In the thirteen (13) years that I section hiked the AT, 66% of my total AT (1477.5 out of 2193.1) miles were either road to road, access trail to road, road to access trail or access trail to road. I've used David Miller's AT Guide since 2013 and I've purchased a new AT Guide every year. The AT Guide also know as AWOL's AT Guide comes in a printed version for either NoBo (Northbound) or SoBo (Southbound) along with a pdf version.
https://www.theatguide.com/
The AT Guide shows nearly ever mile, most road crossing and many with GPS coordinates, near-by towns and the services and facilities, Hostels or other forms of lodging,shuttle services along with other information. Over the past thirteen (13) years I've found the vast majority of Thru Hikers and Section Hikers use the AT Guide. Between the AT Guide, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) State terrain maps, FarOut phone app, Google maps, and
http://appalachiantrail.rohland.org/ (not secure) I've been able to use these sources to plan my AT Section Hiking.
In late July 2010, my first hiking partner, Ron Filbert and I backpacked from Pen Mar (near the PA/MD line) southbound to Harpers Ferry over four (4) days. We were supposde to spend our first night at Devils Racecourse Shelter (torn down and replaced by Raven Rock Shelter in 2010), but we missed the turn-off and instead of having a 4.4 mile first day, we had a 9.5 first day. I don't think GutHook (now FarOut) was available for the AT until 2013. In May 2011, Ron Filbert and I backpacked from Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the AT northbound to Neel Gap over four (4) days. We stayed in shelters for two nights, but choose to tent on the third night because of two hikers who smoked constantly (even while we were trying to eat dinner) and their snoring could wake the dead. Nope I didn't use earplugs at that time. Ron and I also backpacked in July 2011 and we planned to hike again in 2012 but his skin cancer came back later in 2011 and he passed away in 2012.
I wanted to continue section hiking with others and I again did another posting for seniors in the ATC Magazine in the fall issue. The result of this posting was that I was introduced to Randy, from Virginia and Lee from Tennessee. They had hiked with each other before and they wanted to hike the seventy-two plus AT miles in New Jersey. Their plan was to hike the New Jersey AT as a series of road to road day hikes. Lee determined that Swartswood State Park and Campground would be an ideal place to tent and spend our nights after each day hike. Lee did most of the planning and this would be my first lesson on how to plan seven consecutive days of day-hiking. The term "slack packing" in my opinion can also mean day-hiking. We averaged about eight-point-five (8.5) miles per day. New Jersey was now the third AT State I had completed. Maryland was my first in 2010 and West Virginia my second also in 2010.
I learned several lessons from Lee and Randy (Randy went on to complete his AT Journey several years later). The first lesson for me was to make sure our first day of hiking was shorter than our average day. The second lesson that was reinforced by Fred (he had Thru Hiked the AT when he was in his fifties, then Section Hiked the AT again when he was in his sixties. He Section Hiked with me for several years and completed Georgia through Massachusetts for the third time when he was in his seventies), was to hike the steeper part earlier in the day and have a more gradual descent at the end of the day. This meant some days we'd hike NoBo and other days SoBo. Another lesson which became more important as I aged was the need for "Zero" or "no hike" day. The more difficult the terrain the more need for more frequent Zero Days. There is also a "Nero Day" which is a day when we'd hike only a few miles, maybe two or three.
The two car system which I used most of the time was placing a car at our end point either the afternoon before or the morning of our hike. There have been some incidents of vehicle vandelism but this depends on how exposed the parking area is to traffic. I and my hiking partners over the past thirteen years (2009-2021) I Section Hiked never had an incident. Over the years I have preferred to have my Subaru the car placed where we'd end for the day. I've always made sure I had plenty of Gatorade in the covered back. In recent years, I've left an older pair of trail shoes and clean socks to change into once we've finished for the day. Its wonderful to take off my Asolo Boots and Darn Tough socks and change into clean and dry socks and lighter weight trail shoes. I also carry at least three or four old bath towels in case we get caught in the rain and we use to place on to dry us off and put on the car seats.
Greg Peters another younger senior would create an Excel Spreadsheet and he actually calculate the times to drive from a Hostel, Motel/Hotel, to our end point where we'd leave my Subaru but also include the time and distance to get to our starting point. I continued to use his system throughout my AT Section Hiking. I began to add terrain information in the Excel Spreadsheets I created so my hiking partners could review my plans and make suggestions. I've forgotten the number of times, I changed directions because of something Fred or someone else saw or changed the order of what we hiked on what day.
I prefer to day hike ten or less miles per day, but there are AT Sections where the roads shown in the AT Guide are twenty or more miles. Here's where FarOut, Rohland and Google maps come in hardy. The 2021 AT Guide, page 1450-1451 - NoBo Mile 1205.8 Game Commission Rd to NoBo Mile 1219.6 Schuylkill trail doesn't show at driveable roads in-between. Rohland showed a possible access trail to the AT called the AT Connector, near NoBo Mile 1213.0. Prior to one of my Section Hiking trips to Pennsylvania with Chris, I used Google maps and found the roads mentioned in Rohland. After one of my day-hiking trips with Chris in early 2021, I drove the location, off Interstate 78 and then using both my FarOut and Garmin inReach determined that I'd be about two miles from the AT. This allowed Chris and I to hike SoBo from this point in May towards Port Clinton and then hike to this same location SoBo with Phil in September from the Game Commission Road. We had two day-hikes versus one nearly nineteen mile backpack with an overnight stay at Eagles Nest Shelter. To put it another way, a twelve-pound day pack for two days versus a nineteen or twenty-pound backpack for two days.
Occassionally we'd use an access road to the AT that didn't have parking nearby. In these cases, we'd contact a local shuttle drive and arrange to be met at our end point where I'd leave my Subaru and be driven to our starting point. This meant we'd hike to our car and not to wait for a pickup after a long day of hiking. Having a car at our end point was critical in Virginia and New York and we had heavy rain both times just as we ended our hike. "Always hike to your car" is my Rule 22! We've always paid shuttle drivers in cash and always given them extra! In Virgina, near Pearisbury we used a side trail to access the AT and our driver walked with us after a blown-down tree blocked the road to make sure we were headed in the correct direction.
GrandPa Walking, AT 2000 Miler (2009-2021)
