Which Trail Should YOU Thru-hike First? (Appalachian Trail vs PCT vs CDT)

hey y'all Dixie here today I want to talk to you about a question that I have received a lot especially now that I have completed the Appalachian Trail Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail and that is people always ask me which trail should I through [Music] I want to go ahead and give you a very simple answer today if you're wondering that question and the simple answer is it depends it's not an easy answer but it is a very simple one because it really does depend it depends on your personal preferences why you're through hiking in the first place it depends on maybe your experience level I don't know each individual watching this video so I can't give you you know the exact name of one of those trails and tell you that it's right for you but what I can do is kind of run through some considerations to help you maybe differentiate you know what do I really want out of a trail and what are some things to consider if I'm gonna hike a certain trail and then you can apply that to yourself but when I go through some of these points I invite you to be honest with yourself because I know that watching somebody else doing something or maybe reading a blog of somebody that did a certain trail whether it was a really good or maybe not the experience that they thought they were gonna have and that might not be how it is for you so you might be surprised going through some of this and you might not anyway these are just some things to think about when you're trying to decide which thru-hike is right for me first things first do you like people or do you prefer you know dogs or do you really value your solitude that's certainly something to think about when you're trying to decide between 80 PCT and CDT so just to cover them a little bit one by one the 80 has millions of people on it each year now that's not millions of folks through hiking it's just millions of people who are doing day hikes section hikes weekend hikes or through hikes so there are a lot of people out there so if you're gonna through hikes 80 you're gonna see a lot of people whether that's three hikers or not in 2017 almost a thousand people reported to have completed a thru-hike of the 80 now that's including North bounders South bounders and flip-floppers so that's the direction on which they start they're high considering that twenty to thirty percent of people actually finish that means that there were a lot more people who were attempting a thru-hike at the beginning of the season on the 80 also people tend to group up in the way that they camp so there are shelters along the 80 which are usually three sited structures that have you know some kind of wooden floor in them and people can just roll their sleeping pads out and all kind of sleep in there together some of them are too storied some of them one-story you know there are all sorts of different shapes and sizes also at these shelters you have people who camp around the shelters are generally a good spot to camp because they have everything you need usually a water source a privy and then again you know especially if it's raining that shelter structure so if you look at the numbers for the PCT the PCT a says that hundreds of thousands of people are on the PCT each year potentially millions but again these are people who are just out there they aren't people who are through hiking PCT a tends to collect their data a little bit different but they show that over 6,000 people got a permit for the year 2017 and it seems about 500 or so finished now in 2018 that was actually up to a thousand and I'm gonna guess that that's because 2017 was a really high snow year so you know that shows that weather on the PCT which we'll get into later can kind of fluctuate the numbers but you've got a good number of people on the PCT also you know there's this big belief that there are way less people on the PCT and in some years that may be true again due to weather but again that is a lot of folks finishing a thru-hike I doubt that 6,000 actually started because most of the time not 100% of the people who get a permit begin the trail but showing that in 2018 about a thousand people have reported completing the trail you know that's that's a pretty big number and pretty similar to the numbers that we're seeing on the 80 and 2017 the year prior now on the PCT for the most part there aren't shelters like on the 80 and on the 80 those are present every I would say on average 10 to 20 miles on the PCT you can probably count on one hand the number of structures that you can sleep in so you don't have that same bottleneck effect where you've got a bunch of people huddled up in one spot the camping is a little bit more dispersed yes are still some you know more established spots but again they're not as a shelter where everyone's kind of aiming to get to according to Wikipedia only about 200 people attempt to three the Continental Divide Trail in a year now I'm not exactly sure how many people touch it I really couldn't find any numbers for how many folks who are you know on it annually whether for section day hike etc but I'm thinking even with the traffic from the Colorado trail where it intersects the CDT and the fact that people are so active in Colorado and kind of out on the trails you know mountain biking and all the hunters in Wyoming and Montana and even Colorado and New Mexico I'm thinking that even with all of that there are significantly less people on the CDT as far as camping goes on the CDT there is no real designated camping area I mean sometimes you're going through state parks or you know very well established areas but that is not the majority of the time a lot of times you're just happy to find a flat spot when you do even in the gut hook app on the 80 and the PCT there are some waypoints that kind of tell you like this might be a good camping area this area will