I am starting SOBO, climbing Katahdin on August 4th (hopefully). I have had little prep time, and I’m out of shape; several have advised that I skip the 100 mile wilderness and shuttle straight to Monson. Any suggestions?
How would I get to Monson from Katahdin??
Don from Savannah, GA
Don Watford
My opinion is that this is not good advice. The terrain only gets more difficult after the 100 Mile Wilderness. By comparison, the wilderness is fairly “easy” even if you’re a bit out of shape. Being out of shape, you will have some difficult and challenging spots in the Wilderness, but nothing you can’t overcome. I’ve hiked it twice, both times being somewhat out of shape and overweight. I think you’ll be glad you hiked it.
It would be better to begin to build your trail legs in the Wilderness. Not to mention, it’s beautiful country. Take your time in the Wilderness and adjusting to the trail, you can make it up later after you get your trail legs. If you need to, break up the wilderness by taking a break at White House Landing. Good Luck!
Chris (NJunkie)
100 Mile Wilderness is one of my favorite stretches of the AT. What are you looking to gain by skipping this section? You’ll be hiking regardless of where you start your hike, so whether you are in shape for it or not is irrelevant. Start at Mt K and start hiking. You’ll be glad you hiked the 100 MW.
TwoCan
I agree with the advice to stop at White House Landing. You can get 2 or 3 meals, shower, sleep in a bed, rest up, and buy some limited supplies. That way, you won’t have to carry so much food the entire way. Good luck.
mango
I think the concern was having to carry so much extra weight for food and water. Also, there’s no chance to make gear changes for 10 days and few hikers to give advice.
Don Watford
If you skip the wilderness because you think it will be too hard, what will you do in the Mahoosucs, or the Whites? What will you do once it starts getting cold? If you want to do a thruhike, don’t start skipping around. It messes with your head and can make it harder to do a hike from end to end.
Ginny
I passed a lot of hikers the last time I hiked the 100 MW. I saw at least 20 hikers per day. You can also resupply at White House Landing and/or have a package dropped off at Jo Mary Road. As far as gear, one should have worked out their gear choices before trying to tackle a thru hike. Just my $0.02.
TwoCan
You may not need to eat that much if you got some body fat on you during the 1st month of trail…after which your consumption of calories may double or more… of course take advantage of every restaurant etc… AYCE is the word
gingerbreadman
Don, I would be primarily concerned with your apparently lack of desire to put this obviously questionable advice you got in check. It sounds like they are praying on your vulnerabilities, and that you’re glad for the excuse to skip around, and hope you’ll get more of that here. This is bad juju as you get set to attempt a thru-hike. What you need is an unshakable sense of resolve, a can-do attitude, even a delusional sense of your own grandeur. Because you can make those grand dreams come true, with the right attitude. Without it, you’ve already written yourself off.
blisterfree
While I haven’t yet experienced my AT through-hike, I am under the impression that if you are SOBO and able to make it UP & DOWN Katahdin, you should be good to go.
Was kind of thinking of heading out and doing JUST the 100 MW this year. I would repeat it when I do my TH. Just thought it a good place to do a week or so the the trail.
essay
I guess from the start you have to decide what kind of hike you want to do. A triditional AT thru- hiker would not even consider skipping anything. In my estimation you would be foolish to skip a very nice, if not the best, part of the trail.
Take three days of food with you and send a mail drop to White House landing for an additional three days. You will be just fine. Starting SOBO the first week in Aug. you will have a lot of hikers hiking the 100 mile wilderness.
Go for it…Happy trails…Grampie-N->2001
Grampie
…don’t skip it!..big K will wear you out! (we climbed it last year after hiking the pct and it nearly killed us ol’ geezers!)…you can get some ‘training’ and recuperate (rest your sore katahdin muscles)in the 100 mile wilderness…it’s really not that difficult…but you DO need a chance to build some trail legs before the mahoosucs and the whites, and the wilderness will do that for you…i also agree that you won’t have your hiker appetite just quite yet, and so you might get away with less food (weight)…and though white house landing is a little on the expensive side, i think you’ll need it…and LOVE it!..we did!..i envy your opportunity to hike the wilderness!..(and the AT!)…don’t miss a single INCH of it if you can help it!
maw-ee
…white house landing DOES NOT ACCEPT food drops. I know, I got my butt chewed off for doing exactly that.
They make some mean burgers, though… 
Kineo Kid
…i guess they’ve stopped receiving packages?..we had one there in '03 (good grief!!! has it really been 7 years???)…but it was our only drop on the trail that had been eaten into by mice! :>) but at THAT point we could’ve cared less! (we were just so happy to be in maine!)…so we packed it up and ate the stuff anyway!..
y’ know…this is a good opportunity to say once again how much paw-ee and i appreciate all the hostel owners/managers, families, churches, etc, that helped us achieve our goal of walking from georgia to maine!..think of it…these businesses/services are usually these people’s homes as well!..it’s gotta be tough sometimes (we know…we happen to live where we work…a church!..300 people to ‘our house’ every sunday!) :>) …and yet, they take on the huge responsibilities of caring for and sharing their ‘maxxed out’ lives with hungry, smelly ‘strangers’ (and are 99% of the time good-natured about it!) wow!
i wish there was some sort of ‘event’ or something (perhaps at ALDHA?) where we hikers could honor these folks…you know, give back a little…maybe prepare a feast…tell stories…offer our thanks…just a thought…
maw-ee
The advice that has been generated from the first question is accurate. The terrain gets much worse beyond the 100. Take time to enjoy the wilderness and use this section to strengthen yourself for what lies ahead. Stop at the landing or Shaw’s for a re-charge if you need. Good luck!
Poseidon
I’ve noticed that people who skip sections tend to lose the thread of their hike and are more prone to leaving the trail. The 100 mile wilderness is a beautiful way to start the trail and a great way to start getting into shape. you’ll need all the miles you can get under your belt before hittng the Whites.
Jalan