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 067

Day:  067
Date:  Tuesday, 8 July 1986
Daily AT Miles:  20.9
Daily Other Miles:  0.8 (to store)
Total AT Miles:  1322.9
Total All Miles:  1362.3
Weather:  Hot, humid, hazy, sunny.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli.
  Lunch:  Pizza, pint of ice-cream, quart of orange juice.
  Dinner:  Noodles and vegetables, instant pudding.
Aches:  Feet, particularly toes, very sore.
Animals Seen:  Rabbits, groundhogs.
People Seen:  Many.

Journal:
Got up at 6am, hoping to do 24 miles on another hot day.  Hoping feet better.  Jerry said he planned to do 24 miles too!  We left (the shadow and I) at 7:30am and walked steadily at first through woods then across farm and grazing land for seven miles.  I then said I was going into Unionville (0.4 miles off the AT) in New York to get some supplies and have a snack.  Jerry wasn’t that keen on the detour, but came anyway.  After shopping, we went to the local pub and had an early lunch of pizza (shared). Very friendly barmaid.  We left at 12:30pm in the heat of the day with 17 miles to go.  It was going to be tough.  Jerry wanted to take a short-cut, but I wouldn’t, so he didn’t either.  The Trail went through woods for a while, then across fields then a hot road-walk.  The feet were sore – Jerry’s too.  After the road-walk, there was a solid climb over a ridge then, to our horror, a relocation which was hard going – badly prepared – and cost us a good half hour.  There was then another hot road-walk with my feet killing me.  I removed my inner socks but that seemed to make things worse – perhaps my wool socks needed a wash. I don’t know why the feet were so sore, particularly the toes.  Could be from awkward walking because of exposed skin on old blister, could be the heat, could be dirty socks, could be the rocks.  We were short on water, but got some from a house because the campsite we were aiming for was dry.  We reached the end of the road-walk with six miles to go at 5:30pm.  I decided to change my socks and told Jerry I was only going another three miles then camping.  He said he wanted to go further, so we said friendly farewells and he was off.  The last three miles involved a steep rocky climb to Mount Wawayanda then along its crest. It was slow going and took me until 7:10pm to reach my target campsite next to a suspect stream.  Still, it was a nice spot and I was glad to stop.  If my feet are bad tomorrow, I may try and get to Gordon’s tomorrow night and have a day off, though it will put pressure on me to reach later deadlines.  We’ll see tomorrow.  Went to bed at 9:10pm and spent 40 minutes catching diary up.  Lots of mozzies, very warm and I’m thirsty.  Had better days!  That’s three toughies in a row.  Record temperatures in New York.
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