fit so many tents on the CDT that doesn't really happen sometimes people will mention it in the comments just to kind of help one another out because there really aren't you know prime real estate spots on the CDT like the other two trails so you definitely don't have to worry about those huddled up places and honestly the CDT can sometimes be lonely enough that you appreciate having somebody else around you so if you're one of those people who doesn't really want to be around people and you value your solitude then the CDT might be right for you however I'm not saying to avoid the 80 and PCT at all costs because if you look at the numbers you can really see that there are significantly less people heading in a southbound direction and then also if you're on the 80 even in going northbound with a lot of people if you avoid those shelters and just make a point to not camp or most people are gonna be huddled up then you're likely to not have folks just force down your throat and even on the ATM PCT with there being a lot more folks than on the CDT nobody is going to hold you against your will and you know make you talk to them so for the most part people seem to be pretty respectful and can more or less pick up on like hey this person might just want to enjoy some alone time with nature and seem to be a little more self-aware because they probably to value their solitude and that relationship with nature it's something to consider with there being a lot of people is there are safety in numbers now I say that but there have been 11 murders on the Appalachian Trail and there have been zero murders so far knock on wood on the PCT and CDT as far as I can tell or you know as far as I can tell through research so you know yes there are a lot more people who have been on the Appalachian Trail and it was founded or you know created finished in 1925 and then the Pacific Crest Trail in 1970 and the CDT in 1972 so to be fair the other trails haven't been around as long so when you consider that there are millions of people who are on the Appalachian Trail each year and there have only been 11 murders since its creation in 1925 you know it's not doing too bad statistically but you know it is a nice feeling to know that if you were injured or we're having a tough time or lost something or needed something you know on the other two trails there are gonna be people around or say you freeze your filter on accident you know you can always borrow one from somebody I know it's not a good idea to depend on people and I'm not saying to do that but I'm just saying you know if something bad were to happen for me it was a comforting feeling to know that on my first through hike there would be people around and also with more people to me comes more of a community and more of a culture and for example on the Appalachian Trail you know you've got a whole lot of culture they're the people of the Appalachian Mountains you've got the Civil War history just all sorts of stuff and there is some of that also on the PCT and the CDT but I just felt more of that on the 18th and then there is trail magic so where there are people the trail angels will come now I'm not selling short the trail angels on the Pacific Crest Trail or the Continental Divide Trail although really weren't a whole lot on the CDT or so for sure on the PCT but again that's kind of a reflection of how many people you have out there hiking how many people have done in the that want to come pay it forward and just the general awareness of the trail another big concern of people who are trying to decide which trails hike is how developed is each trail so the Appalachian Trail is you know very apparent you've got white blazes marking the way and it's just not real easy to get lost now on the Pacific Crest Trail things can get a little hairy when you have a lot of snow in the Sierra Nevada I can't speak for an average snow year but I can tell you that in a very high snow year and honestly when I'm walking in the snow anyway I like to have gut hook so the GPS app I didn't feel like I needed that on the Appalachian Trail it was just a walls guide was all that I used and I got turned around a few times but it was real easy to get back I got turned around like on another trail on the Pacific Crest Trail if I didn't have gut hook I probably could have gotten lost I was in the snow in the Sierra Nevada on the rest of the trail though again pretty much a highway marked pretty well with the PCT blazes now on the CDT it's much easier to get lost things were not very well marked there were some blazes of course and I know that the volunteers with the CDT see are doing a really good job of trying to get people to donate money so that they can put more blazing on trees to kind of help guide folks but there were areas where it was pretty confusing you might have blazes in both directions because they've rerouted the trail and didn't take down the old blazes you can just tell that it is not near as developed now I will say that I had always heard I won't say horror stories but I had heard oh my gosh the CDT isn't as developed and it's only 70% finished and you know I just heard all these things that made me think that if I didn't have a map and a compass I was gonna be lost and died in the wilderness and that just really isn't the case I think what for the most part they mean by it isn't completely developed yet is that the trail isn't quite routed the way that they want it to go yet so a lot of times you're on dirt roads or even paved roads where at times yes going through some brush especially in the desert where you're following fence posts but for the most part it's not just your out in the middle of this thick brush you know and you have to use a map and compass or else I'm gonna be honest I did not use a map and compass for any of the three Triple Crown trails now I'm not telling you that you should not take it as a backup or that it