The Advantages of Flip-Flopping

Flip-flops, leapfrogs, and other alternatives

How can you avoid the crowds and still hike the entire Trail? Increasingly, hikers are choosing to start somewhere in the middle of the Trail. These alternatives to an end-to-end thru-hike are commonly known as "flip-flop" or "leapfrog" hikes. ATC encourages these alternative hikes as a way to even out the flow of hikers and minimize resource damage to the Trail. Review sample alternative itineraries that optimize terrain, weather, and crowd avoidance.
Advantages of an alternative hike include favorable terrain and weather, and crowd avoidance:

• Terrain. The easiest terrain on the A.T. is not at either end of the Trail, where thru-hikers normally start, but in the middle of the Trail (from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia north through southern Pennsylvania). In both directions, the Trail gradually gets more difficult as you head north or south. If you want to break in gradually to the rigors of long-distance backpacking, avoid starting south of Virginia, and especially avoid starting in New Hampshire and Maine, the two most difficult states on the Trail. Review sample alternative itineraries with starting points located in moderate terrain.
• Weather. In predicting weather on the Trail, time of year, elevation, and latitude are the most important variables to consider. Of these, the most frequently overlooked is elevation. For example, Blood Mountain, Georgia, at 4461 feet, has colder temperatures and more snow than Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, at about 250 feet, almost a thousand Trail miles to the north.
• Cold. Because the Trail is often at high elevations, the potential for snow lasts into April in Georgia and the mid-Atlantic states, until early May in the highest mountains of the South and much of New England, and until early June in New Hampshire and Maine. The first snows of autumn fall in late September in Maine and New Hampshire and in October through the rest of New England and highest mountains of the South. In November any part of the Trail can receive snow.
• Heat. Weather that is uncomfortably hot and humid for backpacking starts to occur intermittently in June in Georgia, Virginia, and the mid-Atlantic states. July and August can be too hot for comfortable backpacking in much of the mid-Atlantic and South, although above five and six thousand feet the temperatures are often pleasant. High temperatures often linger sporadically into September.
• Avoiding crowds. Leaving Springer in March or early April you will find viewpoints, shelters and campsites crowded, and opportunities for privacy and solitude are substantially reduced. An average of more than 35 thru-hikers a day leave Springer between March 1 and April 1. Northbound thru-hikers create a large, moving group of people, the majority of whom are concentrated over a 300-400 mile stretch of Trail. Georgia especially is crowded, before the attrition process takes its toll. "Spring break" hikers are also drawn to the southern end of the Trail in March and April. Crowded conditions continue well into Virginia. You can avoid these conditions by following any one of the alternative itineraries

According to: appalachiantrail.org