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"Hiking Friendly Foods." The Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The
Appalachian Trail Conservency, n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2016.

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If you're out for the day or the weekend, you can probably pack whatever foods you like best, even fresh vegetables and fruits! But since these spoil quickly and are heavy due to their high water content, they're not good for extended backpacking trips.

How much should you carry?

Backpacking burns a lot of energy. However, novice backpackers on the A.T. often make the mistake of carrying too much food. An overly heavy pack with excess food can take the fun out of backpacking. When deciding how much food to carry for your trip, keep these tips in mind.

​Avoid canned foods or foods high in water weight.

1.5 to 2 pounds per day is adequate in most circumstances if your food is high in calories.

In cold weather, when you need more calories to stay warm. Carry 2.5 pounds per day.

In winter or early spring, carry enough food for an extra day or two in case you are stranded by a snowstorm.

Many lightweight backpacking staples can be purchased at a grocery store. You need not rely on expensive, prepared "backpacking food" sold at camping stores, although these products can offer convenience and variety.

Dehydrating your own food can provide you with nutritious and lightweight meals and snacks, but is labor and time-intensive.

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The Appalachian Trail Conservancy - Hiking Basics Food Water and Gear

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If you're out for the day or the weekend, you can probably pack whatever foods you like best, even fresh vegetables and fruits! But since these spoil quickly and are heavy due to their high water content, they're not good for extended backpacking trips. Backpacking burns a lot of energy.

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Appalachian Trail Song. Dir. Will Overman. Perf. Will Overman Band. YouTube. YouTube, 1 Dec. 2013. Web. 5 Oct. 2016.

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"The Trail Song" by Will Overman. Photos taken from Will Overman's 2012 Through-Hike on the Appalachian Trail. Buy on iTunes today: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/son/id725616876

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Potter, Everett. "Five Myths about Hiking the Appalachian Trail." USA Today. USA Today, 5 Oct. 2016. Web. 5 Oct. 2016.

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Why hike the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) from Georgia to Maine? For some people it's a rite of passage, a transition from youth to adulthood, or maybe a way to heal a broken heart. Others do it for the physical challenge, or to simply be in nature and stay off the grid for months at a time. But before you lace up your boots and put your "Out of Office" reply on your email, here are five myths about the A.T.
1. You need to take five or six months off to walk the Appalachian Trail.
Only if you want to. So called "thru-hikers" typically start in Georgia and end their walk many months and many blisters later on Mount Katahdin in Maine. But other hikers choose to do one section of the A.T. at a time, hence the term "section hiker."

"I completed the A.T. over the course of 43 years, in 24 separate section hikes," says Jeffrey Marion, a research biologist and an adjunct professor in the Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation Department at Virginia Tech. One distinct advantage of doing the A.T. this way is that "you can choose your weather. Most of my hikes were in the cool and less humid fall months, after tick and black fly season."

Jeffrey Ryan, author of Appalachian Odyssey: A 28-Year Hike on America's Trail, is also a dedicated section hiker. Ryan says that "the attrition rate among hikers attempting the entire 2,100-plus mile trail is high. Only about 25% of thru-hikers and 20% of section hikers end up completing the trail according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy."
2. Walking the A.T. is only for uber-fit athletes.
It pays to be in shape. Many hikers go through a fairly rigorous training regimen before they start and still find themselves tired out after days on the trail. Simply put, the A.T. is a mountain trail with lots of ups and downs.

"What I have found is that sheer athleticism isn't a prerequisite, but perseverance is," Ryan says. "You have to be willing to keep going through a variety of physical, mental and weather conditions. It certainly helps to be aerobically fit in the first place. And, ideally, you should like being outdoors in general and hiking in particular. Without those prerequisites, the learning curve is pretty steep."

For section hikers, fitness can be an even greater issue, since "you have to get your body in shape for long days on the trail, year after year," Marion says. "One thru-hiker told me that he was impressed because I had hiked the A.T. on 'city-legs.'"

At the end of the day, "the A.T. will get you sufficiently fit to hike it as long as you stick with it," says Marion. Still, that fitness level won't occur overnight but "generally takes three to four weeks."
3. The A.T. is so well-marked that you don't really need a compass and map.
"The A.T. is actually quite forgiving on those who are 'navigationally challenged' because there are thousands of white paint blazes to follow," says Marion. But "every year there is a thru-hiker with the trail name 'Wrong-way' because he or she headed out on more than one morning in the wrong direction."

The A.T. is indeed well-marked with those ubiquitous 6" x 2" paint blazes on trees and rocks for the length of the route. There's also the fact that the path is well-worn, since more than three million people hike at least a piece of the A.T. each year.