couldn't be helpful you know if somebody was in a tight spot if they knew how to use it but I'm just telling you that by using gut hooks on the PCT and CDT even in those hairy spots I was able to get out using that that went through my GPS and on the CDT I did have a backup which was my inReach because it has topo maps on there and actually had the trail marked with a little ticked line on the inner each map also I know I made it sound like having a highway was positive and things being less developed you know even underdeveloped if you want to call it that on the CDT was negative but to be honest I really actually enjoyed that part of the CDT because there were places where I would walk and I'm like wow it doesn't look like thousands and thousands and thousands of people have walked through here before and that's just I don't know that's kind of exciting also if you're one of those create your own adventure kind of people the CDT has so much of that so on the Appalachian Trail for example it's you know white blazes there are a few blue blaze alternates that you can take but most people just stick to the true you know white blaze path now on the PCT there are a lot more approved alternate so there's like Mount San Jacinto in California there's an alternate where you get to see more of Crater Lake instead of the official PCT which really doesn't go around it and then on and on you know there are just several different alternates that allow you to see things that might be more beautiful but on the CDT you can just like create whatever you want according to the CDT see a thru-hike of the CDT means that you're walking from Mexico to Canada or Canada to Mexico and you have a continuous footpath so your footsteps connect and you stay within 50 miles of the geological divide then you through hike the CDT so I don't know I found that pretty exciting and there are all sorts of different alternates along the way and again you know creating your own path is approved of so I just really found the CDT to be fun in that way that the PCT and 80 just weren't because that was more of a designated you know this is the path kind of thing now let's talk about difficulty of terrain so on the Appalachian Trail you've got elevation gains losses of five hundred and fifteen thousand feet but the highest point on the Appalachian Trail is at about sixty six hundred feet and that's Clingmans Dome on the PCT you're looking at elevation gains and losses of three hundred and fifteen thousand feet and the highest point is at Forester pass which is just a little over 13 thousand feet and on the CDT there are four hundred thousand feet of elevation gains and losses and the highest point of the CDT is at Gray's peak which is about fourteen thousand three hundred feet so it's kind of all over the spectrum there you know the 80 is more up and down and up and down or what people call puds which is pointless up and downs sometimes on the 80 you're even gonna have hand-over-hand climbing there are ladders placed in certain areas to help people get up and over rock formations and you just kind of never know what you're gonna get but the 80 is foot traffic only whereas the PCT is more graded for livestock so it's much more gradual you've got more switchbacks but you are at higher elevations and then on the CDT it's kind of middle ground between the PCT and 80 as far as elevation change but you are at even higher elevations with the trail going up and over a 14 er in Colorado so I'll have folks ask like well if my knees are bad should I do a different trails in the Appalachian Trail I mean maybe you know it really depends on your physical capabilities I have seen people on the Appalachian Trail hiking in their 70s people in their 80s have even through hacked it and the same goes for the other trails the bottom line is if you take it slow you start in the best physical condition you can and you just kind of listen to your body along the way you are going to slowly adjust I think the biggest mistake that people make is just getting out there you know running out of the gates feeling like they have something to prove and then they're injured and laying up for two days and you know Mount Laguna because they did too many miles and hurt their knees that's me on the Pacific Crest Trail so you know I speak from experience when I say you just have to take it slow and I mean if you know truly that your knees are an issue then sure you might want to consider the PCT but I'm just saying don't toss away the 80 completely just because you think that's gonna be an issue for you you know so I think the most important thing like I said is truly taking it slow and listening to your body something that I highly considered before I started through hiking was what is a wildlife like so before I started 80 the PCT and CDT on all three of them I was concerned about some particular thing as far as wildlife go so on the 80 I was pretty nervous about the idea of seeing a bear and then I handled the first bear encounter all wrong and ended up getting bluffed charged by a black bear in Virginia but I saw several more bears after that and handle them very well and you know live to tell about it so you know black bears were kind of my biggest thing now on the 80 you also have venomous snakes and sure there might be other animals that are a bit scary but on the PCT you can pretty much have all of those things and then add in mountain lions now for some reason I wasn't really worried about the mountain lions I was really afraid of seeing rattlesnakes and I did I saw ten of them actually so you know but I didn't I didn't have any encounters with the mountain lions on the PCT but but you are adding in mountain lions and that is you know another thing to think about and then on the CDT you have all of those animals from the 80 and the PCT and now you also have grizzly bears when you get further up north and I know some of y'all are like well