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 045

Day:  045
Date:  Monday, 16 June 1986
Daily AT Miles:  26.6
Daily Other Miles:  0.7 (0.3 campground, 0.3 store, 0.1 shelter)
Total AT Miles:  880.7
Total All Miles:  908.4
Weather:  Hot, humid, mostly sunny.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli, two bananas.
  Lunch:  Biscuits and peanut butter, corn chips.
  Dinner:  Corn chips, ice-cream.
Aches:  Blister on right foot, wasp sting on left wrist, numbness in left knee.
Animals Seen:  Several deer, chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits.
People Seen:  Ten overnight hikers, many others.

Journal:
Got up at 6am after quite a good night’s sleep (though I could have slept longer) and after a somewhat leisurely start (finished reading the paper) I set out reluctantly on my 26+ mile day in weather that was forecast to be hot and humid.  Knowing that it would be hard, I paced myself and had a rest every hour.  The new shorts and T-shirt were definitely more comfortable to hike in.  I set as my goal Swift Run Gap for lunch, 17 miles down the track and, with a little help from the Sony Walkman, made it at 3pm.  Although there were a number of viewpoints, the immensely thick haze marred the views.  It was quite oppressive.  After lunch, I set out for Lewis Mountain Campground, 9 miles away, and reached there at 6:50pm, feeling very tired.  The store was open and I purchased a quart of ice-cream and three cans of Coke (plus some powdered milk) for dinner.  Fortunately, the storekeeper told me the water was bad at Bearfence Gap where I was headed, so I was able to top up.  I arrived at Bearfence at 7:15pm, very footsore, and got a fire going while I had a wash.  Although the fire was good, the grill was too high and, after a lot of stuffing around, I never did manage to get water boiled for macaroni cheese.  In the end, I dined on corn chips, ice-cream and Coke.  As it got dark, there were lots of fireflies dancing around.  I went to bed at about 9:40pm.  There were some no-see-ums biting.
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