You may be wondering where I will be around a certain time. That’s certainly an understandable question. Unfortunately, the answer really depends on how far I feel like walking on any given day. Am I going to bang out 20 miles in sleet? Probably not. Will I feel like resting for a day at a town? It’s hard to tell.
Right now it’s hard to predict what my pace will be (miles per day) until I get out there and start moving day after day. I plan to start it off fairly slow, around 10 miles, but that should pick up rather quickly.
While researching the trail I came across this site: http://www.wikitrail.org/planner/new/at. It’s really a neat tool. Use my current location from the map and the current date. At the bottom you can enter my pace or use the defaults. The number of zero days is probably about once a week on average, though that feature does not seem to be working correctly. After all the information is entered, hit “Go” and it will generate a whole calendar of estimated shelter locations. If you click on them you can see on a Google Map or you can compare the names with the mileage chart here: http://www.summitpost.org/appalachian-trail-mileage-chart/593282
I would guess it’s fairly accurate for 2-3 weeks out, and modestly accurate for more than a month. If you want a better idea, you can always leave a comment or send me a text and I’ll try to get back to you next time I’m in town.