Dixie there have been cougar satins on the 80 or you know there's a chance that the Grizzlies are living in the Cascades in Washington you know yes like but I'm saying as a whole you know things to consider the the likelihood of sea grizzly bear on the PCT I feel like is much lower than you know on the CVT but regardless there are ways to mitigate your interactions with wildlife but you know if you're already nervous about something else that really bothers you about the CDT and then also grizzly bears well then you might want to look into the PCT or the 80 instead it's just something to consider and you know what you personally feel comfortable with for me I kind of liked the idea of slowly leveling up with the wildlife I was gonna experience and you know it did end up working out best for me that way let's talk about water so on the Appalachian Trail you pretty much don't ever have to be worried about water and that's because it rains a whole lot out there I would say on the 80 that at least every four miles you're probably gonna run across a water source I think if I remember correctly the longest stretch that I had to worry about water on the 80 was approximately 10 miles or so whereas on the PCT in CDT going ten miles is very normal from water source to water source on the Pacific Crest Trail you are going through 700 miles of desert to start with and then once you hit the Sierra Nevada you don't have to worry about water Northern California gets a little hairy again but then in most of Oregon and pretty much all of Washington you're probably good on water on the Continental Divide Trail you might have water and I don't recall there being any stretches that were longer than what I experienced on the PCT as far as not having water but I will say that the quality of water on the CDT is the worst that I've ever experienced not the whole CDT there are certainly some places on the CDT that have prettier more pristine water than on all of the Appalachian Trail probably but the cow ponds and you know the the sources where not just the cows are drinking out of it but they're actually like peeing and pooping in the water you know it's pretty gross so you do get a lot of that on the CDT although the cistern had the dead cat or dead rabbit or whatever that creature was on the PCT might be a little bit more gross than Kal pond water on the the CDT I don't know but again I think if I recall correctly that on the CDT I didn't have to go as long as on the PCT so you know if you're not real comfortable with the idea of dry camping which is where you're setting up camp without being right near a water source then the 18 might be for you you know it just really kind of depends again on your personal preference and what you feel comfortable with so I mentioned that on the 80 there is more water due to rain so that is definitely something to consider on these 2d trails right whether on the Appalachian Trail there is a lot of rain but you're also in a green tunnel Moses away until you hit like New Hampshire that's really the first area that I recall being like wow this is really exposed but for the PCT and the CDT it is completely normal to be exposed and I really noticed that when we first hit the desert on the PCT start now I was like where do you hide in this like this is like I feel naked out here just anybody could see me from very far away and you know having to go to the bathroom and hide behind bushes and and stuff like that you know just hide behind cactus even but you know so that that is a big thing to kind of get used to either way you know if you're used to being in exposed areas and then you go to the green tunnel you might feel claustrophobic the width exposure comes weather also so yes eighty you're gonna get a lot more rain but you're kind of shielded more from the wind on the PCT and the CDT when you're starting out in the desert you've got to deal with that Sun just beating down on you and the wind you know you don't really have anywhere to hide from that so that's definitely something that I found to be a bit maddening when it lasted more than a day or so and then the temperatures aren't you know as regulated or as consistent you might have a really hot day during the day in the desert and then at night it might be freezing cold and you know your water filter freezes in the middle of the night because you didn't expect it to get that cold so you kind of always have to be a bit more prepared for kind of anything on the PCT and CDT on the CDT in Colorado the thunderstorms are pretty horrendous it seems like no matter what I did whenever I hit a peak in Colorado Lightning was gonna happen or the black clouds were gonna roll in and at least threaten it you know having me worried about it the whole time and you know I did have one of the scariest experiences I've ever had with my hair standing straight up and it was an electrifying moment I did experience pretty close lightning strike also on the Appalachian Trail so you know whether it's something that you're gonna have to deal with in general but it just seems that you know I dealt with rain a lot more on the 80 pretty hot Sun and and wind on the PCT and also those things on the CDT but throw in those lightning storms a little bit heavier on the CDT so again you always kind of have to be prepared for that what if with temperature and weather although the Appalachian Trail does get a lot of rain one of the things that I really enjoyed about it is that in the summertime it gets warm and it pretty much stays warm now yes it stays like really hot sweaty too but you can lighten your base weight so much in the summertime on the 80 I ended up sleeping in just a fleece liner like a fleece liner that people might use to line their sleeping bag on the 80 pretty much for most of the heat of the summer because it was just warm enough that I didn't need more than that whereas on the PCT and CDT I had a 10-degree bag and I