While Wilson was holed up in the hotel today with his class work, I went over to Uncle Johnny's to arrange the next three days hiking. In the end, Uncle Johnny will slack us backwards to Erwin two days, Sunday and Monday, and our next hostel, Mountain Harbour B&B and Hostel in Roan Mountain, TN, will pick us up in Erwin on Tuesday, drop us at Carvers Gap and carry our gear to the hostel while we hike forward. It's no different in mileage, but will allow us to try a different style of hiking.
I've had a few questions about some of the jargon we use out here on the Trail, so I'll try and address those.
The Appalachian Trail is over 2000 miles from end to end. The exact mileage changes yearly as trail maintenance causes reroutes. Thruhikers attempt to finish the entire trail in one attempt, section hikers complete portions of the trail as time permits, finishing the trail over the course of years. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) governs the trail, and they do not officially recognize either designation. Hikers are asked to honestly answer the question "Have you walked the entire trail?" in order to eligible for the 2000 mile patch and listing in the magazine.
Slack packing is an alternative method of backpacking. It can be performed in any direction, northwards or southwards on the Trail. The hiker deposits most of their gear at a safe location such as a hostel, and is driven to a road crossing a certain distance from the hostel. They then walk to the hostel and their gear. Generally they will carry water, lunch, a camera and rain gear. So the pack is 'slack' instead of fully loaded. Often, they will use a borrowed daypack instead of their personal full sized pack. The ATC doesn't care about how much a hiker carries.
Stealth camping is camping in unofficial places on the trail instead of at prebuilt campsites or shelters. While allowed in most places on the AT (except national parks and certain states in New England), it is becoming discouraged due to the increasing damage to the land from the increasing number of hikers each year.
The Trail is marked on the official route with white rectangles 2x6 inches. Intersecting trails, bad weather bypasses, or side trail are marked with blue blazes. It is sometimes possible to shave total miles from the official route or avoid elevation changes by following blue blazed trails, hence the term blue-blazing. This is frowned on. Roads are marked in yellow "blazes" 6 inches wide by 10 feet long. Taking a ride to bypass unwanted trail is called "yellow blazing" and is prohibited. A hiker can get a ride to town and back but the ride has to drop off where it picked up. Aqua blazing is when a hiker uses water transport to bypass certain trail sections. This is prohibited by the ATC as it is not hiking. "Pink blazing" is performed when a (usually male) hiker attempts to make a physical liaison with another hiker or a local. Pink blazing does not usually affect trail mileage, unless it somehow involves yellow blazing.
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