Backpacking Plans
- sondrawinter
- 47 minutes ago
- 4 min read
From time to time, we enjoy visiting places away from where we are currently cruising. For me, Sondra, my ideal get-away is a backpacking trip, and this week’s blog post will cover this pastime's similarites with cruising, our current plans, and share a wishlist of backpacking trips.
Similarities with Cruising
Believe it or not, there are some similarities between backpacking and cruising in a sailboat. Here are a few obvious ones include:
Traveling lifestyle – Cruising and backpacking are both about following some sort of a route and traveling with all of your possessions with you, but the amount of stuff that can be brought along is rather limited. Both travel methods take you to new places to explore and are done at a slow pace.
At the mercy of weather – Storms and beautiful weather are each heightened whether cruising or backpacking and wind directions are a major factor in finding a place to sleep at night.
Town stops – Resources need to be managed from a town-to-town point of view. Groceries, laundry, garbage are things that are typically only handled during a stop in a town, sometimes going many days between stops. Coming into a town you research where to address each of these. Then while out on trail, or cruising between towns, these resources are carefully managed.
Then the less than obvious similarities:
Buddy Boats and Trail Families – sometimes you meet people who travel in a similar pace and style which can lend well to traveling together. We had a small trail family for the first 500 miles of our 2024 hike on the AT and had loosely traveled with a couple of boats in the Bahamas for several weeks, and this summer, we buddy boated for four months with some friends from our hometown of Tallahassee.
Free Piles and Hiker Boxes – It is interesting that both of these communities are more than willing to share their unneeded objects. A lot of marinas have a “free pile” while hiker hostels have "hiker boxes". We have both given and taken from free piles and hiker boxes.
Interesting finds in a marina free pile. Levels of accommodation – This comparison is sort of s stretch, but it is fun to use when talking about either sailing or hiking with hikers and sailors.
Marinas & Hotels: Plenty of services readily available, fewer worries about the environment, more expensive.
Mooring Balls & Hiker Hostels: Mid-level costs offering some services and less convenience.
Anchoring & Tenting or staying in a shelter: Completely responsible for selecting where you stop for the night, more effort to obtain services if there are any at all, but typically at zero cost.
Current Plans
At the moment my backpacking plans are focused on completing the Appalachian Trail. In 2024 Jimmy and I hiked 1,673 miles of the trail which is about 2,200 miles in length. In 2025 I hiked the Approach Trail to Springer Mountain and from there hiked the southernmost 85 miles of the Appalachian Trail.
For 2026, I plan to hike 131 miles of the Appalachian Trail near the New Hampshire & Maine border in July, starting at Pinkham Notch, New Hampshire and ending Maine Rt. 27 near Stratton, Maine. I’ll be meeting up with three women to hike northbound together from Pinkham Notch. It is nice to have a team assembled to tackle Mahoosuc Notch and Mahoosuc Arm together, a stretch often considered to the be most difficult part of the trail.
Since our current cruising itinerary has Utopia spending hurricane season at a marina in Guatemala, I will need to fly back to the States for this hike. Jimmy and I will not be able to settle the travel plans until we have reached the marina, but the loose travel plan is to take a bus from Rio Dulce to Guatemala City to catch a flight to Boston. Last-minute provisioning and hiking-shoe shopping will take place in Boston before heading north to Pinkham Notch on NH Rt. 16 by July 4. After the hike, one way or another, we will make down to Florida, Alabama and Mississippi for the usual doctor appointments and visiting of family and friends, probably in late July and early August.
In the summer of 2027, I plan to hike from Deep Gap, just north of the NC / GA border, northbound to and through the Smoky Mountains, covering 157 miles. This leaves just the 151-mile section from Caratunk, Maine to the summit of Mt. Katahdin for me to fully complete the Appalachian Trail. If time allows, I’ll backpack that section in the summer of 2027 after completing the Smoky Mountains. Otherwise, I’ll just complete it in the summer of 2028.
Wish List
There are so many other great trails that I’d like to backpack one day. Some trails of interest along or close to the Appalachian Mountain include:
Pinhoti Trail (AL)
Benton MacKaye (GA/TN)
Smoky Mountain NP Trails (TN/NC)
Mountains-to-Sea Trail (NC)
Foothills Trail (SC)
Shenandoah NP Trails (VA)
Long Path (NY)
Then if I feel like dipping my toe into grizzly territory, the following trails may be fun:
Colorado Trail (CO)
Tahoe Rim Trail (NV/CA)
John Muir (CA)
Wonderland (OR)
Timberline Trail (OR)
Of course hiking parts of any of the 11 National Scenic Trails (USA) or Trans-Catalina Trail (CA) would be cool.
A few trails abroad have piqued my interest, such as:
Cotswold Way (Scotland)
Tour du Mont Blanc (France)
One of the Camino de Santiago Routes (Spain)
This is just a fun brainstorming list which will probably keep changing as I learn about other backpacking trails. I have no idea when we would be able to travel to any of these, but at least having a list helps start the planning process.
Post 26-04
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