was most of the time happy with that there might have been a few nights where I wish I had had a little bit warmer of a bag and I am a very cold sleeper so again you know it's really nice on the 80 being able to lighten your load during the summertime where on the PCT and CDT I would never have risk that another thing I noticed as far as weather goes with the CDT is we got snowed on more on the CDT as far as per each month so for each month we were out there we got snowed on at some point more than not so I think we got snowed on like four of the six months we were out there it wasn't like crazy falling down and heavily collecting until really towards the end but at some point each month almost we got snowed on something else to consider is natural disasters and specifically what I mean by this is wildfires so it does happen on the Appalachian Trail in fact I think in was it 2016 or 2017 I know there were those fires especially near Gatlinburg and in the Smokies area but on the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail it is much more common to be affected by wildfires and I don't mean that oh there's a big likelihood that you're gonna you know burn to death in your 10:00 at night or anything like that but you do have to deal with some of those logistics so if there is a wildfire you have to decide am I going to create alternate paths around it and on the CDT that's exactly what I did now on the Pacific Crest Trail there were so many fires that I ended up just going around so you know I made sure I touched the southern end of the boundary of the fire closure and the northern end of the boundary and that was sometimes not real convenient to do and I had to rely on Tralee angels to kind of shuttle around and things like that sometimes had to pay for shuttles but I was determined to hike every single open mile of the PCT and for their considerations you know that was a thru-hike so next summer I'll be going out to fill in those closures but it's just something to consider you know if if you want to deal with that logistically or are you just gonna get frustrated and say forget it and you know start skipping a lot of miles and you know just something to think about on the Appalachian Trail you don't generally have to do that and it's more common to be able to hike from point A to point B and you know finish the trail in its entirety and then yes of course there is potentially a safety issue with the fires and breathing smoke and you know do you want some of your experience especially if you're going out there for epic views you know you can have some times where you aren't really able to see anything for the smoke so again not something that's necessarily deal-breaker just something to consider one little aspect that I enjoyed about the 80 that I didn't get on the other two trails was little victories really depends on how your mindset is but I like having those little victories along the way so being able to pass through 14 different states on the Appalachian Trail you know and pretty quickly so the longest state that you go through is Virginia and I believe it's you know 500 and something miles so after you get through Georgia North Carolina Tennessee and then you have Virginia it kind of feels like oh my gosh the state is never gonna end and you know people tend to get the Virginia blues as they call it and that's where you start to see a lot of folks drop out that you were like me and I really thought this person was gonna make it to the end on the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail you never have that like quick you know turn over those quick goals like you do on the 80 so again that might not be a big deal for some people but when I did the PCT I kind of missed that you know had I started with the PCT though I may have never have even thought you know but that that was weird you know it would have just been normal to not have that and then might have even been more exciting on 80 you know who knows so what about views and just epicness of a trail you're not gonna get that epicness on the Appalachian Trail it's just not there like I mentioned before you're in a green tunnel for most of the way now that doesn't mean that you don't get any views you still will hit summits and see beautiful views and especially if you've not back packed a lot or spent much time in nature it's gonna be amazing and although the HP doesn't have those epic vast views there are little things about it that just make it magical but if you are going out on a thru-hike for the epic views you really should stick with the PCT or CDT if that is your main goal as far as those two have had folks ask me you know which one do you think is is prettier or better I would say that the PCT is overall probably the prettiest trail and that's with me not even really getting to see Oregon and some of Washington because of the smoke from the wildfires but I think overall at any given point if you were to look around on the PCT it was beautiful now the CDT you go through a lot of cattle country and the desert is just way more brutal you know it's not as as beautiful to me as the PCT desert was but some of the areas that you hit on the CDT just like in a concentrated spot are really really beautiful so the Wind River Range for example might be the prettiest area that I've ever backpacked in now I didn't really get to see glacier for you know everything being whited out with the snow I've heard that that is some people's absolute favorite so I can only tell you what I've experienced personally and I think that on the CDT there were way more beautiful you know concentrated areas but the PCT was just like a constant living postcard another concern I've heard from folks is what if I'm afraid of heights can I do a thru-hike well with anything else I think it's important to just kind of take it slow I mean people think that when they say they're gonna do through hack that you