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Southern AT Hiking Advice

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    • Southern AT Hiking Advice

      This might be a lengthy post/question:

      I work for a small Bible college in West Virginia where we also have an adventure camp. We will be offering a GAP year program this year and I have been tasked with planning and running the adventure portions. Part of this GAP year will be a multi-day hiking trip in the Spring. We plan to do multiple day hikes and overnight trips in WV so I want the multi-day hike to be in a different state. Because it is Spring when we will go I was thinking probably the AT in Georgia since it will be a little warmer.

      • What would be a good 5-6 day hike to take a group (probably 5-6) on?
      • I am hoping for a starting point and ending point that might connect two cities or two access points where someone would drop us and pick us up. Maybe 50-60 miles or so?..
      • I would say my students could probably cover 10 miles a day...possibly more or less...not sure of abilities just yet.
      • A section with water / shelters / privy would be great.
      • I was thinking it would be nice to have a shelter as our daily goal and I know they are spaced out around what our daily mile limit would probably be as a group...but don't know how feasible this is
      • I am in the military (I actually teach land navigation) and grew up hiking, camping, and being outside so I am confident in my abilities - just wanted to assure anyone reading that this won't be the blind leading the blind.
      Any info would be much appreciated. I plan to go down and hike the section myself before I take anyone with me. Thank you so much!

    • The Georgia AT has plenty of road crossings, both "normal" paved roads and forest service raods, so it is easy to pick a section that fits your mileage preferences.

      For a 50 mile section, you can start at Springer (the start of the AT) which is accessed on a good forest service road and hike to Unicoi Gap on GA 75 which is on a paved road with a large parking area. There are towns both east and west of the gap about 10 miles away.

      For a 60 mile section you could start at Amicalola Falls State Park and hike the blue blazed Approach Trail 9 miles where it meets the AT at Springer Mountain. This would be one of your harder days, whereas starting from Springer will be your easiest day.

      As I mentioned, there are other sections you could choose.

      In the spring 50+ prospective thru hikers are starting the trail every day. This means you should not count on sleeping in any of the shelters; first come first served and they fill up fast. You can camp near the shelters and use the picnic tables, privies, and have a reliable water source. Except for one short 5 mile section, you can camp anywhere you want on the AT in GA. There is also a small section near Blood Mountain that prohibits camp fires.

      You'll find a guidebook very helpful. I prefer The Companion, I think most hikers recommend The AT Guide. There are apps available, I personally don't want to rely on anything important than is electronic.

      When you are ready to plan your trip I can suggest several shuttlers who can transport you to your starting point if that is something you need.

      There is a hostel at mile 20 which people seem to enjoy stopping at.
      2,000 miler

      The post was edited 2 times, last by max.patch ().