(Part 2) Top products from r/AppalachianTrail

First, and maybe most important piece of advice: relax. Don't worry too much about getting things like gear "right". There's lots of ways to skin a cat, as they say in Tennessee.

Second, and maybe almost as important as #1: Find time before the big trip to take a little practice hike. After you have your gear, find a day to do a little "trial run". An overnight would be great, but it doesn't have to be to be super educational. It doesn't have to be serious backpacking. Just kind of pantomime a full day of the hike: load your pack with your gear, walk around somewhere with it on for a while (a park, your neighborhood, the backyard, wherever), stop and set up "camp" - tent, sleeping bag, etc - eat a little lunch, pack everything back up, and walk back home. You'll be surprised how much you figure out on your own just doing that.

As for the specific questions:

• Pack: Get it Last, or at least near the end of your gear buying. Once you have everything else, take all your stuff with you to an outfitter and start stuffing it into various packs and then trying them on. You'll very quickly discover what size fits and is comfortable. Find an outfitter near you that sells a decent selection of packs, and pick their brains.
  
  
• Other gear: since you're going as a group, it may make sense for you all to get together and figure out where you can split up group gear. Rather than each having a tent, half of you could have 2-man tents. Stuff like that. Here's a pretty decent gear-list starting point. Weight is the single most important factor in picking gear. The less you carry the more fun you will have. Avoid the "well I'll just throw another one of these in" mentality: it adds up quick. When you get closer to being fully gear-out, post your gear list here and you'll get plenty of feedback on what you're forgetting and what you should leave home.
  
  
• Food: You can get all the food you need from your regular grocery store. Just look for things that are light (ie, dried foods..you'll have plenty of water on the trail), calorie dense, don't require refrigeration, and cook easily. For breakfasts things like oatmeal, poptarts, instant-breakfast shakes, snack cakes. Lunches can be pretty much anything on a tortilla, cheese, crackers, candy bars, salami, pepperoni, tuna. For dinners, look through the aisle where the Mac-n-cheese is at the store, lots of options there: Mac-n-cheese, rice-a-roni, couscous, Knorr pasta/rice sides. Add a packet of tuna/chicken/spam/salmon to one of those, and you've got a complete meal. Do a dinner practice run at home before the trip, just to see how things work. Or spend a weekend eating just "trail food" and see how it goes.
  
  
• Water: There's plenty of water sources along the AT through there, but you will need a way to treat it. Aqua Mira is probably the most popular method among AT thru-hikers. It's cheap, it's light, it's easy, and it works. A water bladder with a hose for on-trail drinking, and a little gatorade bottle for in-camp drinking is a pretty common water carrying system. Having the little bottle lets you make drinks (coffee, tea, lemonade, etc) in camp without it gunking up your water bladder.
  
  
• Technology: Definitely a camera. And you'll probably have cellphone reception the whole way, so you can bring that too. Just keep it off as much as you can to save battery. (And talking on the phone/texting is considered rude in the woods). Anything that can be killed by getting wet should be double-bagged in ziplocks and kept buried inside the pack.
  
  
• Poops: An easy way to do it is to find a horizontal fallen tree that you can sit on and hang your ass off the backside of. You want a tree big enough to not break under you, but not so big that you can't slide far enough back on it. Then bury the poop and the paper at least 6" deep. But...you may find that you'll never have to poop in the woods at all. There's a decent chance that you'll be spending most nights at the AT shelter locations anyway, since they have good tenting spots and water sources. And they usually have privies. On my entire AT thru-hike I think I only crapped in the woods maybe 6 times.
  
  
• Bears: don't worry about bears at all. They'll run when they see you - you probably won't even have time to get the camera out. At night be sure to hang your food and anything that smells like food (including that candy bar wrapper in your pocket). A google for "bear bagging technique" will turn up plenty of instruction for that.
  
  
• Toiletries: Yes to toothpaste (a little "travel" size is plenty), and TP (or baby wipes), but skip the deodorant. It attracts insects, and really doesn't do any good backpacking anyway. And that's it really. No need for soap or anything like that.
  
