My 2024 Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike Itinerary

The dust has settled (literally). I no longer walk down a trail of white blazes, but I still dream of them. It has been almost five months since my finish at Mt Katahdin, roughly the same amount of time as it took me to thru-hike the Appalachian trail. Time moves so fast. While my feet have stopped moving, my heart still remains on the trail, beating to the sound of thousands and thousands of footsteps. 

In the last five months, I have reflected back on my journey, remembering fondly the people and places that made my experience so beautiful. It may be a solitary venture at the start, but you quickly become vortexed into the culture of the Appalachian trail. I am unbelievably excited for the people that will attempt a thru-hike in 2025, and I want to be of help if I can.

As I planned for my thru-hike, I found a past AT thru hiker’s itinerary on White Blaze, and it turned out to be very helpful.  Even though I did not follow that plan exactly, it was nice having a framework to work with as I mapped out sections. In typical nerd fashion, I have collected and gathered data from my thru-hike, from daily mileages to final expense costs. 

So here’s the numbers, folks. I will start with just going over my itinerary and save any gear and financial talk for a later blog. This time I will let the numbers do the talking. 

Here it is: My 2024 Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike Itinerary 

Disclaimer: How I Hiked My Hike

Before making a plan (or following someone else’s), it is important to note your goals for your thru-hike: Do you want to stop in all of the trail towns and soak up the AT culture? Are you interested in challenging yourself physically by pushing big miles or finishing in a certain amount of time? Are you seeking to maximize your time in nature? These goals will inevitably affect your itinerary. 

Take this as my personal disclaimer for my itinerary: how I hiked does not mean that you should do it the same way. My goals were pushing myself, finding solace in nature, and developing confidence in my abilities. In order to feel satisfied and proud of my thru-hike, I personally wanted to hike all of the AT miles through and through. I did not take blue blazes to skip portions of the trail. I didn’t slack pack.  I did not hang out in town for extended periods. I pushed myself at times when I shouldn’t have. I lingered at trail magics and shelters on days that I was exhausted. I was somewhere in between the “go getters” and the “slackers.” I wanted to finish right and well. Those were my goals. 

Feeling all the feels on the top of Mt. Katahdin after hiking approximately 2,200 miles over the course of 161 days.

My plans were interrupted at times, as all of ours were. It led me to staying in towns that I didn’t originally want to, or campsites and shelters that were definitely not the nicest. My itinerary is in no way perfect. In planning for a thru-hike, it is important to remain flexible. I liked having a template to adjust as needed. 

Direction of travel will also impact your itinerary. I began in Georgia and walked northbound to Maine, but there are so many ways that you can hike the trail. NOBO (northbound) is the most popular, but others choose to hike SOBO in order to experience more privacy and avoid the crowds. Others will flip flop, starting in one spot and hiking north or south, and then returning to that same spot to hike the opposite direction. This helps decrease the environmental impact of trail use, although logistically can be a little more challenging. 

My final disclaimer: parts of the trail, trail towns, and hostels were impacted significantly by Hurricane Helene. Please keep this in mind as you plan your thru-hike. Towns such as Hot Springs, Erwin, and Damascus suffered substantial losses. Some hostels were even destroyed in their entirety. I would recommend keeping up with trail conditions and checking the web pages/social media sites of the local businesses you plan to visit. 

Resources for Planning and Tracking an AT Thru Hike

If you are going to attempt to outline an itinerary at all, you will need to utilize some resources. For example, it is important to not only consider the amount of miles you will be hiking in a day, but the elevation gain and loss as well. This presents a more accurate depiction of how challenging the day will truly be. 

These are some tools that helped me track and gather my data. This is also a disclaimer that my data may not be perfect by any means, but these tools definitely helped make it easier to collect. Here are some that I believe are crucial to planning appropriately. 

