Quote:
"Would be very interested in how you go about preparing for a hike like some of the ones you have completed."

A timely question for me as I've literally been writing a book on this very topic ...
Short answer is that if you've already done about a third of the AT I'm not sure there's much I can tell you! You already have the experience to evaluate gear, miles per day, just a host of things like that. If there are specific things, start a discussion thread.

Quote:
"I thought the NE part of the AT was really amazing (the Whites, Maine) and am curious how that part compares with some of the other regions of the two other main trails."

This is subjective stuff, but FWIW I thought that those NE parts of the AT were the best parts (of the AT), with the caveat that the whites can be pretty tough --- in some places it's low level scrambling in there. Hard to do big miles in the Whites. There are of course some other nice parts of the AT, but overall it's not nicknamed "the long green tunnel" for nothing.

In terms of scenery, if you think the Whites and Maine were good, then --- as the saying goes --- "you ain't seen nothing yet". The Whites are great, but both the PCT and CDT offer a whole lot more amazing scenery, and much more extensive scenery, and of course can be a lot more "remote" (especially the CDT).

If you're inclined to either the PCT or CDT I would strongly suggest that you start with the PCT. It's still beautiful and varied, but it will frankly kick your butt less hard and there's a bit more of a support system in doing it. The AT is a completely optional first trail IMO, a person can start out with the PCT as their first trail if they wish, but I really think that the PCT serves as an excellent training ground for the overall "takes it all to a next level" difficulty and perhaps danger of the CDT.
Note that this is a general comment on the trail as a whole if done as a continuous thru-hike. Section or chunk hikers can mitigate some (but only some) of the CDT issues by picking the right time of year to do their portions.

If you want to start reading up on a PCT thru-hike, you might just buy Yogi's guide, though you'll really (also?) want the current-year version for the year that you actually hike it. Postholer.com has quite a lot of PCT-specific resources. The pct-l discussion list has a lot; I tuned out of that some while back as the signal-to-noise ratio wasn't high enough for me, but perhaps it's better now. You can also just peruse the archives of the pct-l without enduring it as email.

More recently folks have been interacting a lot via current-year facebook groups. For the CDT last year there was quite a lot of helpful interaction on the CDT 2011 group, and there CDT 2012 group looks to be similar this year. I expect there's something along that line for the PCT as well.
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Brian Lewis
http://postholer.com/brianle