You need to get used to interacting with strangers in close quarters. You can meticulously plan your route so that you hit one of these shelters every night. If there's a lot of people on the trail, you may be s o l when you show up at that shelter and there's no room for you. And you can camp right behind the shelter if you still want to hang out with people.
A few short years after the hiking trails from Maine to Georgia were connected into the world’s longest hiking-only footpath, a WWII vet walked the whole thing in one go. He kicked off a challenge that’s still taken on by thousands of people each year.
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