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 028

Day:  028
Date:  Friday, 30 May 1986
Daily AT Miles:  10.8
Daily Other Miles:  0
Total AT Miles:  524.9
Total All Miles:  540.5
Weather:  Some fog, partly cloudy, very warm.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli, health drink.
  Lunch:  Two ham & cheese rolls, ice-cream, chocolate milk.
  Dinner:  ??
Aches:  Both heels and some toes.
Animals Seen:  Cows, chipmunks.
People Seen:  Four overnight hikers, many others.

Journal:
Got up at 6:30am to find my food bag intact and packed up again taking time to tend my ugly feet.  Decided to hike to the motel near Atkins and stop there for tonight and maybe tomorrow night as well.  I got going at about 8:15am on a pleasant warm day.  The Trail was good – gentle grades, easy walking and lots of flowers in the forest.  For the first hour my foot hurt quite a lot but, after my first rest, it improved quite a lot and I almost thought about leaving the motel stop out.  However, because I would have to push it to get Troutville by next Saturday midday (to get mail) it seemed wiser to have the day off now.  The Trail descended from Glade Mt and I had a break at the nice Glade Mt Shelter where a few weekend hikers were stopped for lunch.  From there it was four miles down to the motel next to the freeway.  The last couple of miles were down a pleasant country road past lots of pretty little houses.  I checked into the motel at about 1pm and spent the afternoon eating, doing some washing, and some shopping at a nearby Texaco mini-mart, as well as watching TV.  There was a restaurant attached to the motel where I had a good cheap meal.  After dinner, I watched TV and wrote a letter to Barb before going to bed at about midnight.
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