That was a good video. I've heard lots of these concerns from people around here. My wife and I have done lots of day hikes on and near the AT. We never had any problems. The only problems day hikers may have are if their vehicle gets vandalized when parked at a trail head, and getting hurt on the trail. We make sure there is nothing of value in or noticeable in the car when we leave it. As far as getting hurt on the trail, the better in shape you are and the better prepared, like having proper foot wear, clothing, walking staff and good attitude the better off you are. We were in our mid 40s when we first started hiking, it was really a shame we didn't do more of this year's ago. When we are out on a trail in the woods, most of the worries we don't think about except in rough terrain when we have to be a little more cautious with our footing.
We would stop at the park visitor center after a day of hiking, to use bathroom, clean up, change clothing or what ever. We noticed on our first visit they had trail badges you could purchase for a couple of bucks. This gave us ideas of what trail to hike the next time. We would look at trail maps through out the week and determine the difficulty and how long it would take us, as in hours not days. It was fun. This is our plaque of the trails we done that year. The trails ranged from from 2 to 6 miles from the trail heads with varying difficulties. Most had grand views of the mountains or great waterfalls.
I dream of hiking the AT, but I'm to much of a, you know I like my modern conveniences, and you know how it is sometimes it's the responsibilities and just what you have to do. We love the day hikes no matter what trail.
