Today is the day! March 1st.
March 1st is again the most popular day to start a northbound thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. Whether it is the start of someone’s very first thru-hike, or the last part of their triple crown, hundreds of people will head out from Springer Mountain this year with the hope of reaching Mount Katahdin.
There are a lot of clichés in thru-hiking – you have to start somewhere, take it step by step, hike your own hike, embrace the suck – but these sayings are genuinely helpful as you slowly adapt to life on the trail. Regardless of how experienced you are it's always daunting starting afresh, but there's nothing sweeter than eventually getting into an unstoppable groove and smoothly moving through the landscape.
Dawn on the AT – photo by Emily "Peach" Carpenter
The Appalachian Trail is the oldest and most well-trodden national scenic trail in the US. It has a reputation for gnarly and rocky terrain– someone described it to me once and said “if you see a mountain top, you’re going up it!”. It also rains a lot in the Appalachian mountains and you have to get used to putting your feet into wet shoes each morning. Interestingly, it’s a very popular trail with beginner thru-hikers, probably because millions of people live within a day’s drive of the trail.
Although March 1st is a popular start date, it is also controversial. Traditionally, April would be the most popular start time but with more and more hikers attracted to the AT, people want to start earlier and avoid the crowds. This means braving the cold and potentially wintery conditions of spring in the mountains which is a very tough start for a thru-hike! Personally, I think if you have the experience and kit required, it would be exciting to start in March, especially as you know that the weather will only get better.
A typical AT shelter – photo by Emily "Peach" Carpenter
Part of the charm of the Appalachian Trail is that you hike through the seasons as you go north. Georgia can get very cold, but as the trees green up into spring, most of the hike will be in favourable temperatures. The flowers appear, wildlife abounds, and then as you are finishing your thru-hike, the temperature drops again and the New England fall colours start to show.
Like a lot of people, I first came across the idea of thru-hiking by reading A Walk in the Woods– an iconic book that recounts Bill Bryson’s attempt to hike the AT. Although the film adaptation was a bit rubbish, the book left a lasting impression on me. I love the idea that you can start at point A (Springer Mountain) and make progress to point B (Mount Katahdin) every day, whilst carrying everything you need to keep you alive, making friends, and having experiences you can’t have anywhere else.
Photo by Alex "Wiggs" Dyer
This year will be poignant on the AT, though, after the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene in September last year. According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, about 30% fewer hikers have registered their AT hike so far, compared to this time last year. Significant portions of the trail are still closed and hikers should be prepared to tackle some challenging conditions. I think there’s an opportunity, though, for 2025 to turn out to be a special year on the AT. Small towns in the Appalachians are famous for their hospitality and community spirit and this year more than ever, hikers will be important for the trail towns along the way. A lot of iconic places, like Damascus and Hot Springs, were badly affected by the hurricane, and townsfolk will be encouraging hikers to come and spend time and money in town.
Damascus, VA – Photo by Maggie "Legacy" Fowler
Hopefully there will be some Atom Packs on the Appalachian Trail in 2025, and of all the backpacks in the range, I expect most will be using a 50L or 60L Prospector. There are always some newbies on the AT and the Prospector is a good first pack if your base weight isn’t whittled down enough for something frameless like the Atom. The Pulse is worth considering for those with lighter loads as the the food carries on the AT aren’t extreme. The Notch sits in the middle of the range and is great if you don’t want load lifters and prefer a more solid frame compared to the Pulse.
Here are some words from our founder, Tom, on his experience of the AT back in 2009:
"I decided to hike the Appalachian trail aged 20 with near zero expectation of what it was going to be like. I didn’t know it then, but it would become one of the most significant decisions of my entire life: giving my insulated life some meaning, giving me the confidence to stand every inch of my 6ft 7 inches tall, give me my first real opportunities to struggle, adapt and overcome, in a land far away from the comfort of home, to solve problems on the fly, as the universe (or trail) threw them at me hour by hour.
The only way walking 2000 miles is possible is to begin– it doesn't matter where or how, but at some point you must commit. Then slowly, day by day, you chip away, your laboured steps becoming miles, first tens then hundreds, the seasons change as you are outpaced by spring, then suddenly entire states are behind you, summer will come and go, then, one day, you arrive at your finish point, a point not dissimilar to many thousands of such points that you have passed in the last few months, except, this time, there are no more points to hike to.
I knew when I finished the trail that I wasn’t done thru hiking – I went on to hike another 12,000 or so miles, and my love of thru hiking eventually led me to my wife, “Motown” whom I met on the Continental Divide Trail in 2017.
Latterly, when I think about the Appalachian Trail, I think of it like a spark. What started off as a way to kill a few months ended up igniting a fire in me and setting off a chain reaction that has kept me pretty well occupied since."
