Advice For an Appalachian Trail Newbie

I decided to hike part of the Appalachian Trail this year. I made it forty miles before my heels couldn’t take it anymore (bad shoes), but loved the experience and learned a lot. This post is pretty niche, but it’s for people who are interested in walking part of the trail. When I was preparing, the best advice I read was “Just show up in Atlanta with any gear at all, and it will be fine”. I think that’s actually true, and I met several people who had clearly done that. However, this is some advice for someone who wants to know what to expect and have the best time possible. I’ll be doing a separate gear post with gear recommendations, so this will be about the mechanics of actually doing it. It’s actually not that easy to get to the beginning of the AT because it’s technically on the top of a mountain in the middle of the woods. The two main ways to do it are to hike the approach trail from Amicalola State Park or to get dropped off on USFS 42 where it crosses the AT at around mile…