Spoiler alert -- he made it 1 mile on the AT (plus the 8.8 mile Approach Trail) before he went home.
I believe he'll try again, so I started this thread in case it gets interesting.
For all his planning, I don't think he knew where he was. He was talking about a major road 5 or 6 miles east. I'm not sure what he's talkiing about. There are some forest service roads that lead to lightly traveled paved roads that lead to major roads -- but he'd have to walk a heckuva longer way than he thinks. His other thought was hiking to the Enota Retreat. That's 50 AT miles N, and then you need to take a blue blaze a couple miles to get there. That makes no sense. Woody Gap is 20 AT miles away, is on a major road, and has a hostel 1 mile away. Neels Gap is 30 AT miles away. Of course the smartest thing to do (if he wasn't able to reconnect with his shuttler) would have been to retrace his steps and hike back to AFSP.
He also mentioned he was planning on hiking 3 trails this year and next. Triple crown? -- he didn't say. Now just the AT this year.
Seems like a decent guy who had some bad luck. Hope things work out better when he returns.
I believe he'll try again, so I started this thread in case it gets interesting.
For all his planning, I don't think he knew where he was. He was talking about a major road 5 or 6 miles east. I'm not sure what he's talkiing about. There are some forest service roads that lead to lightly traveled paved roads that lead to major roads -- but he'd have to walk a heckuva longer way than he thinks. His other thought was hiking to the Enota Retreat. That's 50 AT miles N, and then you need to take a blue blaze a couple miles to get there. That makes no sense. Woody Gap is 20 AT miles away, is on a major road, and has a hostel 1 mile away. Neels Gap is 30 AT miles away. Of course the smartest thing to do (if he wasn't able to reconnect with his shuttler) would have been to retrace his steps and hike back to AFSP.
He also mentioned he was planning on hiking 3 trails this year and next. Triple crown? -- he didn't say. Now just the AT this year.
Seems like a decent guy who had some bad luck. Hope things work out better when he returns.
2,000 miler