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 056

Day:  056
Date:  Friday, 27 June 1986
Daily AT Miles:  28.1
Daily Other Miles:  1.0 (0.2 shelter, 0.8 spring)
Total AT Miles:  1101.2
Total All Miles:  1136.2
Weather:  Hot, humid, mostly sunny, a little rain in the late afternoon.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli, health drink.
  Lunch:  Soup, salad, dessert (All You Can Eat)
  Dinner:  None.
Aches:  Sore feet.
Animals Seen:  Deer, 2 snakes, squirrels, tortoise.
People Seen:  1 AT Hiker (by sections), 1 overnight hiker, 1 day hiker, many others.

Journal:
I got up at 6am and left at 7:20am for what promised to be a long day including the famous Cumberland Valley 10+ mile road walk which I was looking forward to.  I said good-bye to Kent and Sandy, and Paul.  The Trail was easy going at first and I made good progress.  However, later there were some relocations which took the Trail up on some very rocky ridges and the going became very slow.  It also got very hot.  I was walking 5 mile stretches between breaks because I wanted to reach a Carlisle Truck Stop for a late lunch.  After about 12 miles the Trail descended to the road and I began the road walk.  There was a fierce sun and I was a bit worried about it blazing down on the back of my neck.  However, as the day wore on, the haze got thicker, eventually turning into cloud, and the sun ceased to be a problem.  After I’d walked about 4 miles through the pleasing rural countryside, I reached the small village of Churchtown and found Paul sitting under a tree.  He had taken some short-cuts again – a little tedious.  He then proceeded to follow me along the road about 100 yards behind.  There was supposed to be a lady living along the road who gave ice-creams to AT hikers but, when we found her house, she wasn’t home.  I pressed on along the road walking the 4 miles to the truckstop in an hour – amazing how much quicker the pace is along the road.  Paul fell behind, but not until after we caught two other hikers, Gordon and Tommy, the former completing the AT after starting last year and the latter out for two weeks.  I was first at the truckstop but was later joined by the other three and we all ate big on the All You Can Eat soup, salad and dessert.  It was good.  Paul and I left there at 4:45pm for the 7 miles to Darlington Shelter.  The first 3 or 4 miles were mainly on roads but then the Trail climbed steadily and very rockily to a ridge.  It began raining lightly.  I reached the Shelter at 7:15pm and set out on the long overgrown walk (about ¼ mile) down to the spring.  It had stopped flowing and the water looked bad.  I cursed not having filled my water bottles at the truckstop.  I drank my two cans of Coke before setting off further down the Trail (1.7 miles) to a supposed spring and campsite.  I met Paul coming into the Shelter.  He decided to stay there.  I reached the campsite at 8:30pm but couldn’t get to the water because of poison ivy so just put up my tent (40% chance of rain) and went to bed hot (it was still 80°F), a bit thirsty, but not particularly hungry.  It took me a long time to get to sleep.
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