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 062

Day:  062
Date:  Thursday, 3 July 1986
Daily AT Miles:  25.4
Daily Other Miles:  0
Total AT Miles:  1228.4
Total All Miles:  1264.8
Weather:  Mild, windy, sunny.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli.
  Lunch:  Biscuits and peanut butter, health bar.
  Dinner:  Noodles and vegetables, instant pudding.
Aches:  Feet sore, particularly 4th left toe.
Animals Seen:  Deer, squirrels, chipmunks, snake.
People Seen:  9 overnight hikers, 7 day hikers, many others.

Journal:
Got up at 6am and managed to get away by 7:15am.  Chuck gave me his address near Boston and suggested I look him up.  I set off toward Blue Mountain summit, 4 miles away, hoping I would be able to get some water there.  I only had half a bottle and, because of the dry winter, the majority of the springs close to the Trail were dry.  There was a restaurant at Blue Mountain, but it was closed until 11am and it was 8:30am when I arrived.  There was no outside water tap, but I found a Pepsi vending machine and scraped together enough change to buy two cans.  This is America – no water, but Pepsi.  The going had been relatively good and I was making good time as I pressed on northward.  The AT continued to follow a low wooded ridge.  Soon it became very rocky and slow again (at least the rocks weren’t wet) and followed a rocky ridge known as The Knife Edge.  It would have been good fun without a pack on!  I continued to make surprisingly good time which I attributed to the much lighter pack.  There continued to be clear views from a number of rocky knobs and outcrops in both directions.  I reached Overbridge Shelter at 2:30pm for a late lunch.  There was a dead (shot) copperhead snake in the fireplace.  The Trail then descended to Lehigh Gap and crossed the Lehigh River on a road bridge – there was lots of traffic around; people knocking off early for a long weekend.  The mountains around the Gap had been denuded by pollution from the nearby zinc smelting operation.  The ascent up the other side was steep and involved clambering over barren rocks.  Good views.  At the ridge top the vegetation was still sparse.  I decided to walk until 6:30pm even though I would have passed the day’s target (a spring).  If the going was good tomorrow, I might make it to Delaware Water Gap.  At 6:30pm I found a nice little campsite by the Trail and had a pleasant evening before retiring at 9pm.
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