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As a member of the wife+kids club around here, I'm seconding the recommendation to the younger unattached guys here to do something like this, whether it's hiking the AT or some other extended trip.

My sister and her husband have a cabin in the Smokies and we've gone up there with them several times. We usually drive up to Clingman's Dome which is the highest point in the Smoky Mountains. The trail goes through the park there, and if we're there at the right time of the year we usually run into some hikers. When we do, the evening's conversation usually turns to the backpacking trip I took through Europe the summer after I graduated from college. Of the 4 of us I'm the only one who did something like this and the others wish they had.

So, make some memories while you can.


For the questions:

Did you start with a group or go by yourself? If with a group, did everyone finish?
Did you run into many people who started in Maine or do most people start in Georgia?
Do you still keep in touch with anyone you met along the way?

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I started by myself. If you go south to north, and start around March or April, there will be a lot of people around (at least until people start to drop out). I started alone, and since I'm kind of an [censored], I didn't make good friends until a month or so into it. Then I found some other [censored] and everything was cool. For the second half of the hike, I hiked with three other guys (although sometimes I would take off by myself for a few days).

Out of my early group of 10 friends, three finished. You hear completion rates of 10-20%, I think it depends on the weather.

Most people--I would guess 80% (?) start in Georgia. When I got to the new England states, I met a lot of people whio had started in Maine. It may be my fault--I readily admit I can be a prick--but the southbounders seemed to have attitude.

I still keep in touch with the three guys I finished with, it's like going to boot camp with someone.