know somebody's gonna hold them at gunpoint and make them go through with it you know you can always go home if you decide this isn't for me and I'm miserable and you know I encourage folks to like take a little bit time off and think about it whatever but you know if fear of heights is something that stops you well then you know you you can get out there and try maybe you'll overcome a little bit more of that fear and become more confident than you were before but if I had to pick a trail for a person who is afraid of heights they'd probably say the Appalachian Trail there are going to be times in especially the White Mountains and on Katahdin for sure on Katahdin but maybe at that point you will have built up that confidence you need to climb that last mountain and you know reach your final goal on the PCT and CDT you are more exposed especially sometimes in the snow when you're going over mountain passes or maybe you're just even kind of in a tight spot on the side of a mountain you're in a snow chute I'm not generally afraid of hats but there were some Tucker moments if you know what I mean on the PCT and even the CDT in the Sierra Nevada and in the San Juan so yeah if I was gonna suggest somebody to hike a trail that was afraid of heights I would say that the 80 is probably your best bet let's talk about hitchhiking and resupply points so I would say as far as frequency goes so how many miles you have in between resupply points so you know I'll resupply at Mile 100 you know if there's a road going to town and then again at Mile 175 so for this carry I'll have to go 75 miles without having an opportunity to go to town that would be ranked 80 PCT CDT as far as how long those carries are the PCT and CDT though are pretty well tied as far as this goes and in frequencies of places you can stop to resupply there they're pretty close to the Appalachian Trail for a lot of it you could resupply every three to five days for the PCT and CDT I'm gonna say the average is closer to like three to eight days now as far as how far the towns are from the actual trailhead that you will try to hitchhike from and as far as traffic flow goes again they're gonna be ranked ATP CT and CDT it is very common on the CDT for the talents to be ten plus miles from the trail often times even you know 20 30 plus miles from the trailhead on the PCT you don't have that as much you know for the whole duration of the trail but in specific areas you kind of experience some of that but for all three of these trails people have capitalized on the opportunity to sell food to hikers so just because the CDT is a little bit more remote than the PCT which is more remote than the 80 you still have opportunities there so that doesn't mean that you need to send your resupply boxes for the entire CDT unless you have some specific dietary need or something like that all of these trails for the most part you can go and through hike and if you wanted to just resupply strictly on the gas stations general stores and grocery stores along the way you can for the most part do so on all three trails so I don't wanna make it like oh man you're gonna have to be killing squirrels out there on the CDT because they just ain't no towns you know it's not like that something similar to the resupply thing is lodging now on the Appalachian Trail all along the trail really Georgia the Maine in a lot of the towns you have hostels so you have kind of that cheaper lodging option now up in New England up in the Northeast things can get a little more expensive so the cost of living is a little bit higher there also then you know in the south but for the most part there are options for cheaper lodging on the PCT and the CDT I found things to be a little bit more expensive as far as lodging in town went and there were less options for things like hostels on those trails compared to the Appalachian Trail but again that's that whole you know trail community the culture up around the trail and the awareness of the trail and with more traffic on all of these trails there will be more businesses and hostels and things like that popping up and it was interesting to kind of see that you know with the the flow of hikers coming through on the 80 like all these hostels were like yeah we know what to do we know how to handle this on the PCT there were some of those that were established for example the hostel california in the sierra nevada region you know it's a very well known hostel but on the CDT some of those things are just kind of starting to develop and it was pretty interesting to see that and imagine like oh this is what the Appalachian Trail probably was kind of like you know back however many years ago when people first started through hiking it so it's kind of cool to think about I recently put out a question on Facebook to my friends which a lot of them are fellow through hackers asking what made you decide which trail you were gonna hike first like what was that deciding factor and a lot of them said location because they wanted people to be able to visit them while they were on trail like maybe they wanted friends and family to come by or maybe like perk when he was hiking 80 he lives in New York so he knew that if he started in Georgia he'd be hiking close to home and by the time he got there you know he was hoping that he would have the confidence to be able to hike away from home and so some of that's kind of cool and just having that comfort knowing that if something were to happen you know you're not all the way across the country so that might help some of y'all that have been considering doing a thru-hike you know but just kind of have it the guts to you know go for it so if you're like kind of set on the PCT but you live closer than 80 and you just haven't gotten that extra boost of confidence to do it then maybe consider the 80 because you know just having that security blanket of being near the people that you love