How often will I have to cross streams (and wet my shoes) in GA? NC? TN?
Will I encounter parts of the trail flooded, and again wet my shoes?
zammy
Stream crossing
system
#1
system
#2
I remember by your pics about the desert hiking you do. Well, you’re feet will be wet probably 25% of the time you’re hiking. Whether it’s from stream crossing, most of which you can hop over or take a foot bridge, or from rain and mud. It’ll be just another fun facet of trail life. Some stretches of trail are just a stream bed up north.
Bushwhack
system
#5
There aren’t many real stream “crossings” in the South. But the Trail is sometimes a “streamwalk”. 
You likely won’t have to wait till you get up north to find your first streamwalk. I found plenty of them in the South. At one time, my partner and I both got new boots (Vasque Sundowners) cause we’d gotten tired of constant wet feet. So the next day, after trying for hours to keep them as dry as possible, we decided it was time to see if our shiny-new, expensive, hi-tech, waterproof, Goretex-lined boots would live up to the advertising. They didn’t. :oh
But they got us up the Trail.
Jim
system
#6
The first serious stream ford in the south that I recall is in Central Virginia, north of Jenkins Shelter, south of the road crossing before Bland/Bastian. Little Wolf Creek, during wet times, can be very trying. The A.T. zigzags so you do multiple fords.
Thankfully, there is a blue-blazed high water route which is perfectly OK to take if the water is high enough to create safety concerns.
The only other time I recall getting wet in the south (other than rain-related) was near the Falls north of Dennis Cove in Tennessee. The trail skirts the water and after heavy rains, water can overrun the trail.
Up in Maine there are a whole bunch of stream fords and even sections of the trail that will get you very wet unless it’s a dry year. For the most part, they don’t believe in bridges, switchbacks, water bars, check dams, or other niceties up there.
“Skyline”