Groups to hike the AT?

[texashanger]

Just curious... Has anyone out there ever formed groups to hike the AT? My son is in scouts, and we're both pondering doing it one day. I suspect we'll have to break it up into sections, so I'm looking for advice...

[dejoha]

I've taken my troop on sections of the AT, but never hiked the entire AT. Sounds like a fun project. If the troop was behind it, it could be a troop goal that may outlast some of its members. Or maybe a goal to do one large section, like Virginia.

I would certainly vote in favor of it instead of summer camp -- spend a week hiking the AT!

[texashanger]

It would probably just be my son and I, along with a few others... so it wouldn't be an official troop event.

[TinaLouise]

I would certainly vote in favor of it instead of summer camp -- spend a week hiking the AT!

I'm doing both this year.... doing a week of summer camp with my troop and the very day I return home, I'm packing up and doing a week with another troop on the AT.

TinaLouise

[Boris Losdindawoods]

It's really fun to watch the thru hikers when there are scouts on the AT. They get really twitchy, they're constantly looking over their shoulders, everybody you see is asking if you know where the scouts are spending the night. It's like there's a plague of locusts coming down the trail.

[kayak karl]

http://www.lmc.edu/faculty/DoyleW/CircleExp.html

[Boris Losdindawoods]

On the one hand, so much for Hike Your Own Hike. Then again, $1000 is pretty cheap to be able to slackpack the entire AT.

[trigger hurt]

It's really fun to watch the thru hikers when there are scouts on the AT. They get really twitchy, they're constantly looking over their shoulders, everybody you see is asking if you know where the scouts are spending the night. It's like there's a plague of locusts coming down the trail.

I don't know about them, but my last experience with scouts and their scout masters left me with a bad taste.

Basically, myself and a couple other fellow forum members got to a popular camping destination with group size limits early in the day and secured the favored spot. We'd been there all day and well into night when a scout master came over and informed us that he had 20 or 30 guys coming at which we pointed out the camp size head count limitation and said that we'd be having adult conversations within earshot and it might not be a good idea to have impressionable ears around.

We remarked to ourselves how funny it was for a member of an organization, whose motto is "be prepared", to be totally unprepared. Then we promptly forgot about it.

The next day, one of our group over hears the very same unprepared scout master telling the park ranger that they had gotten to the site first, but we set up in the trees and refused to share the spot which prompted the park ranger to come over and look a the camping permit that we had that the scout master did not.

That and they were noisy as all get out.

[Dutch]

Off topic but note to scout master---Don't let the boy's mom pack his pack. They don't need an extra pair of jeans and a sweat shirt for July. Explain the benefits of not having a 30 pound pack on a 90 pound boy.

[Gnome77]

My son and I are doing the AT a little at a time and keeping logs, section and dates.I will do sections without him and he can decide to make them up later. He's 4yrs so at times I'm carrying him and our packs( his has small water and snacks). Day hikes and one nighters for now. He's got all his life to finish, just taking time, spending time with him, introducing him to Whole outdoors.