Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike Permit

Not one single permit. Most of the trail's 2,197.9 miles cross land where you just walk on, but three places gate you: Great Smoky Mountains National Park (an Activity Pass, currently $44.50), Shenandoah National Park (a Recreation.gov backcountry permit, $9/person plus a $6 reservation fee), and Baxter State Park at the very end, where you get a free Long-Distance Hiker Permit in person before you can summit Katahdin.

$44.50, bought as a Recreation.gov Activity Pass. It is not a dated reservation. There is no calendar and no daily cap, so it never sells out; buy it whenever you are ready to enter the park. It is a different product from the park's general backcountry permit, which charges $8 per person per night plus a $6 fee and requires a dated itinerary.

Yes. Since January 2024 every overnight backcountry stay in Shenandoah, AT thru-hikers included, needs a Recreation.gov permit: $9 per person plus a $6 reservation fee, bookable up to 90 days ahead. The park caps individual permits at 14 nights and no more than 2 consecutive nights at one site, but publishes no trail-wide quota, so a permit has never sold out.

In person, at the Katahdin Stream Campground Ranger Station in Baxter State Park. The Long-Distance Hiker Permit is free and first-come, first-served; there is no way to apply for it online ahead of time. Baxter strongly recommends finishing your summit hike before October 15, since Katahdin's trails close for the season shortly after.

Most thru-hikers finish in five to seven months, averaging just under six. Northbound hikers usually leave Springer Mountain in a wave from late February through April so they reach Katahdin before Baxter State Park's trail season effectively ends in mid-October.

Ask most finishers and they will say Mahoosuc Notch, a one-mile boulder-choked chasm on the New Hampshire-Maine border that the Appalachian Trail Conservancy itself calls the hardest mile on the trail. It is climbing and squeezing through gaps between car-sized rocks, not walking, and it can take an hour or more to cover that single mile.

The most remote stretch of the entire trail, between Monson and Abol Bridge in Maine, just before Katahdin. There is no resupply anywhere inside it, so hikers carry everything they need from Monson, the last town before Baxter State Park.

The high point is Kuwohi (Clingmans Dome), 6,643 feet, on the North Carolina-Tennessee line inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The low point is 124 feet at Bear Mountain, New York, right next to the Trailside Museum and Zoo.

Most thru-hikers go northbound (NOBO), starting at Springer Mountain in Georgia's early spring and finishing at Katahdin in Maine by mid-October. Southbound (SOBO) hikers start at Katahdin instead, tackling Maine's toughest terrain first while conditioning is lowest. A flip-flop starts in the middle and hikes out in both directions, which spreads out the crowds at Springer and Katahdin alike.