Clarification on New Reservation System for Appalachian Trail Thru-hikers in the Smokies

Clarification on New Reservation System for Appalachian Trail Thru-hikers in the Smokies

Friday, January 25, 2013

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Earlier in the week the Great Smoky Mountains announced that changes to its current backcountry reservation and permitting process will take effect on February 13th. With that announcement came several questions on how this will impact Appalachian Trail thru-hikers as they pass through the Smokies.

Thanks to Jared King for providing a link to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy website that provides clarification on the rules pertaining to thru-hikers. Here's how the process will work:

• Backcountry permits for A.T. thru-hikers will be available online at www.smokiespermits.nps.gov.

• There will be a $20 charge for each permit.

• You must have a permit before backpacking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

• Permits may be obtained up to 30 days in advance of the date a thru hiker anticipates entering the Smokies.

• Permits will be valid for 38 days from the date issued for an up to 8 day hike through the Smokies. All other thru-hiker regulations remain in effect.

You may also get a permit in person at the park’s Backcountry Office (at the Sugarlands Visitor Center near Gatlinburg) or over the phone; with permits issued by fax, mail or email. For more information, please call 865-436-1297.

Also, I would assume that this policy will remain in place, as currently published on the Appalachian Trail NPS website:

Shelter Policy - Park regulations require that you stay in a shelter......From Mar. 15 to June 15, four spaces at each A.T. shelter are reserved for thru-hikers. If the shelter is full, thru-hikers can tent close by. Only thru-hikers are allowed to tent next to shelters, so they are responsible for making room for those who have reservations in the shelters.

Jeff
Hiking in the Smokies

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Planning a Thru-Hike

Planning a Thru-Hike

Thursday, December 10, 2009

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Trailspace.com has a pretty good four-part series on their website about planning for a thru-hike. Written by Barbara Egbert, a thru-hike veteran herself, The Lure of a Long Trail: Planning a Thru-Hike offers basic information for would-be long distance thru-hikers to help them tackle the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail or the Continental Divide Trail. Obviously, much of the advice provided would also benefit backpackers attempting much shorter distances as well.

This is probably a good starting point for someone in the consideration phase of planning a thru-hike to see if they really want to get serious about it:

Part 1: In the first of four articles, Pacific Crest Trail veteran Barbara Egbert talks to other thru-hikers about gear decisions, training, and preparation.

Part 2: Sorting through a deluge of advice and wondering which to pay attention to? Successful backpackers can tell you what really matters, including reasons to thru-hike a long trail, what to eat, and finding water.

Part 3: Triple Crowners — hikers who have completed the AT, PCT, and CDT (that’s nearly 8,000 miles of trail) — offer advice to first-timers on how to stay safe and have fun.

Part 4: Two trail angels offer advice based on the hundreds of thru-hikers they've befriended and assisted along the Pacific Crest Trail.




Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com Detailed information on trails in the Smoky Mountains; includes trail descriptions, key features, pictures, video, maps, elevation profiles, news, hiking gear store, and more.

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Appalachian Trail Museum set to open next June

Appalachian Trail Museum set to open next June

Thursday, November 5, 2009

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Don't know if any of you have heard about this or not, but a new Appalachian Trail Museum will be opening next year, on National Trails Day, June 5, 2010. It will be located in a 200-year-old grist mill at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania, roughly the mid-point along the 2175-mile, Maine-to-Georgia trail.

One of the really cool things about the new museum is that thru-hikers will become living history "interpreters". The museum will feature a "hikers' center," a lounge area of sorts, designed to promote interaction between visitors and hikers who stop in for breaks as they pass through the park.

The museum will also feature a hikers shelter built by Earl Shaffer, the first person to walk the entire trail in one season in 1948. The shelter, which stood atop Peters Mountain in Dauphin County, was painstakingly dismantled in order to to preserve it for the museum.

The museum will also have plenty of standard museum fare: artifacts and archives of Appalachian Trail records and photos. Other attractions will include a children's discovery area, where kids can play with camping equipment.

There will also be a video wall that will display the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's archive of more than 12,000 photographs of hikers taken as they passed through the trail's headquarters in Harpers Ferry, W.Va. Those photos will also will be available on the museum website.

Speaking of the website, it looks like you'll be able to spend many days surfing the site once it's complete. The site is in the process of collecting the best short stories from the trail. The site has categorized the stories into areas of interest such as; origins of trail names, shelter life, unexplained happenings, trail magic, weather stories, ranger encounters and many others.

To build an Appalachian Trail historical timeline, the site is also in the process of assembling trail journals that are categorized by year going back to 1927.

The grist mill building, which is just a few steps off the trail, is within two miles of the Appalachian Trail's midpoint. The building is next to the Pine Grove General Store, home of the Half Gallon Club, a favorite stop for long-distance hikers where they try to eat an entire half gallon of ice cream in a single sitting.

You can visit the museum's website by clicking here.





Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com Detailed information on trails in the Smoky Mountains; includes trail descriptions, key features, pictures, video, maps, elevation profiles, news, hiking gear store, and more.

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