Long-distance hiking season begins

Even while winter winds are still blowing and flakes of snow are swirling outside, the dedicated vagabonders who journey on their feet are preparing for the 2009 thru-hiking season for long distance trails in the United States (including the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine and Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada).

Hikers like Mike and Roxanne Anderson are rationing, sorting, and packing everything they will need for months (from vitamins to food to toothpaste to extra clothes), organizing their supplies into boxes. They will then entrust these supplies with friends and relatives to mail them to prearranged post offices at certain times.

The Andersons and other hikers are settling matters such as finances, insurance, and income taxes, sorting through maps, testing gear, and getting ready to spend many months on the trail.

iTrod just set off on a 12-day section-hike of the Appalachian Trail as a dress rehearsal for his thru-hike planned for early March 2010.

Tailwinds (a.k.a. Suzanne Finney) just updated her 2009 Pacific Crest Trail Journal describing how she joined several other Pacific Crest Trail Association volunteers in Washington D.C. lobbying for protection of the Pacific Crest Trail and other natural resources.

Crazynuts writes about his thru-hike of Patagonia while Just Jim is describes how he is currently making his way east to Georgia in order to begin hiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.

To check out what other thru-hikers are doing to prepare for the season, find other hikers’ journals on the Trail Journals website.