I went to a wedding on the weekend near the Shenandoah National Park. It was a beautiful ceremony and the nature around the wedding was stunning.
I met someone at the wedding who had just come from doing a 5 day hike along the Appalachian Trail. Her stories of the hike sounded fantastic. She got to meet interesting people and really challenge herself with the hike/setting up camp each night.
I think I'd heard of the trail before but until now had never really done much research into hiking in the USA.
There are actually 3 major USA hikes. They're known as the triple crown.
- The Appalachian Trail (east coast)
- The Pacific Crest Trail (west coast)
- Continental Divide Trail (central)
These hikes are absolutely massive spanning across basically the whole country north to south.
The Appalachian Trail is 2,198 miles long and takes about 5 to 7 months to hike the whole thing.
It really would be a life changing experience to do it all.
Today we walked about 1 kilometre of the Appalachian Trail from a trail head near Winchester, Virginia. It was beautiful mountain scenery with ferns and tall trees.
We also got a vibe for what the shared camp sites are like. It's really just drop toilets with benches and a place to light a fire.
Reading this article about the Appalachian Trail vs. the Pacific Crest Trail is interesting in terms of deciding what would be more appealing to me.
It mentions this about the Pacific Crest Trail:
The PCT is divided into five segments: Southern California (or "the desert"), Central California (or "the Sierra"), Northern California, Oregon and Washington. Gear needs can vary dramatically between them. For instance, in the desert, northbound (NOBO) hikers will likely encounter days with triple-digit temperatures, constant sun exposure and 20 miles between water sources. A week later, once reaching the Sierra, they’re walking atop several feet of snow at 12,000 feet.
This sounds extremely punishing.
It's also interesting in terms of difficulty between the two:
You’ll want to note that the AT takes five to seven months to complete its 2,190 miles, while the PCT take four to six months to complete 2,650 miles of trail. That shows, when evaluating the most obvious factor, terrain, the AT is without question the more difficult of the two trails. Not only is the PCT graded much more favorably than the AT, you’ll find a much more rugged tread with more rocks and roots on the AT. These factors result in a slower pace on the AT with more energy exerted in a given day.
It’s true that most people who’ve hiked both trails will crown the AT as the more difficult trail. I too am in this group. But this analysis is far from unanimous.
I find this sort of stuff fascinating. Whilst I'm not taking a year off of work to do any of these trails any time soon it's reminded me of the fact that I'd love to do the Great Ocean Walk one day.