If you want to test yourself we in the eastern United States have a test track. It is called the Appalation Trail. I followed the trail from Pennsylvania to Georgia. No other desciption fits in my opinion. The trail is a test track. It will test you in every way.
Walk all day, up and down, with nothing more than a goal to "make it". My cousin and I were ready for anything. We wanted a major challenge in our lives and hit the trail to experience life on the edge of our endurance.
Test us? Oh ya. We were tested every second of every day.
I had no idea what the trail would be. I thought about a nice hike in the woods. Yep it was a hike in the woods. Nice? I don't know. Parts of it were others were just HARD.

We read books, Talked to many people and loaded and unloaded our packs hundreds of times.
We set out on a sunny March day and expected to meet relatives in Georgia in 12 or 13 days.Being young we over estimated, under estimated, and just plain had no idea how hard walking hundreds of miles would be.
We were as set up and prepaired as we could be for a long hike. We thought. We left litely loaded. We wanted speed and light packs to not slow us down.
Can you carry everything? No, but we were short on several key items.

We hit the trail just after dawn on a saturday morning after spending the night in our sleeping bags on the living room floor of one of our aunts friends who lived several miles from the trail.
Three or four miles later we were on the trail. The sky was overcast and then the rain started.
It rained and the wind was wipping and we walked.Our rain gear was a poncho worn over our packs. A poncho works well but your feet and legs will get soaked for sure as you walk through the woods.
Around noon after snagging my poncho a few times a tear developed that allowed the rain to soak me from my neck to the middle of my back.

We found a place to camp that was safe from a flash flood and tried to dry out, Ate our freese dried dinner and slepped well expecting the next day to be much better.



More to come, Good night.

Moving along is everything on the trail. my cousin and I were on a mission.700 and some miles still in front of us and a poor first day and night behind us we moved on.
The trail is a test because you have only one goal,"Get the miles behind you".
On the trail you see somthing great every few minuets. We had to stop and look at a dead bear just off the trail. This thing was huge to anyone who did not have cows or pigs at home.To us it looked like a huge waste. A waste of meat and the life of this beautiful animal.The area was rocky and steep and we soon found a possible cause of his death. Rattle snakes. These were the big boys. They were laying in the sun on and around the rocks. We moved on up the ridge and back into the shade of the trees.
We came upon a nice little creek and I wanted to stop and fish the holes.

I had a cheep little telescoping rod in my pack along with a few spinners and other gear( sinkers,hooks and such). My cousin had none of that and was instantly bored and antsy as I fished for dinner.
His bordom, I believe, led to our first argument. He wanted to move I wanted dinner. I said a few words and he said a few words. I caught one small trout and told him flat out that he either let me fish until I caught anouther or he was out of luck on dinner.
His choice was to move on so off we went. We had several oppertunities to stop and fish but he wanted to keep moving. I had Rice and fish for dinner he had Rice. I did give him some fish after a while.I let him ponder his decision not to let me fish for several long minuets.

ok then what happened?

Their feet started hurting and they went home.

I hiked Springer to Damascus back in '01. 80% of the newbies on the trail are home after two days.

The AT purposely takes you through some of the worst tarrain in the eastern U.S. just to avoid contact with the local population, who consider the through hikers "Trail Trash".

Yes, they smile when they take your money, then they disinfect everything you touched when you leave.

The AT is famous, but there is better hiking and better trails elsewhere.