  1. FarOut – This is a must in my opinion. Far Out is a navigation app in which you can purchase the Appalachian trail map. You can download the map offline so that you can access it without service or WiFi. On the app, you can track your progress and plan and save your routes. It was crucial for me when I planned my days because of the massive amount of information it provided. It highlights camping and shelters, water sources, road crossings, towns and services, and peaks and views. My favorite feature is the comments; hikers are allowed to comment on all of the above icons and give updated information, such as if the water source is dry or a nice dispersed campsite is available. This just scratches the surface of the amount of information on this app. I don’t know what I would have done without it.

    A preview of what FarOut has to offer.

  2. Hikers Logbook – This was another very helpful app for me in terms of keeping up with my progress and data. You can input information such as your starting location and ending location, and it will automatically calculate your mileage. However, I would have to manually enter my elevation gain and loss for the day that I gathered from FarOut. There’s all sorts of other data you can enter as well, such as your mood and mode of sleeping (tent, shelter, etc.). There is a stats page that will provide you with updated information as you add your daily mileage, such as your average miles per day, average miles no zeros included, and average miles with no zeros or neros included (it considers less than 8 miles a nero). I got a little too obsessed with the forecast page, which would predict when you will finish at Katahdin (or another point of your choosing) based on your metrics. I may be mistaken, but this app seems to only be available to iOS users.
  3. The Appalachian Trail 2024 Hikers Companion – Yep; I carried a book with me the whole way, tearing out sections as I went along (which was actually very rewarding). You could get away with not carrying this guidebook, but I found the detailed information very helpful when I was looking for specifics. There are also some good nuggets of information in there that are cool to know about the places you are walking through. Each year, an updated guidebook is released, so be sure to get the newest version for the most up to date information. 

    I carried the AT Thru Hiker’s Companion Guidebook the entire trail, ripping out sections as I finished them.

  4. Blogs/Articles/Advice from other thru-hikers – I may be a little biased, but I found The Trek’s Appalachian trail guide to be very helpful in planning my hike. There are also other good first-hand accounts and advice from those that have already completed their epic journey. It’s always helpful to get advice from someone who knows what it is like to really be out there. Just don’t let others influence how you choose to hike your hike. 

General Patterns and Takeaways from My 2024 Appalachian Trail Itinerary

Start and End Dates 

In total, I hiked 2.197.4 miles NOBO on the Appalachian trail, starting at the approach trail in Amicalola State Park and ending on Mt Katahdin in Baxter State Park (in reality, you’ll hike way more than the technical AT miles, but that’s all I accounted for). 

I chose to start on March 23rd and made sure to register at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (gotta have that hang tag!). It is advised to not start on a day if over 50 people have already chosen that date. Their website is very useful when choosing a date to ensure that you aren’t beginning on a busy day.  

Starting at the Approach Trail in Amicalola State Park, GA on March 23, 2024 (featuring Booie seeing me off!)

I finished on August 30th, but I don’t necessarily recommend finishing around that time. I really pushed at the end to finish before Labor Day, Baxter State Park’s busiest weekend of the year. People will line up at the gate to get into the park, and Mt Katahdin is -of course- a main attraction. Even if you secure a spot, the peak will be crowded. Summiting was still special, but I could have done without some of the people. 

Overall, I was happy with my start and end date. The weather will always be unpredictable. I hate being cold more than I hate being hot, so this was the best choice for me (although I’ll admit the 100+ heat days made me very grumpy). I enjoyed the mix of company and quiet and never found the amount of people that overwhelming. 

Picking a direction and start date are top on the planning priority list. If you have ample time (at least six months) to complete your hike, I would not worry too much about your end date. Having a ballpark estimate is probably fine, but staying flexible is key to eliminating any “time stress” while on trail.  

