Quoted By:
couple things,
#1, im gonna need a TL;DR on that story, sounds sweet tho
#2, if you are willing to, you can go SERIOUSLY low on gear on the AT. it all depends on when you want to start and how dependant on shelters you want to be.
if you start SOBO early june/may/late april then you could save some serious weight on not having to really worry about cold weather gear and just riding the summer weather as you walk south.
there are shelters roughly every 8-18ish miles on the AT. going south you will (thankfully) not have to worry about over crowding and the party bubble. when I thru'd i knew a good bit of people that wouldnt even bring a tent, just set up straight in the shelter with a pad/bag every night and saved some MAJOR weight and space on not having to deal with tents/rainflys/etc etc. also cowboy camping is legit
as well, going "no cook" (not bringing any food requiring cooking, AKA meal bars, trail mixes, etc etc) can save you a ton of space with foods.
another way to save weight: download your guide to your phone (instead of having a bulky ass book all the time). you can also make your phone your go-to light/camera/guide/reading material/ entertainment/ even your cash to an extent. dont be afraid to use it to its fullest but make sure you have the battery power for it. a nice big battery bank still weighs less than all of those other things together.
for reference, when I hiked it I couldnt live without hot coffee in the morning and a warm meal before I went to bed just because of the comfort factor. I also brought a hammock/rainfly so I could choose between shelter life and finding my own little special camping spots. i liked the choices really. but if weight is your thing (and it honestly should be for a thru, i had a good pack that was made for the weight so it wasnt too bad for me, but if i had to do it all over again, i would have gone as ultralight as possible) then definitely take advantage of some of these tips.