  
• Trekking poles: I'm a big fan of trekking poles, but I think i would hold off on investing any real money in them for your first trip. They definitely help the knees and balance and keep you from landing on your butt sometimes, but for a first trip I might go with a cheapo pair from Target or Walmart. The big difference between cheap and expensive poles is longevity.

Ok, here's the totally non-essential, and stupidly expensive for what it is, but I won't go out even overnight without is my Nalgene coffee press or the GSI Nalgene coffee filter. The filter weighs nothing, it's the coffee and sugar that gets you. Now, if you are good with typical Maxwell House/Folger's coffee, and you drink it with cream and sugar, there is one good alternative. Maxim Korean Coffee Packets are amazingly good. I use 2 packets every morning and sometimes again in the evening. The 100 pack does me good for about a month. If you're reading my post, checking out the product, and saying "Really, um... no.", then you are in the same shoes I was in until I tried it. Has sugar and cream already in it.

I'll also second the battery pack. Those who claimed that pillows and camp shoes are non-essential, I beg to disagree! That's like saying Gold Bond powder is non-essential! I'll admit that I'm not UL, but tax, tag, and title, out of town I'm weighing in right around 30 with 2 liters of water and food. Since I weigh 250, it's light enough.

My advice is do not buy shoes that you've never tried on. The same pair of shoes fit different on everyone and the right fit depends on a variety of factors; gait, pronation, width, arch, etc. Go to a running store that has professionals who can help you determine this. It's common for them to stick you on a treadmill and video tape you to tell you exactly what food type you have. If you have the time pick up a copy of Fixing Your Feet. This book is written for long distance hikers, regular hikers, runners, etc. There is a ton of great advice from shoe fit, sock choices and benefits, foot type, blister treatment and prevention, and so on. I was on the hunt for a couple of years for a good pair of hiking shoes and bought several pairs off of online reviews and what was popular (La Sportiva Ultra Raptors, Saucony Peregrines, North Face Hedgehogs, and so on) before finally biting the bullet and taking the time to do what I outlined above. I've finally found a good shoe for me (Keen Versatrails) and I have no doubt that my feet would be a mess and my hike in jeopardy if not for taking a bit of time out of my week.

• Ultralight: The Ray Jardine Way
  
  
• Ray Jardine's book Beyond Backpacking, now called Trail Life: Ray Jardine's Lightweight Backpacking is considered by some to be a bible of sorts.
  
  
• The Complete Walker is a perrenial favorite (read the 3rd ed. I think, before I did the Trail)
  
  
• I have not read Trail Tested: A Thru-Hiker's Guide To Ultralight Hiking And Backpacking but it looks interesting.
  
  
• This also looks interesting: Appalachian Trials: A Psychological and Emotional Guide To Thru-Hike the Appalachian Trail (Volume 1)
  

How are you going to get filtered water into your bladder? Or effectively get unfiltered water out of it? I do not think the lifestraw can be connected in line with a hose either.

I would look at something like the Sawyer Squeeze: better filtration, can filter more gallons (100,000), able to screw onto a bladder/bottle or use inline with hydration hose (connect between end of hose and mouthpiece).

Or Aqua Mira drops.

I use something like Bodyglide. The key is the paraffin. It doesn't last all day, but a few applications a day helps where it counts.

EDIT: It also doesn't sting like some if you are already chaffed. If you ARE already chaffed, get some A&D cream for the end of the day. If you can wash your sensitive areas, do so. Otherwise do what you can to keep them clean and dry as possible.

Bob Proudman did so much for protecting, and constructing the trail. Very few folks know his name. He wrote the handbook on trail maintenance! Truly an end of an era. Thank you Bob!

Edit: a word

Here's Part 1 and Part 2.

I could definitely see it not suiting certain types of people, but I looooooved it. It managed to be an accurate depiction of trail life and entertaining at the same time. I would fund a kickstarter to make an indie movie based on the books immediately.

