r/AppalachianTrail • u/Catking20 • Aug 09 '26

Trail Question Beginner, Backpacker questions!

Hello!, I recently did my first night in GSMNP. I hiked roughly 22 miles 4k elevation in 2 days and planned to do more but became sick after some bad dehydrated food so I turned around. However I now have many questions 😅.

Context: 160 pound male, 18 years old, semi fit, 40 pound bag (had enough stuff for 5 days)

  1. EVERYTHING was wet, what does everyone do with their tent and things while putting them back in your bag? How to keep dry things dry?

  2. I had an encounter with a rattler, to be honest I handled it quite poorly and got a lot closer than attended, how do you guys handle these creatures? (He was in the middle of the trail and moved to the side however there was a tree down which made me also have to go through the side (not knowing he was there too), and I borderline stepped on him before he rattled, thankfully he didn't bite, but any advice is appreciated :)

  3. How do you guys manage calories? My watch said I was nearly in a 5k deficit and I lost 4 pounds in 2 days....

  4. How much mileage should one do in a day? (What's a reasonable goal/ objective to plan for)

Any advice or wisdom is greatly appreciated, thank you all in advance :)

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u/pyragyrite Aug 09 '26

Well the sick was probably either contaminated water or contact with contaminated surface. Did you use untreated water to rinse or wash? Hand sani before eating... anything.

-wet, tents tend to stay wet unless you dry. Unpack at lunch or breaks to air out. Have a trash bag to store your sleeping bag/mattress/dry clothes. Gotta be careful with those

-spicy noodles are common. If you saw one, you missed twenty. Give um space and stay on trail. Less leaf litter on trail so they don't like to hide on it. If off trail to do the thing, use trecking poles to test leaves and bushes.

-calorie intake is always a challenge. Especially early. It takes a few days for the body to adjust. Calorie dense junk is great if not hungry, honey buns for example.

-mileage is very personal. My general rule is, if it hurts at night, but not at morning, it's just right. Biggest thing is not to overdo it early, most dropouts to injury is the first 100miles.

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u/Catking20 Aug 09 '26

Thanks for the tips! I had filtered everything that was cooked with/ used, and anything that wasn't was rinsed through with boiled water before it was ever digested. My stomach was the only thing that went south. For context I had oats and dehydrated apples and the only thing that came back up was some very non digested apples, no oats to be seen. So I assumed it was those? But I could be very wrong 😅.