State-by-State Analysis 

If you hike the entirety of the trail, you will pass through fourteen states (even though West Virginia only accounts for 2.4 miles). The longest state by far is Virginia, encompassing 557 miles of the trail. I calculated how many days I spent in each state from the data in Hikers Logbook. The app determined what state I was in based on my end of the day mile marker, which means there is some inaccuracy in these numbers. For example, I may have only hiked one mile into Vermont that day, but it counted the whole day as being in Vermont. I also included my zeros and neros in this graphical analysis (see more on that below), meaning that these percentages aren’t strictly hiking days. Here is what I got:

Around 25% of my time was spent in Virginia, with the NC/TN border region taking second with 13% and New Hampshire third with 12.4%. This makes sense considering that Virginia is a long section, and I took a good proportion of my zeros in the other two regions. Adjusting for zeros, the data changes slightly:

Virginia accounts for a slightly larger percentage of my time (26.3%). Maine (a 282-mile difficult section) now comes in second with 12% and NC/TN Border (a 217.8-mile section) taking third with 11.3%. New Hampshire (a 160.9-mile difficult section) and Pennsylvania (a 230-mile section) tie for fourth at 8.5%. 

The fact that New Hampshire can even compete with states that contain over 200 miles of trail really attests to the brutal hiking of the Whites. More on that later. 

Rest Days 

I have been asked by some people the quantity and frequency in which I took days off trail. In total, I took off twenty days (referred to as zeros – hiking zero miles) and eleven “neros” (which I defined as hiking less than eight miles in a single day). 

Some of my days off were pre-planned. I took four days off to attend my friend’s wedding, two days off to go to Trail Days, and three days off to visit my loved ones. However, some of these days were definitely not planned. I got a stomach virus twice, once which resulted in my neroing to a town from a road crossing and another that took me off trail for five days. I also waited out bad weather in New Hampshire for three days before heading into the presidential range traverse. 

As you can see in the graph, the frequency in which I took zeros was pretty sporadic. For example, 40% of the zeros I took were in New Hampshire alone. I usually liked to try to nero into town if I could instead of taking a full day off. Some of the zeros were consecutive (four at once, three at once, five at once, etc). 

If I take out those consecutive days, the frequency in which I took a zero averages to be every 11.25 days. Ideally, I would have spaced them out a little better. After the five days off I took from a stomach bug, I pushed through Maine without a zero or nero, which was definitely not preferable. Again, this is just what I did. Do what works for you! 

Pace

This was particularly fun data for me to analyze. Hikers Logbook app gave me some basic statistics:

Some metrics automatically calculated by the Hikers Logbook app regarding average miles per day

However, I thought it would be even more interesting to analyze average miles a day in each state, which sheds a little light on the difficulty of each section. I took the number of miles I hiked in that state and divided it by the number of days spent in that state. See the above section on “State by State Analysis” to see how I calculated the number of days I spent in each state. In addition, my miles in each state aren’t the technical numbers stated on the AT Conservancy’s webpage; I calculated by taking the start and end mileage from when I personally started and ended in that state.  

Finally, I also calculated the average miles per day for each state with no zeros and no zeros/neros. Having a zero or low mile day definitely affects the average, so the more accurate average for what I would hike when I set out for a full day is the “average miles a day excluding zeros and neros” red line. Here is what I got: 

This data feels pretty right. My pace gradually increased as I got to the halfway point in Pennsylvania, which is probably when I felt the strongest. Even with the adjustment for zeros and neros, I saw a steep drop in my average daily miles in New Hampshire, a particularly challenging section of the trail. Compared to the state before it (Vermont), my daily mileage decreased by around 20%. For those trying to complete the trail in a certain amount of time, this is definitely something to take into consideration. Most NOBO thru hikers I was around were unable to do their typical mileage. 

Accommodations and Services 

Visiting and hanging out in towns was not really a priority for me. I really came to enjoy the privacy of my tent. I would only sleep in shelters if it felt necessary (e.g. if there was bad weather or it was required, such as in the Smokies). In total, I spent 112 nights in my tent, 11 nights in a shelter, and 39 nights in a bed. 

