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 037

Day:  037
Date:  Sunday, 8 June 1986
Daily AT Miles:  12.9
Daily Other Miles:  0.2 (to motel)
Total AT Miles:  698.8
Total All Miles:  722.6
Weather:  Hot, humid, partly cloudy.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli, health drink.
  Lunch:  Two hamburgers, fries, shake.
  Dinner:  Catfish, salad bar, ice-cream.
Aches:  Feet sore.
Animals Seen:  Two tortoises, rabbit, squirrel, chipmunk.
People Seen:  Two AT Thru-hikers, many others.

Journal:
Got up at 6:00am after a sleepless night and was away by 7:20am after arranging to meet Stu at the road in Cloverdale at 12:30pm so we could get a motel room to share.  After a rough descent the Trail crossed some farmland before climbing through some rough very weedy unattractive countryside up to Scorched Earth Gap.  It was warm and muggy again and I was sweating a lot.  From there the Trail improved and became a pleasant undulating walk through conifer and deciduous forest on a partly rocky trail along the edge of an escarpment which gave good views into the valley below.  Further along there were views in the other direction over a reservoir.  At about 11:45am I began the steady descent towards Cloverdale with my feet hurting a lot and looking forward to their half day off.  I met Stu at 12:45pm and we walked down to the Country Pride Motel and truckstop by the freeway and just had time to get some hamburgers, fries and shakes before the NBA final began on TV (which also had cable). It was heaven sitting there with our feet up, eating and watching the game which our team (both of us supported the Boston Celtics) won to clinch the Championship.  The motel had a laundry so we did our washing and some TV watching and diary writing before going to the great value All-You-Can-Eat salad restaurant across the road where we ate big.  After that we shopped and returned to the motel.  I called the Binnings and gave them a shopping list and Marj before returning to pack my groceries and write a late letter to Barb.  I got to bed at 1:30am, feeling still very full.
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