You haven't? Hilarious! And yet you indicate 10mi/day is an "AT slow pace" and are gear-snob enough to derisively cast aspersions on "Walmart warriors" despite copping to having an Ozark Trail in your no doubt vast and varied quiver. Virginia is a full 1/4 of the AT btw, and a hiker who left Springer on March 1st and hiked 12 miles a day would arrive at Katahdin on or about August 3rd 183.3 days later - a full 2.5 months before Baxter closes. If memory serves me correctly, and I'm not bothering to check, the Crawford Family of Eight of Fight For Together fame averaged 12.5 miles a day for a six month completion. The secret? Almost zero zero days. (Yes, I know they didn't summit Katahdin. Only due to BSP-Clown interference.) New hikers average about 10 mi/day in GA, but when they get to VA have hiker-legs, it's summer so they shed weight, enjoy more light, and take advantage of the rolling hills by knocking out 15-20 or more miles a day easily. A pace which slows somewhat when they reach the actual mountains and dropping temps of the north. Running across a "flat" VA is the key to making up time lost in the more vertical terrain of the trail-ends where the real mountains are. If the mid-Atlantic region had a range like the PCT's Sierras, then AT thru-hikes would be commensurately and similarly longer. On average 8 months instead of 6 and nobody would be on a travelling beer-pong team that survives on magic and slackpack shuttles. I've crossed VA so many times now I've lost count and I don't do homework. If you look closely you'll see me in this photo doing my research in the field where all those virtual backpacking lessons from YouTube go out the window. Post a review of VA for us when you've been there!