The Slack Packer's Guide to Hiking the Appalachian Trail

by Lelia Vann, Greg Reck

“Have you ever considered thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail or just part of it, and you were put off by the thought of hefting a backpack that weighs 50 pounds or more and the dread of having to set up and break down camp each day for days on end? If so, you should take up ‘slack packing’ where you take only a daypack, enter and exit the trail every day, and you are ferried to a B&B, hotel, or hostel each evening where you have a bed and shower.
“The Slack Packer’s Guide to Hiking the Appalachian Trail is a must have book for the curious, novice, or experienced slack packer, as well as the experienced thru-hiker, for the Appalachian Trail. More than just a resource on how to plan and prepare for your Appalachian Trail adventure, it is a travel journal of the authors’ experiences slack packing the Appalachian Trail, where everybody you meet has a ‘Trail Name.’ If Bill Bryson had this guide, he would have finished hiking the Appalachian Trail.”
— Ray W. King, attorney at law and veteran hiker

196 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 13, 2017

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting book about backpacking the Appalachian Trail without sleeping outside every night. After reading the book I believe I could follow in there footsteps and do what they did. No pun intended. However, there’s quite a price to pay for doing it that way!

[Nancy E Randolph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looks like fun.

Locations, contacts, mileage. Everything you need slack pack the AT. I'm going to pick some sections to do this. The authors were thorough.

[Alicia Impink · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure this would be a fine guide / suggestion book for those who have the funds to do this for the whole hike. But from a practical budget perspective I didn't read much in this that I could find useful. 🙃 I understand the necessity of taking a shuttle and hitting up a hotel here and there , but it seems outlandish to do it every night. But then again I'm admittedly frugal and am likely not the target audience for this book

[Jay Young · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't waste your time on this book. The writing is juvenile. In many places your will find three or more paragraphs in a row that start with the very same sentence.

If you are looking for slackpacking information, you are much better off doing your own research via the traditional AT guidebooks.