and who can support you if you need that but also something to consider because for example my friend divs that I knew on the PCT his dad had hiked the Appalachian Trail and he grew up in Kentucky and so he figured well the 80 is gonna look like my backyard like it's gonna look like the train that I'm used to and what I grew up in so I want to see something completely different that I've never seen before so he picked the PCT so again location maybe that you want to be near what you're used to as kind of that comfort zone or you may want to step outside of that and just go see something completely different I would say that the final thing to consider would be your level of experience the Appalachian Trail is a very forgiving trail in the way that there are people around to help you if you get in a bond the weather is not necessarily as Extreme as out on the PCT in CDT and overall I think that most people who are just getting into backpacking that do a thru-hike they probably start with the Appalachian Trail I would say that the Pacific Crest Trail will be a close second though because there are a good number of people out there the conditions and the exposure might be a little less forgiving if you haven't researched your gear properly but you know it's it's really not a bad trail to start with and if you look at the blog called halfway to anywhere it's run by a guy named Mac and he does a survey annually for the PCT hikers and CDT hikers and in 2017 he found out that 73 percent of the people who claim to have completed their through hike that you know actually filled out the survey 73 percent of them that was their first through hike on a long-distance trail now he did the same survey for the CD tears in 2017 and found out that 8 percent of them were on their first through hike also so I'm not saying that any of these three trails are bad trails to start with it's just that the 80 is gonna allow for more mistakes I feel than the PCT and especially the CDT now Aaron the CDT was his first not only thru-hike but also his first backpacking trip but he did do his research upfront he you know made sure that all of his gear seemed sound for what he was getting into I'm sure potentially editing the videos on the PCT and you know all the prep videos after the 80 and PCT probably helped familiarize him with some of that so you know he didn't just go out there blindly and I'm not recommending that anybody do that regardless of what trail you're going to through hike you want to make sure that you definitely do your research and listen to those who came before you you know if you can learn from their mistakes and you know yes you got to take everything with a grain of salt but when it comes to gear recommendations and what's worked for people in the past if you do some research you'll kind of see a consistent trend and you can kind of figure out what might work best for you now before I sign off I I do want to say there are other trails out there in the US and even in other countries than just the AC the PCT and the CDT so of course you know research and and see if some of those trails would work for you also maybe you don't want to do a five to six month trail and you want to do something shorter like the Florida Trail the John Muir Trail the Vermont long trail you know there are there are all of these wonderful trails to through hike in the US and you're not limited to just the Triple Crown trails so I don't want to give that impression it's just that those are the three that I can speak to because those are the three that I have personally done people ask me a lot which of the three was your favorite and I am absolutely probably biased towards the Appalachian Trail because that was my first Trail and I've asked two other people who started with the PCT and they said that the PCT was their favorite Trail and I think that there's something to do with that like first love that first knew through hiking experience that changes your lives so I'm sure whatever trail you choose to do it's gonna be wonderful and it's going to be a completely life changing experience for you and only you can really answer which trail is right for you you know what are you going therefore is it the people is it to find folks that think like you is it for the views the solitude for a certain animal you want to see you know those are all things that you have to decide and kind of rank for yourself but I hope that me going through some of these considerations today may be helped if you are struggling between two different trails if you are watching this and you have through hike to trail before whether it's one that I mentioned today or not I would love for you to leave in the comments what your considerations were and kind of what helped you decide finally which trail to through high like I've said before I'm just one person with you know my individual experiences and this is a community of a whole lot of folks and I know that we can all learn from each other so I'd love to hear if you've through hacked before what trail and kind of what considerations led you to choose that trail and then we might all learn about new trails we didn't know anything about and maybe there is a consideration of a trail that I mentioned today that I hadn't even thought about you know and this just kind of might help anybody who's struggling to decide which trail to pick and with that thank you all so much for watching and we will see y'all next time

Channel: Homemade Wanderlust

Views: 183,087

Rating: 4.9374423 out of 5

Keywords: travel, hiking, backpacking, hike, gear, adventure, fun, story, Appalachian, Trail, PCT, CDT, thru-hike, Auburn, Alabama, epic, climbing, canyon, national, nature, mountains, update, park, lake, trail, tents, camping, summer, University, Aubie, River, stream, Mountains, National, Scenic

Id: F9n1F1JupY8

Length: 41min 32sec (2492 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 21 2018