re: Why would a tour company not want a big group to have tents on the Appalachian Trail?

You aren’t allowed to use them in parts

You must use provided shelters

It’s tick season

Make sure chicken jr’s socks and pants are treated with permathrim

ah. Part of the Virginia trail is in the Shenandoah National Park. Strict regs there, too.

Virginia has some stunning scenery-- don't let your kids miss it unless you really feel that the tour company are morons. They can handle sleeping outside, depending on the time of year.

I 100% applaud the idea of kids getting into the outdoors and doing something hard and strenuous instead of going to video game camp or sexual harassment awareness camp or something. That being said, I would have to give some serious thought to this plan for a group of kids much less adults.

When we hiked the AT we stayed in the pre-built shelters that had chain link on the front to keep the damn bears out and we did see bears. No way I would sleep on the ground in the open after that.

quote:

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Does this trip seem like a bad idea?

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good lord yes

just make sure chicken jr gets a travel trailer or rv to sleep in

I would let them go. They will be plenty warm in the sleeping bag. I'm sure the tour company has done this before. Tents can add lbs. quickly to their pack weight.

If you go anywhere with a selection of sleeping bags they have the temperature ranges they're meant for on the label.

Buy one that's considered "oversized" in the correct temperature range so they can zip it up over their head and fit a pillow.

Some of the best sleep I've ever gotten was zipped up in a sleeping bag in the freezing cold. I didn't have a tarp overhead either.

It's a little of it all. I would bet there is no place on the trail--campsite wise- to accommodate a large group, all with tents. Most of the people who hike that trail do it in pairs, or solo. They will need that much water, no doubt. The temps, while cool in the night/AM will be chilly, once you get moving that's a non-issue. If the tarp (s) can shield them from most of the rain, I would let my kid go without a doubt.

A total lack of understanding of what the AT is is the first problem.

It's not paved, heck it's not even graveled. Many places it's one person wide and it is marked the old fashioned way.

Tents-balderdash. Setting that many stakes in, each night for each person hiking the trail would tear up the ground cover and encourage erosion.

there are shelters, and those should be where the kiddies are spending the nights. On the ground? Has anyone heard of bears?

To me it sounds as if someone is building an ultralight air plane before they've built their first balsa wood ten inch unpowered glider.

Start with a day hike, get it right, then go some other trails.

Tour companies are not often associated with the AT. I'm not sure they are even legal.

Things that should be happening: water filtration systems belong with every hiker (and how to use them). How to read maps. What happens if Susie Creamcheese freaks out when it gets dark, like black with no light and she can't get a signal to call home?

You might want to search for the hiker lost in Maine whose body was found a year later, not that far off the trail.

Are the kids mature enough not to do stupid things? There are still bodies missing in the Smokies where a kid wandered away from his family and has never been found.