all day. I’m sure you’ll find the person or persons that you’ll be comfortable with and your worries will have been for nothing.
Yes, I’m planning a 2015 Thru-Hike. Hope to meet you out there.
Since this is a Forum,I’ll email you with my plans. O.K.?
Gorp-Gobbler
You should be able to find a partner. I did a solo thruhike in 2005 and my family was worried. The hiking community is for the most part an extremely helpful bunch that look out for each other. The general public is also in general extremely helpful. I saw people come to the rescue of hikers in need many times. Having said that I think the dangerous part of the hike is hitch hiking. I followed a 2013 AT Thruhike journal for Don’s Brother (mike Stephens). Mike liked to hike but liked to sleep in a bed. He was able to arrange shuttle service from almost everywhere on the AT. Avoiding a hitch when alone should not be a problem. When you do find a potential partner plan a few short hikes together. I really enjoyed the freedom of a solo hike but I have seen many hiking partnerships that worked very well. Good luck.
Bob
Hi Kelssy,
I’ve thru-hiked the AT a few times and section hiked it once. There are so many hikers who start (especially NOBO), that it is very easy to find partners with the same pace from the get-go. As far as navigation is concerned the AT is very well marked and there is tread the entire route (unlike some of the Western Trails). The trick to stay on track on the AT is just to pay attention when there are intersections with other trails. Usually there is a ‘double blaze’ (which literally means PAY ATTENTION) to give you a heads-up that either the AT is changing course (sharp turn) or there is a tricky intersection. Also, when it is dark (night hiking) or poor visibility, I tend to ‘feel’ the trail with my feet sometimes. The tread of the AT is very compacted whereas the ground off the trail is soft and crunchy. Whenever I walk onto soft forest duff, I know I’ve walked off the tread of the AT. Have a wonderful hike.
Happy Trails!
freebird
Hi Kelsey. I also plan on hiking the A.T. in 2015. I will be going alone. Plan on starting March 1. Hope to see you. Maybe we can hike some together. Happy Trails!
sandi
We all understand the trepidation from family and friends about women solo on the trail. Starting NOBO there will be a ton of people day 1 and you will naturally fall in with a group(s). As you get closer to your departure date you’ll have an easier time meeting some other hikers starting at the same time.
Ex Thru Hiker
It’s likely you’ll meet the most fantastic people of your life during the first few days of your Appalachian Trail thru-hike.
Prior to starting my AT thru-hike I’d had the benefit of in-person advice from past AT thru-hikers. They told me there’d be a good chance I’d summit Katahdin in Maine with people I’d started with on my first day back at Springer Mountain in Georgia. I’d questioned that idea at the time asking how could that be – it just didn’t seem possible with the elapse of months and so many miles.
Then, on the first night of my AT thru-hike, a guy showed up dressed entirely in green. Every thing he wore – clothes, long-johns, shirt, shorts, backpack, hat, socks – everything was green. That had been the color on sale prior to him starting his AT thru-hike so he’d gotten a good deal on all of his green trail clothes and gear.
More than six months later I would see ???Riddler??? at the base of Katahdin in Maine. I couldn’t believe it! He and Mac would leave written messages on my maildrop boxes along the AT telling me where they were on the Trail and what the date was and what had happened since I’d fallen behind them in Virginia.
And at the base of Katahdin along with ???Riddler??? was Mac too – he’d become Godfather and had intended to lose 70lbs before coming out of the Smokies northbound. It was way more by the time he’d reach Katahdin. He was so ridiculously skinny.
Then, also at the base of Katahdin, some guy says to me, “Hey Datto. I bet you don’t know who I am.” I looked at him and his long beard covered his entire face – all you could see was his eyes and him smiling back at me.
It took sometime before I’d realized it was Ziggy. On the 2nd day of my AT thru-hike Ziggy, who was on a budget and on day two had donned a stylish tye-died T-shirt he’d found hanging on a branch next to the Trail. Ziggy had come down the hill that long ago day to where Mac and I were sitting at a Trail-side Georgia picnic table. Ziggy exclaiming, “Hey, do you know people are throwing cans of tuna alongside the Trail?”
One could hardly recognize him at Katahdin. It was Ziggy after all those months.
Four years later I would be laying in the dirt next to a most valuable spring on the Pacific Crest Trail in California. Completely wasted and exhausted from the heat. But so glad I’d found this golden spring since I’d been out of water from at least five miles back. It’d had been a spring that one of the Fremont expeditions had used in the 1840s when people were traipsing across the land to reach the opportunity in California.
From the dirt I’d looked up to see another hiker walking past – it was a guy I’d met for the first time during the last couple of days of my AT thru-hike. We said hello as if no time had elapsed since the AT.
You would be amazed at how many times you run into a fellow AT thru-hiker after you finish your AT thru-hike.
Like in a shopping mall in Indianapolis. I looked up and Felix was standing next to me. Of course we did this entire act there for the patrons and his new girlfriend at the time who had no idea who I was nor why her boyfriend would all of a sudden out of the clear blue go crazy with actions.
Ah yes. You meet the very best people of your life and the best of adventures to you on your upcoming AT thru-hike.
Datto
Datto
I am also planning a thru hike for 03/24/15. I am a 55 year old female maybe we will meet on the trail
music
Kelsey, if you’re female, you’ll have no problem “partnering up.”
Especially if you’re cute! 
Polaris