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 066

Day:  066
Date:  Monday, 7 July 1986
Daily AT Miles:  19.3
Daily Other Miles:  0
Total AT Miles:  1302.0
Total All Miles:  1340.6
Weather:  Very hot, humid and hazy.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli, quart of ice-cream, quart of orange juice, donut.
  Lunch:  Biscuits and peanut butter, Mars Bar.
  Dinner:  Macaroni cheese, instant pudding.
Aches:  Toes and ex-blister very sore.
Animals Seen:  Chipmunks.
People Seen:  8 overnight hikers, many others.

Journal:
Got up at 6am and left at 7:30am on a day which again promised to be very hot.  My right foot was sore and I wanted to walk slowly, so I sent a reluctant Jerry ahead of me.  I think he’s worried I might try and give him the slip.  After four miles I reached Worthington’s Bakery, where Jerry was waiting, and supplemented breakfast with a quart of orange juice, a quart of ice-cream, a donut and a Dr Pepper.  We then headed off on a bit of road-walking before the Trail again entered the woods and climbed to a ridge.  Unfortunately, it was again rocky making it slow progress, made worse by the heat and my sore foot.  All in all I was feeling miserable.  Jerry, a nice inoffensive guy, preferred me to lead so he could keep me in his sights, which didn’t help matters – a permanent shadow.  We reached the crest of a ridge and found an old pavilion which had stone floors and was beautifully cool.  We hung around for an unscheduled ½ hour.  The Trail then descended for a few miles and we stopped for lunch at 1:30pm in a car park which had a water pump – lovely icy water.  As we were about to leave, the leader of what turned out to be a seemingly disorganised hike for pre-teen boys arrived headed south.  We met the tired and waterless boys straggled along the Trail as we headed north.  Heat and sore feet and rocky Trail compelled me to have breaks at three miles in the afternoon and we also stopped at Highpoint State Park Visitors Centre for water before the last two miles to Highpoint Shelter. It was a reasonable Shelter, but the heat and mozzies decided us both to sleep in our tents.  We arrived at 6:30pm so had time for a leisurely dinner before retiring at 9pm.  There was a thunderstorm at about 11pm, but the tent did well.
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