In this lesson, we examine how to make your hike real through planning and preparation. This is the foundation to a solid trip.

Your Ideal Planning Timeline

Here’s what your timeline for planning a thru-hike would look like in an ideal world. We’ll be covering many of these topics in depth as the course goes on. Use this as guidance, but don’t panic if you’re not on schedule—you can definitely plan a great hike in less time. I planned my first AT hike in less than a month, for example.

Find an even more detailed version of this timeline in this downloadable and printable document you can...