But Ryan says "I can't emphasize enough the need to carry a compass, map and descriptive guide of the trail for a number of reasons. Phone service is unreliable on the trail, so you can't count on GPS. If you do get off trail, you can recalibrate by referring to your map, guide and compass. If you encounter someone that needs help with a sprained ankle, for example, you have the tools to help get them out. The maps show side trails and roads."

Maps and guidebooks are published by the trail clubs that protect and maintain the trail and can be purchased on the website of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
4. Bears and rattlesnakes are big threats along the hike.
"Hiking the A.T. is very safe; most of my hikes were done solo and I typically camped by myself with a hammock away from shelters and campsites," says Marion. "I only saw two bears and one rattlesnake across my 24 A.T. section hikes. The bears ran away from me and I simply walked around the snake."

Ryan agrees that while there are bears and rattlesnakes on the trail, "they are rarely threats if you are paying attention. A rattlesnake would rather let you know they are there and is unlikely to strike unless you are a perceived threat. And the best defense against ravaging bears is to be careful with food preparation and storage. "

A bigger threat, he adds, may be "being several days away from a cheeseburger or having The Lion Sleeps Tonight stuck in your head for miles on end. But, seriously, I think the biggest threats along the trail have more to do with your physical health and the availability of water."

His tips after 28 years of walking the A.T. include paying attention to your physical and mental states, watching the weather, keeping an eye on your water supply and knowing where the next available source of water might be.

"Staying aware is one of the key factors in staying healthy and safe in the backcountry," Ryan says. "Most stories about people getting into trouble begin with an error in judgement."
5. Since Bill Bryson wrote his popular book A Walk in the Woods, and Robert Redford followed up with a movie, the A.T. has gotten way too crowded.
Like any popular destination, the A.T. can be crowded at times, and Ryan says that the added publicity has encouraged more people to attempt a long-distance hike.

"Most thru-hikers start in Springer Mountain, Ga., in March or April of any given year," Ryan observes. "That initial group fills up the trail and campsites for a month or so in the southern regions. After that, the numbers go down as that 75% attrition rate kicks in."

Then there's the trend of "flip-flopping" that's been growing every year.

"You can really get quite creative in how you piece it all together. Of course, I highly recommend the 28-year approach."

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Five myths about hiking the Appalachian Trail

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Why hike the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) from Georgia to Maine? For some people it's a rite of passage, a transition from youth to adulthood, or maybe a way to heal a broken heart. Others do it for the physical challenge, or to simply be in nature and stay off the grid for months at a time.

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Mike Kilen, The Des Moines Register. "The Real Life of Bill Bryson's 'Stephen Katz'" USA Today. Gannett, 01 Sept. 2015. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.
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DES MOINES - He limped to his worn sofa to sit down. He has a prosthetic leg. His right leg was amputated a few years ago after a blood clot left his foot cold, he said. He has long, thin hair and a gray goatee. His wife Mary listened nearby. She had warned him against saying too much. The last time reporters were here from London 10 years ago, he said too much.

"I kind of was, to be honest," Matt Angerer said when I returned the next week, "I was going to keep my head low."

Angerer hasn't exactly been in hiding but only rarely speaks publicly about his place in the books of one of England's most famed authors.

Angerer is better known by the pseudonym Stephen Katz, Bill Bryson's hiking buddy in the 1998 best-selling book A Walk in the Woods. It's now a motion picture, being released Wednesday and starring Robert Redford as Des Moines-native Bryson and Nick Nolte as Katz/Angerer.

While Redford as Bryson may be a visual stretch, Nolte as Angerer works. He's depicted as a bit of a good-hearted, disheveled buffoon with a thirst for booze, the kind of character Nolte has been playing for 30 years in movies. "He kind of looks like me," said Angerer, when I knocked on the door of his little Carlisle bungalow recently. "Come back next week and I'll talk to you about it."

Ten years ago, the reporters wrote that he lived in a "shabby bungalow whose only luxury is a radio" with a "long-suffering girlfriend."

He didn't think they were too far off. There sits the radio at his side, tuned to NPR.

But today Mary is his wife who saved him from a 40-year alcohol problem.

Angerer quickly launched into abbreviated, disjointed stories of his life, sometimes starring Bryson.

Robert Redford and Nick Nolte playing two Iowa boys, Bill Bryson and Matt Angerer, in the movie "A Walk in the Woods." (Photo: Frank Masi/Broad Green Pictures)

He attended Callanan and Roosevelt schools in Des Moines with Bryson, who wrote about him again in a memoir of his Des Moines days, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: "All drinking was led by Katz, for whom alcohol was not so much a pastime as a kind of oxygen."