I read Appalachia: A History by John Alexander this year in preparation for my own NOBO. I've always found knowing the history of wherever I'm walking through adds so much to my experience. The book looks at the social, cultural and economic aspects of the region from early expeditions, through the colonial era to present day. It was all very interesting and presented in an accessible manner. I only found it terribly boring a couple times, which is pretty good for a history book! Couldn't recommend it more though, as its very thorough.

https://www.amazon.ca/Appalachia-History-John-Alexander-Williams/dp/0807853682

I really like this stuff:

https://www.amazon.com/Maxim-Original-Korean-Coffee-100pks/dp/B005GV9RZC/ref=sr_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1523158929&sr=8-2&keywords=korean+coffee

Might not be good enough for a water source that low, but one of these helps with water collection:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QBQ894L

Google map overlay (it's on the PCT by default. You have to choose AT from the dropdown).

Buy this

I've heard this is also quite nice, if you plan on doing a fair amount of lazing about (which you will on a 5 day hike from springer to neels).

Pick up one of these for sure: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0043S06GI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

In addition to the encroachment of the mountain itself by development, I believe that there were issues development along the trail between Oglethorpe and Springer that cut off access.

The trail has changed considerably since it was first constructed. Much of it was originally marked on already-existing dirt roads, and over the years these sections have largely been re-routed. If you read Earl Schaeffer's book and pay close attention to his description of the route, you can actually trace parts of the original route on road maps. Also, during WW2 much of the trail fell into disrepair. Again, in Schaeffers book there are numerous descriptions of times when the trail was hard or even impossible to follow. The exact original route of some sections is no doubt lost entirely to time.

If you're interested in learning more about the history of the AT, how it was constructed as well as why certain routes were chosen, I highly recommend reading Forest and Crag, by Laura and Guy Waterman: https://www.amazon.com/Forest-Crag-Adventure-Northeast-Mountains/dp/091014673X

Answers contained within: The Three-Body Problem

Nope, and /u/gramps14 knew what was up:

https://www.amazon.com/Clear-Grade-Plastic-Square-Storage/dp/B06XYNMJM9/

When my g/f and I did the Long Trail a couple years ago I was fine eating the same few meals day in and day out, she was not. She bought a cookbook designed for backpacking and dehydrating. For a couple weeks we made meals, dehydrated and stored them ready for the hike. This method worked great, she's not a super picky eater but this method allowed her to be excited for different meals each night.

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I don't know your backpacking experience or what you know about the LT but let me tell you it's HARD. I've thru-hiked the AT and PCT, the LT is some of the hardest trail I have encountered. We planned 18 days as well, after 3 days we abandoned our SoBO of the LT. We were almost 20 miles behind schedule at that point and I didn't want to kill my g/f on a 2 week death march to complete the LT. What we did instead was spend more time in town and B&B, hitch back to the trail somewhere else, go NoBo or SoBo based on difficulty and which town we wanted to end up in next. Keep the option to yoyo around and visit small town Vermont.

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Backpack Gourmet is a good resource.

https://www.amazon.com/Backpack-Gourmet-Dehydrate-Healthy-Eating/dp/0811713474/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1557845459&sr=8-24

I have had this one for over a year now, charges my S4 about 3 times. It is the size above the one OP linked.

http://smile.amazon.com/Jackery%C2%AE-Bar-Premium-Aluminum-External/dp/B00AANMVNQ/ref=pd_sim_cps_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=10YVD3VZRYDZC1K3PBB6

You have to read A Walk In The Woods before you go hiking. Otherwise, you'll never be able to properly hate it by the end of the trail, and you won't be a real thru hiker. Thems the rulez.

This is 20 bucks and once charge, will charge your phone from dead to full, three times. They also have bigger ones which equal more charges from dead:http://www.amazon.com/Jackery-Bar-External-Battery-Charger/dp/B00AANMVNQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1450145036&sr=1-2&keywords=jackery

I know the author of the book "The Eastern Cougar" personally, I've read it. I live near where this attack happened. There was some fool who had three western mountain lions as "pets" in his backyard in the county. He got busted, but I have no doubt there are other idiots who buy them illegally and let them go when they realize what a terrible idea it was.

I'm definitely one of those "I want to believe" types. But if you read the history, the sad reality is the European settlers killed off most of the eastern cats, and their descendents killed off the rest. I do believe that there are a few mountain lions living in the Appalachians (as evidenced by this news story) but those are escaped pets.