tandempower

If you like hiking and camping, which could be arguably considered the ultimate car-free holiday for nature-lovers, it is not that easy to do car-free. The Florida Trail, for example, is a hiking trail that runs through Florida, but it can be quite difficult to find bus stops near trailheads. Hiking the Appalachian Trail is a dream of mine, but I don't think it's possible to get to the Springer Mountain trailhead without driving or taking an expensive private shuttle from a distant bus station or airport. Are there other good spots in the Southeast or further north on the east coast where you can arrive at a Greyhound station and spend a few days hiking and camping on a trail?

LesterOfPuppets

Knoxville to Harrisburg, PA stretch of AT is not too bad access wise. It will take some urban/exurban hiking not on the trail, but you can probably catch city busses to cut your hikes from the Greyhound stations to trail heads.

The shuttles can be worth it if you HAVE to do end to end, or just want to cut our a day or two of to/from trailhead hiking.

tandempower

Thanks for the info. It's not really fun to arrange a shuttle by calling for a special ride and negotiating a price, etc. It's much nicer to just be able to catch a bus based on a route schedule or Google maps. I don't mind hiking through a city or on roads to get to a trailhead, but if you have to pay for a room because it's too far to get to the trail before dark, that costs you a night on the trail, as well as money and hassle.

It would be good to know of Greyhound + local transit stops where you can get to the trail and camp before nightfall, and then hike for a couple days to another trailhead that is not too far from another transit stop that can get you to a Greyhound departure without having to wait too late into the night. I've waited for 5am buses at Greyhound stations, but it is rough and it would be much nicer to catch one that leaves by 2am or earlier.

wolfchild

Carry a foldable kick scooter with you and that way you can connect all the loose ends between your destinations for free without any hassle.

Walter S

I prefer to do my whole vacation starting and ending at my front door on my bicycle. No schedules to arrange. Most days I wake up and rank options on where I'll be that night. I reconsider things right before getting on the road. Then a final goal around lunch time. Some days that's a motel but other times I get a stretch of days with good camping opportunities going from one national forest/wma/etc. to another. I'm not beyond stealth camping under the right conditions but at least in my current financial condition I'd usually rather get a room or pay for a campsite. But I always have my eye out for "free" especially when that breaks no rules! For example Sipsey Wilderness in Alabama https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sipsey_Wilderness allows "dispersed camping" which basically means camp anywhere you want except no closer than 50 feet to water. So I designed my route for a tour to mississippi so I'd go thru it and enjoyed a few nights of splendid beauty and not paying a dime. And unlike stealthing you don't need to be gone before dawn. Hang around and eat a good breakfast

CliffordK

I seem to be pretty heavily into cycling... so cycling alone can be my recreation.

Fishing should be well within what is possible. Just a collapsible pole, and go. The advantage of fishing is one can carry the bike down to the water's edge, so security shouldn't be a problem.

I have thought about some overnight backpacking trips. Bike security at trail heads is one concern. If I do that, I'll probably walk the bike in 1/2 mile or so, then head off the trail and lock the bike to a tree in a place it shouldn't be easily visible.

Machka 

We often fly.

But you can read this thread to see what we and others have done:

https://www.bikeforums.net/living-ca...-car-free.html

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I-Like-To-Bike

Someone on a passing scooter might be willing to "share a ride" so that the LCF halo won't get tarnished.

TheLibrarian

How far north? You can take a local bus to Bear Mtn. NY I'm sure and get on the AT there. There's likely other spots where it passes something. There is a mass transit list on the Appalachian trail website. Furthest south looks like North Carolina Macon County.