Bryson wrote how Katz took the rap for making fake driver's licenses and executed a heist of beer from a railroad boxcar in Des Moines, which landed him in a juvenile detention facility. All true, says Angerer.

"We tore it up in high school," he said. "Well, I did. Bill was a student."

"We tore it up in high school. Well, I did. Bill was a student."
Matt Angerer, aka Stephen Katz
After high school, the pair took off for a European backpacking trip in 1972, and that's the untold story he really wanted to share. They blew through half their money in two weeks in Amsterdam before hitting the road, traveling through several countries and ending up on a train to Turkey.

"We were half looped by the time we got to Istanbul," he said, describing a porter who counted their beers drank at 24, "and it got worse after that."

"One thing led to another. We're both really drunk. And I ended up pushing Bill through a window."

Authorities showed up. Angerer was placed in the backseat of a cop car. He thought it was a taxi. The judge let him off, he said, although it was around the same time Billy Hayes (of the book and film Midnight Express) was treated horribly in Turkish prison.

CLOSE

Later in their travels, Bryson met a woman. Cynthia would eventually become his wife, and Bryson would begin his longtime residence in England. Angerer said he was the "odd man out" and returned to the U.S., and more years of drinking, this time without his buddy.

He had jobs on the railroad or in tree service, and just when things started working out, "I'd get drunk and never come back."

In 1976, he was committed to a treatment facility, one of several attempts at sobriety. It stuck for a few years in the late '80s, but he went back to the booze and got a third-offense drunk driving charge that landed him in jail.

Once out, he got a two-year degree as a legal assistant but couldn't find a job. That's when Bryson gave him a call. He'd seen him when he traveled to Spain in the 1980s and stopped by, during Bryson's "pre-success when he was working at a newspaper," and had been amused by his pun-filled postcards that occasionally appeared in his mailbox.

But now Bryson had become a big deal in England after writing Notes From a Small Island. He asked Angerer to go along on a 2,200-mile trek on the Appalachian Trail.

Angerer had no idea he would become a character that lives on in humor travelogue lore.

"I thought I wasn't in half-bad shape," Angerer said. "I was never that at all."

They stumbled and bumbled half the distance through the trail, Angerer eating Little Debbie snack cakes and Bryson puffing a pipe, the smoke from which Angerer could smell as he lagged in the distance. Just when Angerer said he was getting the hang of the hiking thing, Bryson wanted to quit, only later to reconnect on the last stretch of trail.

"The book is true for the most part," he said, although there was a lot more cussing, a couple of teeth he got knocked out in a fall and the fact he wasn't as much of a womanizer as depicted.

Matt Angerer, also know in Bill Bryson's books as "Stephen Katz," outside his home in Carlisle. (Photo: Mike Kilen/The Register)

After the book became a huge hit, Bryson took him on a trip to Cuba, Angerer said. In the years after, Bryson would stop by Angerer's Carlisle house and have a chat, the last time in 2014. (Bryson wasn't available to comment).

He knew Bryson had been pitching his story to Redford, which he found amazing. "Just another day in Bill's life," he said. "I don't know how he does it; he's always on top of his s---."

But in the midst of all this, something better happened to the man known as Katz. He met a woman while working at a Des Moines hospital, sterilizing medical equipment. He got sober 10 years ago, and Mary became his wife in 2006.

"Recalibrated reprobate is how I describe myself," Angerer said.

"She's a special lady. I don't think I'd ever be sober without her. She's hardly been outside of Iowa. I'd like to take her on a train ride someday."

They might not go to Turkey, but they might hit the new movie. He hadn't really heard much about it, except from a few cronies who said it got panned at the Sundance Film Festival. He read some critics who were lukewarm on the film, a thumbs up for the Redford-Nolte chemistry but not so much for the tame gags in the film.

It's billed as film about two old friends who reconnect after their lives take them in different directions. But nobody, including Nolte, ever called him to ask more about the Katz character.

He isn't upset and seems to take most things in stride these days. Some of his wife's four children from a prior relationship have kids and, at age 62, Angerer spends days with grandchildren or listening to NPR.

He looked up the movie trailer and saw a less-than-fit Nolte falling down on the trail, and remembers it about that way. Life's too short to worry about your image.

"I count my lucky stars to be sitting here," he said. "I should have been six feet under."

