Quote Originally Posted by cygnustaxt
I'm going to have to check that book out, sounds like a good read!

yeah the thing about the AT having towns to stop in every week or so is appealing to me due to only wanting to carry up to a weeks worth of food as well.

The thing about the shelters is that some of them suck, its just a plank to sleep on and a roof over your head. I've section hiked on the trail and at some of the shelters, I would have rather slept in my tent. When I do my thru-hike, I'm bringing a hennessy hammock instead of a tent. It's so much more comfortable than regular tents and shelters. Plus, some of the shelters are big enough to where you can mount the hammocks to the wall.
Ha ha! Yeah, Bryson got into the fact that some of the shelters are just plain awful. And in some areas they are crowded with people or overrun with mice. He had a few funny anecdotes about sharing shelters or campsites with awful people as well. The appeal to me is that you could carry a minimalist shelter of your own for most uses, but if the weather got REALLY bad, you would have the shelter as an option. Bryson did sections northbound, and the first was in MARCH, and he actually got caught in a blizzard once.

I'll have to check out that hennesy hammock, although I personally tend not to sleep well in a hammock. I'm also thinking about tarp shelters that rig up over trekking poles. In some of the Seirra locations that I used to go to in the past, there were not always trees for a hammock or for rigging a tarp.

I just signed up at the Practical Backpackers Forum under the same screen name (which is sort of a wierd screen name for that kind of forum, I must admiot). It looks like they have a lot of good advice and info about backpacking.