Hostel/Hotel Name Location
Mt. Crossings Hostel Blairsville, GA
Around the Bend Hostel Hiawassee, GA
Quality Inn Franklin Franklin, NC
Standing Bear Hostel Hartford, TN
Laughing Heart Hostel Hot Springs, NC
Uncle Johnny’s Erwin, TN
Mountain Harbour Hostel Roan Mountain, TN
Station at 19E Roan Mountain, TN
Virginia Creeper Lodge Damascus, VA
Harboursite Inn Troutville, VA
Long Neck Lair Rural Retreat, VA
Woods Hole Hostel Pearisburg, VA
Angel’s Rest Hostel Pearisburg, VA
Hampton Inn Salem Salem, VA
Lookout Hostel Lisbon, PA
Quality Inn Vernon Vernon, NJ
Station Inn Pawling, NY
Quality Inn Great Barrington Great Barrington, MA
Yellow Deli Hostel in Rutland Rutland, VT
The Notch Hostel North Woodstock, NH
Top Notch Hotel Gorham, NH
Saddleback Inn Rangeley, ME
Maine Roadhouse Stratton, ME
Shaws Monson, ME

When I did stay in towns, I typically stayed at an Appalachian trail hostel. Staying at hostels feels especially nice as a hiker; you are surrounded by people who understand your needs, meaning that usually there is laundry, showers, shuttle services, and resupply on site. In total, I stayed at sixteen hostels. This article by the Trek summarizes some of my favorite hostels well, including Maine Roadhouse and Woods Hole. If you get the chance, I would definitely recommend going to Long Neck Lair in Virginia. It was clean and had private bunks with individual fans and outlets. To top it off, the owner took us out to meet her adorable alpacas.

Winnie and I hanging out at the hostel, Long Neck Lair

I did stay in some hotels (eight total), sometimes with fellow hikers and sometimes alone. I usually did this if it was cheaper in a group, a hostel wasn’t available, or I just needed a good break. Some of these stays were definitely not economically friendly, but very much needed. I remember vividly my stay at Station Inn in Pawling, NY, when I turned the AC down to the lowest setting, took a cold shower, and laid in the bed for the rest of the day. 

When my loved ones came to visit, I stayed in some Airbnbs, but I did not include those on my list, as they were relatively off trail. After getting sick at one point, I went back home to my apartment in Rhode Island to recover for five days before returning back to Gorham, NH. You will see this if you look at my detailed itinerary. 

In terms of resupply, I found that going into towns and hostels to get food and supplies was a lot easier than mailing myself packages. However, if I wasn’t such a procrastinator, I think mailing myself resupply boxes could have helped me maintain a healthier diet. Inevitably, you will have to mail yourself something at some point (gear replacements, summer clothes, shoes, etc), so I would suggest finding some good resources that highlight nearby post offices and their proximity to AT mile markers (like this one). In my itinerary, I have highlighted the places where I went into towns to resupply or stay the night. I tried to keep my days between resupply under or around five. Sometimes I was able to stretch out my resupply longer if I stopped at places on trail to get meals (or was blessed with trail magic!). I calculated how long I went between resupply stops (not including the day I stopped to resupply); on average, I re-supplied every 3 days. 

