Accolades to him BUT…The AT is not grueling. You cross a freaking highway daily. The elevation is minimal. Look at what it takes to do the Continental Divide or PCT
The at is ten times harder than either the pct or cdt. True it’s really not wilderness and the elevation is much lower but the actual hiking itself is way harder. It’s a much more rugged and steep trail. I’ve done the pct twice and would gladly do the cdt again, I can’t imagine I’d ever step foot on the at again.
The trail crews on the AT have largely never learned of the concept of a switchback.
I saw once, unverified but it sounds plausible, that many of the trails followed by the PCT and the CDT were made for horse and mule trains and so are less steep than the AT. They do still allow animals on some potions of the trails there which is what led me to the plausible guess.
I'd say it's generally well maintained for foot traffic only, which is what it was created for. But the straight up the mountain trail cutting does suck at times.
Some years are better than others on trail maintenance. Maybe someone should start a social media "volunteer as a trail maintenance worker" trend.
I didn’t think so. But I didn’t like most aspects of the at so maybe I was overly critical. And like I said in comparison. The pct is immaculate in comparison.
After COVID there was a decline. The storm damage did not help either. I haven’t been out since early 2025 as I was moving across states. I’ll hit a section this weekend and see what it looks like.
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u/midnightllamas 19h ago
Accolades to him BUT…The AT is not grueling. You cross a freaking highway daily. The elevation is minimal. Look at what it takes to do the Continental Divide or PCT