True, but I don't deserve the moniker of thru-hiker...I finished my hike a couple of hundred miles south of Big K and refuse to be a section-hiker, so I'll have to start over again someday.
OP, I could try to talk you out of the approach trail like folks did me. But, knowing how much I listened to them, I won't waste the time. One exception, if you're hiking it because of Bill Bryson you should keep in mind that the book is fiction. Just sayin....
While I didn't finish my formal Thru, I have actually seen the entire trail, save Big K. The only area where things get awkward for a hanger is in the Whites. It requires determination to hang through there because much more often than not, you'll need to come down off the ridge a bit to find a suitable hang. Going down at the end of the day is nothing. Going back up in the morning SUCKS! But, as long as you are a northbounder, you'll be able to scramble up there without much issue by that point in your hike.
The Smokies are no problem. Stealth, hang in shelter, hang next to shelter. There are a hundred ways around sleeping in the shelter and most are perfectly legal. A site devoted to the AT will give you all the options in great detail. Other than SMNP, you're pretty much in the clear until the Whites. There are a couple of areas that claim not to allow hammocks. I seem to remember a State Park in Virginia that the trail goes through for about 10ish miles. They don't allow hammocks (at least in 2008), but then again, it's a short stretch of trail and easily planned for in advance.
The only other hazard that presented itself was the impact of not having a sleeping pad. I still wouldn't carry one, but there are a handful of hostels that don't have pads on their racks. Inconvenient, but little more. I just skipped those hostels and kept on keeping on.
Other than these very few things, the AT is like Nirvana for a hanger.
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