The Woman is all about the AT

The Woman got hooked on reading books written by folks who hiked the Appalachian Trail. If you are heading North, the AT starts in Springer Mountain Georgia, and ends in Mount Katahdin Maine, about 2,200 miles later. After reading maybe a dozen of these books, the Woman has become somewhat Appalachian Trail possessed.

So, it turns out that the AT runs across the Presidential peaks in the White Mountains. So the Woman demanded that we had to seek out where we could get access. We were able to find several spots where the AT either crossed or shared a trail that we could get to in the White Mountain National Forest. So we set out to hike as much of the AT as we could get to.

We found out a good reason for one of the statistics that the Woman had learned in reading all these books. When we actually found connections to the AT and set out to hike some of it, we were immediately surprised by the severity of the terrain. The trails we hiked were narrow, extremely steep, if not totally full of rocks, they were saturated with exposed tree roots – what we would consider an advanced or “scrambling” trail. To think that folk hike this with maybe 200 pound packs on their back, and set out to click off 2,200 miles makes the stat understandable that some 75% of folk that set out intending to do the complete AT quit before they reach 100 miles.

So, we probably clicked off a total of maybe 5 miles on the AT. It is pretty clear to us that while the thought of it is intriguing, given what we have learned about the terrain tells us that we won’t likely check this one off the bucket list. We did find a couple of hostiles that are frequented by those hiking the entire AT – referred to as “through hikers”. We also found a number of classic AT shelters where through hikers would either find shelter in bad weather, or would actually hole up for the night when far from a hostile or other arrangements.

Hiking the AT, we were able to find the clues that help keep the through hikers focused. I learned a new word that I added to my vocabulary and have deliberately used a lot just to reinforce it – the word is “blaze”. The first time the Woman said it, I didn't have any idea what it meant, or how to spell it. It turns out that the way you make sure that you stay on the AT, particularly in rocky areas where the worn trail may not be visible, is to follow the painted white rectangles that are painted periodically on tree trunks. They are a bit apart, but if you make it a habit to look for the white “blaze” on the next tree, you will be able to keep dedicated to the AT.

There are short cuts on the AT where you can cut off some of the miles, and there are off shoots where you can get to a town or hostile or something like that. Those trails are marked with blue paint rectangles. If you take those shortcuts or offshoots, you are said to be blue blazing.

We actually bumped into a couple of through hikers in a couple spots – the most fun was on the top of Mount Washington near the station for the Cog Railway. It turns out that the AT climbs directly over Mount Washington, the highest peak in the North East – just to give you an ideal how devilish this trail is. We learned that we weren’t seeing too many through hikers because the snow would be falling soon. So, if you were in Vermont right now, you probably wouldn’t make it before it was impassable. So, most through hikers passed by here a month or so ago at the latest.

While we hiked on both white and blue blazed trails, we never found a pink blazed trail. I guess there really aren't any pink painted rectangles out there, but if you read the books the Woman did, you would learn what pink blazers are. Apparently if you are a woman and have the sheer guts to hike the AT by yourself, you are said to be pink blazing.

Talk to you soon!