Resupply Location Amount of Full Days Since Last Stop
Starting at Amicalola N/A
Hiawassee, GA – Ingles 7
Franklin, NC – Ingles 3
SC – Left for Wedding 6
Hostel – Standing Bear 3
Hot Springs, NC – Dollar General 1
Erwin, TN – Grocery Store 4
Mountain Harbor Hostel 3
Boots Off Hostel 1
Damascus, VA – Food City 1
Marion, VA – Gear shop 5
Woods Hole Hostel 5
Pearisburg, VA 1
Salem, VA – Grocery Store 4
Claudia’s Car 🙂 2
Glasgow, VA – Dollar General 1
Waynesboro, VA 3
Front Royal, VA 6
Harper’s Ferry 2
Boiling Springs, PA – Natalie’s House 🙂 4
Port Clinton, PA – Grocery 3
Lookout Hostel 0
Delaware Water Gap, PA – Gas Station 2
Vernon, NJ – Dollar General 2
Pawling, NY – Gas Station 5
Great Barrington, MA – Dollar General 3
North Adams, MA – Dollar General 5
Rutland, VT – Grocery store 4
Hanover, NH, – Grocery store 2
North Woodstock, NH – Grocery Store 4
Gorham, NH – Grocery Store 3
Gorham, NH – Grocery Store 1
Rangeley, ME – Grocery Store 5
Maine Roadhouse – ME 1
Shaws – ME 3
Katahdin 5
Average 3.142857143

If You’re Still Here…

Thanks for hanging in there with me as I nerded out over my Appalachian trail thru-hike itinerary and data. The goal of sharing my information is the hope that I was of help in at least some way to those that plan to undertake this magical journey themselves. That, and well, I just love a good excuse to make a graph. 

In addition to my itinerary, I have gathered data on expenses and my final gear list, which I plan to write a blog on in the future. If you have any follow-up questions, feel free to reach out by commenting below!

Keep following the white blazes, my friends.

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Comments 10

  • MATT ARMSTRONG : Jan 27th

    Hi Carly.
    This was a really helpful and informative post! As I gather information in preparation for my own AT hike your experience recounted added a lot to my overall knowledge. And I loved the charts and graphs! Wow! As someone who spends an enormous amount of time at a computer writing I appreciate the time and effort you took to compile and publish your trail history and information. I got Research and Analysis Fatigue (usually alleviated by a trip to town for basketball and swimming at the gym; plus a meal out) just from gazing contemplativly at those beautiful charts and graphs. We should start a Nerd Club for all who appreciate such things. Matt

    Reply
  • Onward : Jan 27th

    I definitely geeked out a little over this. It’s really cool to parse through the data of how other people thru-hiked. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  • Will Ludwig : Jan 27th

    I loved this article and the stats were amazing. I wish I’d run into someone like you in 1981 when I did the trail NOBO. I’d love to try it again with a cell phone and e maps. Other than preplanned USPS PKGS in specific locations, everything I found off trail was word of mouth without a lot of mouths.

    Reply
    • Carly “Newt” : Jan 27th

      I have so much respect for people that did it before all of these resources! Y’all are the real OGs! I don’t know what I would have done without FarOut to check every five minutes. 🙂

      Reply
  • Brigitte Allard : Jan 27th

    Thanks Carly, I loved the stats and the reference to the article about hostels that had escaped my readings!

    Will be on the trail soon…

    Reply
    • Carly “Newt” : Jan 27th

      I’m so excited for you! You are in for a beautiful journey.

      Reply
  • Jess : Jan 27th

    Newt! This blog is so awesome. I love all of the graphics, the thoughtful trail itinerary… all of it! This is an amazing resource for future thru-hikers. Great work and thank you for sharing!!!

    Reply
  • Tony : Jan 27th

    Newt thank you so much for sharing this with us!! Your hike sound exactly like while I’m hoping to do shortly on class of ‘25 AT thru hike, more about nature and less about towns (as much as I can).

    I do have a question, when and where did you get your Smokey Mountain Permit? This really is the only stress factor I have about the hike lol.

    Reply
    • Carly “Newt” : Jan 27th

      Hi Tony! Thanks for your comment! You are in for a wonderful adventure, and I’m so excited for you!

      I got my permit in Franklin, NC. I stayed at the Quality Inn in Franklin, and they had a computer and place for me to print out my permit. You just need to be sure it’s printed out before Fontana Dam! Really no big deal. Pretty fast and easy!

      Happy trails and good luck!!!

      Reply
  • Justin Hadley : Jan 28th

    Thanks for the resources and all the data! I looooove me some data! 🤓

    Reply

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