has anyone hiked the Appalachians trail from main to Georgia? If so how long did it take? did you have someone pick you up at the end? are there places off the trial you can set up tents at? and tell me your experiences or what to pack/be cautious of/ and recommendations

not me

If you have an account on youtube go here:

http://youtube.com/hikingtrailmaster

This guy will be able to answer. He hikes trials across the country (sort of).

go here http://whiteblaze.net/
or here http://trailplace.com/

l am on the last chapter of Bill Bryson is book, ''A Walk In The Woods'' describing his experiences hiking the Appalachian Trail in the 90's. Apparently around two thousand people start the 2000+ mile hike at Springer Mountain in Georgia & only around 300 make it all the way to Mt. Katadyn, Maine four or five months later. Every year the number who finish seems to be increasing. A select few hike North to South.

Apparently, there is still a considerable walk to civilization from the summit of Mt. Katadyn, & from there one could have someone pick them up, or hitch or arrange a taxi to take them to the nearest airport.

The Appalachian Trail encourages people to stay in the trail huts spaced within a challenging days walk of each other, & in some parks like Great Smoky Mountains NP, staying near the huts is required. Otherwise l would imagine that pitching ur tent off the trail or down a side trail is preferable to sharing a mouse-infested three-walled hut with a dozen other thru-hikers & weekend backpackers on a hard wooden platform.

Rapidly changing weather, days & days of rain, swarms of insects, black bears, moose, eccentric thru-hikers, rude weekend backpackers, & the rare homicidal maniac r some of the dangers.

Always wanted to, but never made it.

l have not hiked the entire trail through in one shot. l have completed all of the Pennsylvania section & most of Vermont. l have done AT trips in other states as well.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) is pretty much the be all & end all of all AT related questions & resources. Most people attempting to thru-hike depend on their services & info at least in one way or another, or through their local chapters & affiliated clubs.
http://appalachiantrail.org

The average hikers nowadays completes the trip in about 6 months. We usually saw our first thru-hikers come through Vermont around the second week of June if they started in late February or early March. (hiking South to North). Baxter State Park in Maine usually closes by the end of September, & late starters or people who run into problems sometimes leap frog to the end & then start hiking south. Some start in Maine in May & hike south, but this is uncommon. Likewise, there r yo-yos who hike all the way north & then hike the whole way south.

There r plenty of campsites, shelters, cabins, huts, & hostels along the trail. Each section of the trail has a published guidebook that details campsites, water sources, town amenities, & other info.

Hail, Lightning, Wind storms, Humidity, Black Flies, Mosquitoes, Blisters, Heat Rash, Sunburn, Dehydration, & (once) a pesky rodent have been the worse things I've encountered on my numerous trips.

Most thru-hikers have someone pick them up in Maine.

l kind of laughed when l read Schnurrbart is talk about Katahdin. Thought it is possible to pay a taxi to come & get u from Katahdin, be prepared to pay & arm & a leg. Baxter State Park, home of Katahdin, is 20+ miles out of Millinocket, the closest town, & in rural Maine, there is not much cab competition, so rates r going to be steep, & u will probably have to pay both ways of ur trip, the distance for them to come & pick u up, & take u to ur spot & then for them to go back home. The nearest airport of legitmate size is in Bangor, 70+ miles from Millinocket.

This is all depending on where u come off the Mountain. If u choose a trail that drops u at Roaring Brook Campground, u had better make some timely arrangements, or be prepared to cool ur heels. That section of the park is quite popular during touristy seasons & usually fills by 7am. If u choose Abol Campground as ur end point, u may have better luck.

But all in all, u said that u want to start in Maine, so all this end in Maine talk is silly.

Be prepared when u start out, because one of the first things on the trail that u will encounter is the 100 Mile Wilderness, & it is not warm & fuzzy. It is 100 miles of remote nothing, so be prepared to have everything u will need to hike 100 miles.

So, I'd say do some trial runs before u decide to take the decision to do the whole thing, & do plenty of research & planning.

l have not hiked the AT yet but l am going to in march 09'. You should check out trailjournals.com the people on there have helped me out a lot. Most people hike the trail from Georgia to Maine to go with the seasons.

we were setup to but the FB l told us the it was closed cause they were on a man hunt for some wilderness dude so we did not go

Let me see if l can clean some of this up a bit.
1) Getting out of Katahdin is really no problem at all : Stick ur thumb into the breeze & hitch a ride into Millinocket & then onto Bangor if need be ,Source : Me I've hiked every trail up & down Katahdin & thumbed rides in & out of the Park
2) Baxter State Park of which Mt Katahadin is part of has some very strict climbing regulations about when The Mountain can be climbed & when it can not be The two that most greatly affect AT hikers r that the mountain can not be climbed before 5/15 or after 10/15 In addittion the Park Rangers do have the Authority to close the Mountain to climbing on a daily basis > So if hypothetically u arrived at Katahdin Stream CG on 10/13 anticipating finishing ur thru hike the next day it is possible that the Rangers could close the mountain to climbing for a day or two & u would be SOL
Because of the 5/15 earliest possible starting date & the fact that a mid May hike tru Maine is going to be a wet adventure due to the terrain itself & winter snow melt the vast majority of thru hikers start off from Georgia in mid-March to Early April & head Northbound or in AT hiker parlance nobo which should not be confused with sobo
There is simply too much to explain but the most important piece of advice that l can give u is something that u read all the time on AT sites & that is hike ur own hike. Do the hike in a way that works best for u . You've got a year to get it together & once u get on trail you've got six months to work the bugs out of the system

l have hiked sections of it. Still way safer than any city street in America. Get the Appalachian Trail Conference guide first. Millions of places to put a tent along the trail. Get ur pack weight waaaaaay down. Your tent, sleeping bag, & sleeping pad can easily weigh less than 9 pounds nowdays & that is for a two-person tent! You can split the tent weight in half if u can find a partner u can put up with. Shelters along the way, approximately 8 miles apart. Do not buy all freeze dried food, u will get sick of it quickly. Off the shelf stuff like ramen noodles, instant rice dishes etc much cheaper & u can add a wide variety of tuna, salmon, chicken in a pouch to any meal. You can resupply weekly along most stretches of the trail by hitch hiking to town & resupplying or picking up food packages that a friend can mail ahead of u at general delivery in care of: ur name at the post office in that town. Any other questions? Look up Carolinas Hikers in groups. l am a moderator there, & would be happy to help.