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The real life of Bill Bryson's 'Stephen Katz'

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DES MOINES - He limped to his worn sofa to sit down. He has a prosthetic leg. His right leg was amputated a few years ago after a blood clot left his foot cold, he said. He has long, thin hair and a gray goatee. His wife Mary listened nearby.

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Theregoesmybus. "2600 MILES IN 4 MINUTES: Time-lapse of Andy's Pacific Crest Trail Hike (music by Martin Sexton)." YouTube. YouTube, 11 Mar. 2015. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.
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2600 MILES IN 4 MINUTES: Time-lapse of Andy's Pacific Crest Trail hike (music by Martin Sexton)

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The end of the trail is the beginning of the story. Visit http://www.davidhazy.com/projects/2013_pct/ to learn more about Andy's hike and the making of this video. Learn more about Andy Davidhazy at his website: http://www.davidhazy.com - Click "SHOW MORE"... The wonderful music in this video is the title track from MARTIN SEXTON's album, IN THE JOURNEY.

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Appalachian Trail Route Change Planned for 2019 - Johnson City Press (subscription)." WhiteBlaze RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2016. <http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php/121130-Appalachian-Trail-route-change-planned-for-2019-Johnson-City-Press-(subscription)>.
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The changes will be made to the last mile of the Pond Flats to Shook Branch section of the trail, where it reaches the Shook Branch Swim Area on Watauga Lake. The changes also include the protection of 20 acres of land near the Cherokee National Forest. The section of trail currently ends with a series of five short switchbacks to Shook Branch Road.

The 20 acres were purchased by The Conservation Fund in May 2014. It was recently conveyed to the U.S. Forest Service with funding from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and private contributions from Fred and Alice Stanback. The newly protected land is located south of U.S. Highway 321 and will provide hikers with a safer highway crossing and a more scenic descent from the Pond Mountain Wilderness to the lake.

People who are unfamiliar with the trail may be surprised to learn it is being rerouted, but sections of the trail have been rerouted many times in the past, especially sections of the steep Pond Flats area and Watauga Lake, which has an elevation change of 2,000 feet in just a few miles. Extensive changes have recently been made to the 2,000-foot elevation gain from Hughes Gap to Roan Mountain in the southern end of the county.

"The Appalachian Trail Conservancy and AT volunteers have been working with the Cherokee National Forest for decades to plan the final route for the trail," said Morgan Sommerville, southern regional director for the Appalachian Trail Conference. "Developed areas, such as around Watauga Lake, have been the most challenging projects. After selecting an optimal route for the AT, The Conservation Fund helped us finish this important project by providing interim acquisition funding and final negotiations with the land owners. We are thrilled this acquisition is complete and look forward to opening the new, improved AT location in 2019."

This conservation effort was selected as part of a national, agency-wide competitive and merit-based process within the U.S. Forest Service, which prioritized the project for fiscal year 2016 LWCF funding. That fund is a bipartisan, federal program that uses a percentage of proceeds from offshore oil and gas royalties - not taxpayer dollars - to acquire critical lands and protect resources.

U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker and U.S. Rep. Phil Roe supported Tennessee's request for LWCF funding and helped secure the congressional appropriations for the program

"Preservation of Shook Branch will improve hiking opportunities and also help address safety concerns along this section of the Appalachian Trail," Alexander said. "Protecting the wildest, most pristine and beautiful areas in our state will give future generations of Tennesseans the same opportunity. I thank the U.S. Forest Service, The Conservation Fund and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy for their hard work and dedication to conserve and protect our land."

"Millions of people visit Tennessee each year to experience our incredible God-given outdoor amenities, and this newly protected land in the Cherokee National Forest will improve safety for visitors and help preserve this historic trail," Corker said. "It is important that this land is available for future generations, and appreciate the hard work of all who are making that a priority."

"I am glad the U.S. Forest Service, The Conservation Fund and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy are partnering to protect this land for future generations, and I am proud to have supported their funding request," Roe said. "As an avid outdoorsman, some of the best memories I have with family, especially my granddaughters, are on the trail. The AT is a huge driver of economic development in East Tennessee, so this investment will not only preserve a place where Tennesseans can safely enjoy the outdoors, it will also assist in keeping much-needed tourism dollars in our region."

The ATC will coordinate with the Forest Service, the Tennessee Department of Transportation and Tennessee Eastman Hiking and Canoeing Club to plan the type and location of the trail's new highway crossing. The Forest Service will also seek public input on the proposed trail construction, which is scheduled to begin in 2019 and will be undertaken by Eastman Hiking Club volunteers and the ATC's Konnarock Volunteer Trail Crew.

The property is also located within the Laurel Fork Bear Reserve and will be co-managed by the Forest Service and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency as part of the Cherokee Wildlife Management Area.

