Cool post from REI about AT day hikes...

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I don't remember the Priest as being that difficult. The first time I did it we had to bypass the summit as it was winter conditions (in April) and didn't have enough gear. The second time I did a keyswap hike up from the river. Footing was good and it was well graded.

The Superfund hike at Lehigh gap, is a nice taste of the whites in PA but its not that long. Other than Dragons tooth in VA, its the first sustained boulder scrambling NOBOs hit on the AT. The biggest challenge is that the ridgeline that was stripped clean of topsoil from an upwind smelter is bare rock for miles and there is no safe water. Its a scorcher on a hot day.

Cheoah Bald is a well graded walk in the woods, its "hard" for AT northbounders but quite similar to the hike up back to the ridge line from several southern gaps. The soils seem far more amenable to switchbacking and the trail clubs have installed switchback and contoured trails on most of the steep ascents.

Mahoosuc Notch isn't bad but add in Mahoosuc Arm and then the speck pond trail and it makes for a long day.
 
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Mt. Madison? That seems strange to me to be on the list. Is it the route down? Because Osgood down sucked. Hmm.
 
Nice list.

The Priest is a great mountain and the area around Lehigh Gap looks like it's out of a Mad Maxx film....it's barren of most plant life and was absolutely devastated from industrial zinc smelting. It makes for an interesting hike. Neither of these compares in difficulty to most days in ME and NH IMO, but it wouldn't be much of a list if they only used two states.

Heading up the Osgood Trail to Madison is a real B, especially if you are not aware of the umpteen false summits on the route up.

I'd like to see a list of the hardest days done by thru hikers on the AT; it's not extremely uncommon for people to do Maryland in a day, but it's about 40 miles. At some point, the limits of a "day hike" would have be determined.
 
Madison can be bad depending the day and the hiker. The north side was my slowest mile, took over an hour to go a half mile, and what I remember is sitting on a rock sobbing as the sun went down over Washington. When I got to Osgood tentsite I and several other hikers passed out on the tent platforms without setting up tents. I was exhausted, and I was thru-hiker fit. This was obviously not with my daypack.

Interesting to see the pictures of Lehigh Gap now, I was hiking with two other hikers and one had a dog, so we all trekked around to the bypass trail and went up together. The bypass is straight-up switchbacks, but no scrambling. It was really hot, and it poured later that afternoon.
 
Trying to figure out the parameters they used. Did you have to stay on the AT? So Washington would be from C-Notch? (& Madison from PNVC using the old Jackson Road & then southbound (more like North then west) to Madison?) Have driven through Lehigh and hiked near by the flat stuff isn't too bad, the picture looks similar to some slides, the AT doesn't climb any in NH and the ADK's are not part of the AT. Thinking Saddleback & the Horn should have made it.
 
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