Ask crash about hiking the Appalachian Trail

[Costanza]

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?