In 1986, a few days after running the Boston Marathon, and following a year of touring the US and Canada in a campervan, I set off by train to realise a dream to walk the Appalachian Trail. I first heard about the Trail from the American wife of a work colleague in Melbourne a few years earlier and had since read widely about the trail. The Trail follows the crest of the Appalachian Mountains for more than 2,200 miles along the eastern side of the US. Starting in mid-spring, I followed the trail northwards from Springer Mountain in Georgia to its northern terminus at Mount Katahdin in Maine, finishing in the late summer. It remains one of the most meaningful experiences of my life, fostering an ambition for more such experiences and inspiring me to retire from work early enough follow through on that ambition. In 1986, only about 80 people each year completed the whole trail, but during that year National Geographic did a feature article on the Trail and its popularity increased dramatically.

Appalachian Trail - Day 018

Day:  018
Date:  Tuesday, 20 May 1986
Daily AT Miles:  25.9
Daily Other Miles:  0
Total AT Miles:  336.0
Total All Miles:  347.0
Weather:  Cool and foggy.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli, health drink
  Lunch:  Biscuits and peanut butter, health bar
  Dinner:  Muesli, biscuits and peanut butter, health drink.
Aches:  
Animals Seen:  Chipmunks
People Seen:  One AT Thru-Hikers, two overnight hikers, several others.

Journal:
I got up at 6am so I could be away by 7am with the intention of a long day to get to Nolichucky Expeditions and a bank and hot meal.  The weather was again pretty miserable, very foggy and everything was wet underfoot.  My fast-wearing shoes wear even faster when wet.  The Trail was rough, rocky, steep in places and sloped steeply from right to left, making walking difficult and putting extra strain on my shoes.  I reached Big Bald (5516ft) which was sort of alpine grassland but, though it was clear at the summit, the surrounding mountains were covered in fog so there were no views.  The Trail continued through calf-high wet grass which had me worried about rattlesnakes (a fellow hiker had killed one a day earlier) though it was probably too cold and wet.  I had lunch at High Rocks where it was foggy, windy, cold and water dripped continuously from the trees.  I was a bit miserable.  I descended steeply after lunch then climbed again on a very rough rocky track followed by one with a steep camber.  More strain on legs and shoes.  Overall, though, my progress was OK and I arrived at rocks overlooking the town of Erwin and the Nolichucky River at about 5:30pm, made a last steep descent before walking the 1.5 road miles to Nolichucky Expeditions.  Unfortunately, the cook was off for the night but one of the employees kindly offered to drive me into town in the next hour.  So I stayed, had a shower, and met the other occupant, Mark, a nice guy with low self esteem and a few personal problems, who had missed large chunks of the AT so far.  Our promised ride into town failed to materialise, annoyingly, and I ended up eating muesli and biscuits and peanut butter for dinner.  I tried to ring Barb at her parents at 10:30pm but she wasn’t there.  Will try again in the morning.  Went to bed and slept well after my most depressing day so far.
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