Mountian to Sea Trail

[n1ck0l3man]

Has anyone section hiked or thru hiked this with their hammock? It all looks like a logistic nightmare as far as where to camp, but I am extremely intrigued and I am considering thru hiking it. Any advice would be helpful. I would also love to see photos if you took some. Thanks in advance!

[Catavarie]

Logistical nightmare is a bit of an understatement if you ask me. About a third of trail still isn't finished, so you end up doing a good deal of road walking through the central and eastern sections. Along about 90% of the trail it is illegal to camp except at designated camp grounds. I live within a mile of the MST and that particular section is nearly 50 miles with only 2 legal camp grounds about 30 trail miles apart. Hope you hike fast.


Realistically you can stealth camp fairly easily along a good bit of the trail. You're never more than a day out of the next town, and you spend most of the time following water so you can cut back on a good bit of weight because of that. If you decide to do the MST be sure to let us know as I'm sure you'll get plenty of offers for help along the way from all the great peiople here who live near enough to the trail. I'm quite proud of NC for sactioning the MST and I try to get out on my little section whenever I can.

[Grits]

A great trail. You will not have any trouble hanging the first 400 miles if you go east bound. Lots of hammock hangers along the way to help also. Here is a great guide to take with you by Scot Ward (4 time thru hiker) http://www.thru-hiker.us/ and also check with http://www.ncmst.org/ and some good videos of the trail by bugs watch both videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJHFF6JpWuQ

[hikestofish]

I know it's old but I hiked the Falls Lake section this past week. It was easy to hang but the only two places you are supposed to camp are nearly thirty miles from either end of the trail. It was a long hike that first day...especially since I didn't do a mileage estimate, just kind of glanced at the map and thought "that doesn't look too bad" LOL. I would definitely recommend an early spring hike due to how hot it was this week. Altogether, it was an ok hike but I sure wish I had done the Art Loeb again instead.

[DSM_Stephen]

Still incomplete but i think its much easier to stealth in a hammock than tarp.

[Gqgeek81]

I've been on bits of it at Falls Lake, the Neusiok trail is part of it, and part of it runs through Linville Gorge.

Its on my bucket list, but one of those things where it seems like the longer I can put it off, the better it will be. Doing the Falls Lake section since its so close sounds like fun, but I wasn't aware of this nonsense with the camp sites.

[nothermark]

Reminds me of the Finger Lakes trail across NY...Sort of there but not quite.

[Tacoma96]

I have completed the Falls Lake part from hwy 50 to the dam. Then the greenway from the dam to the WRAL soccer complex. Then completed from Sams Branch to Louisburg Rd. Completed the Smithfield Greenway and the Neusiok Trail. Still there are a lot of gaps on the MST in my area.