"The Shook Branch land purchase is an outstanding example of how we implement our agency's mission: caring for the land and serving the people," JaSal Morris, Cherokee National Forest supervisor, said. "It highlights the important work we accomplished this year with our key partner organizations."

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Appalachian Trail route change planned for 2019

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The changes will be made to the last mile of the Pond Flats to Shook Branch section of the trail, where it reaches the Shook Branch Swim Area on Watauga Lake. The changes also include the protection of 20 acres of land near the Cherokee National Forest.

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ArcGIS Web Application." ArcGIS Web Application. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2016 <http://nps.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=6298c848ba2a490588b7f6d25453e4e0>.
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"Appalachian Trail Weather." Appalachian Trail Weather. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2016. <https://www.atweather.org/>.

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Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trail Weather

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The purpose of this website is simple: to provide AT and PCT hikers with a reliable and easy way to obtain weather for their location. Simply pick your trail, state and location from the lists below and the National Weather Service (NOAA) forecast for that location will appear.

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N.d. Https://www.google.com/maps/place/Appalachian+Trail+Cafe/@42.1995609,-77.8685012,6z/data=!4m8!1m2!2m1!1srestaurants+along+appalachian+trail+map!3m4!1s0x4cbab3642ea05e3b:0x1ec894b46b11a86e!8m2!3d45.6566853!4d-68.7093928. Web.
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Tegna. "Appalachian Trail Hiker Describes Agonizing Bear Attack." WBIR. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2016. <http://www.wbir.com/news/local/appalachian-trail-hiker-describes-agonizing-bear-attack1/216960737>.
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A thru-hiker on the Appalachian Trail said it was agonizing when a bear bit him in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Bradley Veeder, 49, was sleeping in his tent near Spence Field Backcountry Shelter on May 10 when a bear attacked and bit him in the leg through his tent.

Veeder survived with minor puncture wounds to his right calf, a very hoarse voice, and slightly swollen knuckles on his right hand, according to the first-hand account he posted this week on his blog. He decided to write down his account to inform others about the attack.

PREVIOUS: Bear bites Appalachian Trail thru-hiker

He wrote that on the night he was attacked, three Appalachian Trail maintainers told him the shelter was overcrowded and he should pitch his tent. The group suggested a spot in the field about 200 feet away from the shelter.

Veeder said he got his tent ready and hung his bear bag from the shelter's bear cables.

Later that evening, Veeder said he returned to his tent and went to sleep.

About two and a half hours later, the bear attacked him.

"Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my right calf and an agonizing sensation like my calf was being squeezed in a vise. Sure that it was a bear, I sat up and screamed, 'No, bear! Go away!' The bear let go of my leg, and I noticed that it was dark outside," Veeder explained.

The bear would return to the tent several more times forcing him to try and scare it away.

"Then there was stillness for about a minute. Hoping that the bear had gone away, I slowly started reaching toward the vestibule zipper. Just as my hand was about to close on the zipper, the bear attacked the vestibule again, narrowly missing my hand. Another loud shout from me, and the bear stopped the attack," Veeder wrote.

During a brief pause, he said he left his campsite and limped toward the shelter. Once inside, another hiker helped him with first aid and they contacted park rangers.

In the morning, a few hikers at the shelter went to help get Veeder's belongings. They found that the bear had returned and moved his things 100 yards from the camping site, he explained.

"It had chewed everything that I had left behind (tent, tent poles, backpack, water filter, water bottles, phone, book, etc.). With extremely lucky timing, I had made it to the shelter after the initial attack and before the bear returned," Veeder wrote.

Park officials responded to the scene in the morning and transported him to the hospital.

The park closed the shelter after the attack to monitor bear activity in the area.

Three days later, National Park Service employees euthanized a 400 pound black bear spotted near the attack site. After putting the bear down they tested its DNA and discovered it didn't match bear saliva found on Veeder's belongings.

"I was sick to hear that the wrong bear was euthanized, but I trust that the Park Service is doing the best they can," Veeder answer to a person that commented on his blog.

Park officials are urging everyone to be cautious while hiking, camping, and picnicking to protect bears and themselves. A park release noted black bears in the park are wild and unpredictable. And although attacks on humans are rare, it does sometimes happen.

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Appalachian Trail hiker describes agonizing bear attack

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A thru-hiker on the Appalachian Trail said it was agonizing when a bear bit him in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Bradley Veeder, 49, was sleeping in his tent near Spence Field Backcountry Shelter on May 10 when a bear attacked and bit him in the leg through his tent.