It's hard to walk more than 20-30 miles without having at least a relatively easy hitch into a town, and bythe time you're into Virginia, you're usually less than a 1/2 mile to a country store at every other road crossing. The NY/Connecticutt/Massachusetts section is sometimes called the "deli hike".

The flip side of carrying a big pack on the AT is that you're carrying it straight up and straight down mountains on the southern and northern segments. Unlike the relatively gentle grades of PCT switchbacks (which are packstock friendly), the AT is full of gut-churning, knee-wrenching, semi-vertical climbs and descents. This seems like a poor choice of places to test out a super-heavy pack and I would offer the idea that it is a major reason for the 10% or less thru-hiker completion rate of the 80's and 90's. With the advent of lighter gear and better knowledge of how easy it is to resupply, pack weights have been easily cut in half or less, and completion rates of thru-hikes have more than doubled.

But I suppose this isn't that different from folks who seek to "hike" the John Muir Trail in under 5 days. It may hurt while they're out, but it genuinely makes those people happy. Folks who know me think I'm a nut because I hike several hundred miles on my summers off, instead of chilling out by the pool. I don't figure folks who push themselves are any crazier or "wronger" than I am. (But then, I'm accused of being "just wrong" fairly often <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />. This, BTW, is completely different from the southernism in which I "just ain't right". <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />)