THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL EXPEDITION HANDBOOK
An Official Trail Guide to 2,197.4 Miles of America's Footpath
The Scout app is coming
Your own guide, your own miles, your own loadout — working offline on trail. Get notified the day it drops.
LATEST VIDEOS
Recent uploads from the trail
The Expedition Ahead
In February 2026, Jimmy "HoggCountry" Hogg heads north from Springer Mountain. After 840+ miles on Arkansas trails and the rare Sassafras Award, he's ready for the AT's 2,197.4 miles to Katahdin. This guide captures what he's learned along the way—and what he wishes he'd known sooner.
EXPEDITION DISPATCH
Official Mission Parameters
TRAIL INSTRUMENTS
14 precision calculators to prepare your expedition
RANGER RESOURCES
THE FIELD GUIDE
18 chapters of trail-tested wisdom covering gear, resupply, weather patterns, and the mindset that gets hikers to Katahdin.
Commence ReadingTRAIL INSTRUMENTS
14 interactive calculators and planners for milestones, resupply strategy, weather decisions, and expedition budget tracking.
Open ToolkitTHE JOURNEY
Trail videos, Shorts, and moving picture logs documenting the path from Arkansas trails to the AT's white blazes.
Follow AlongBY THE NUMBERS
The Appalachian Trail at a Glance
RANGER'S RECOMMENDATION
Essential reading before you commence your expedition
Part I: Hiker Profile & Experience
Trail credentials, completed thru-hikes, and the 840+ miles of experience that prepare a hiker for 2,197.4 miles of the Appalachian Trail.
Read ChapterWhat Scout does on trail
A field cockpit, not a chatbot.
Open Scout and you don't get a blinking cursor. You get the next 20 miles, the next water, the next bed, the weather that matters, and a pack check — with the work shown.
On-trail
The next 20 miles
A scrollable look ahead: climbs, descents, shelters, water, road crossings — all from the calibrated official-mile frame behind the map.
Source: at-mile-anchors.yaml → calibrated mileposts
Conditions
Weather you can plan against
Trail-segment forecasts so a 5,000-ft ridge gets its own answer, not the nearest town's. Scout flags how stale the read is.
Source: NWS gridpoints + cache timestamp
Hydration
Where the next water is
Sources ordered by distance ahead with a confidence tag — verified, seasonal, or unverified. Scout asks you to confirm before you bet on a spring.
Verification: FarOut/ranger reports cross-checked
Sleep
Shelter and camp options
Upcoming shelters, tent pads, hostels — plus the honest distance math: can you reach the next one before dark, or do you stop short?
Source: ATC shelter list + our own anchor mileage
Effort
Elevation and difficulty
Whites or Pennsylvania flat? Scout reads the silhouette ahead and gives you climb feet, descent feet, and a difficulty take for the section.
Source: USGS elevation per official mile
Loadout
Pack and consumables
Your gear list, base weight, food/water carried, and what should change for the next leg — cold front coming, fuel low, town tomorrow.
Source: your own loadout + Dad's field guide notes
Trail culture
Landmarks & traditions
Half-gallon Challenge, four-state day, the Doyle, the Whites huts, Katahdin sunrise — Scout marks the ritual moments and the miles they live at.
Source: Hogg Country field guide, public AT lore
Resupply
Towns and mail drops
Next town off the trail, miles in and out, hostels, post offices, grocery hours — and which mail drop is queued for that stop.
Source: AWOL town tables + your mail-drop plan
Scout works offline-first. On-device models keep it useful when bars drop; it reaches for a stronger cloud model only when you have signal and allow it. No current-condition claim is made without a source or a "verify this" flag.