Smart Start

A new service is being offered to thru and section hikers this upcoming hiking season (2012). To help people at the beginning of their journey, I will be driving a support van carrying people’s supplies, tents/tarps/hammocks, and sleeping bags. This will enable you to day hike, rather than backpack, the first 66 miles in Georgia, or the first 115 miles in Maine. This should help make one’s transition into a long-distance backpacker more gradual, and therefore, more sensible. It could also increase your chances of completing your trek. (It is a well-known fact that a sizable amount of the 75-80% people who start but don’t finish discontinue their hikes within the first four weeks.)

Down south, the van will carry your supplies/backpack, as well as water, while you have the opportunity to day hike most of Georgia. Starting on Springer in the mid-afternoon, folks will be able to hike from 4-17 miles per day (66 miles in 4.5 days) until reaching Rt. 76 (Dicks Creek Gap – Hiawassee, GA). Each night we will camp near road crossings where the van would be situated. At the end of this section, the van will drive people into Hiawassee for a town stop, or resupply, and drive you back to the trail that evening for those who want to camp, or the next morning (Friday) for those that want to stay overnight in town. Besides the obvious advantage of carrying a light day pack (provided) rather than a heavier backpack, other advantages include: not having to worry about water, not having to bear bag your food, and not having to stay in crowded shelters/campsites.

Other advantages:
every evening, an optional activity for about an hour would be to get sound advice/wisdom from the person who has done the entire trail the most times (i.e. sixteen) and who has had extensive experience (37 years) in successfully organizing groups of people to complete the entire trail. Besides the support van, there will be a car available for use in case of a medical emergency.

For southbounders (thru or section hikers), Smart Start would allow you to day hike the Maine ‘wilderness’, an obvious advantage. This will enable you to traverse this 115-mile remote section (Katahdin-Monson) in eight days (hiking between 14-20 miles a day).

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Email Warren Doyle at warrendance@gmail.com

Last modified January 19, 2012