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 082

Day:  082
Date:  Wednesday, 23 July 1986
Daily AT Miles:  23.2
Daily Other Miles:  0
Total AT Miles:  1595.8
Total All Miles:  1642.4
Weather:  Very warm, sunny.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli, health drink.
  Lunch:  Biscuits and peanut, health bar.
  Dinner:  Macaroni cheese, instant pudding.
Aches:  Right little toe and right foot sore.
Animals Seen:  Porcupine.
People Seen:  4 overnight hikers, 5 day hikers, some others.

Journal:
To give myself eight hours sleep, I waited till 6am to get up then took longer than usual to leave because I still had to repack my muesli and gorp.  I left just before 8am and set out on a beautiful day, even a little cool at the start.  The Trail was fairly easy walking and I made good time despite my right little toe still hurting a lot and placing a lot of strain on my right foot as a whole.  There was a steep rocky descent from Harmon Hill to VT 9 where I took my morning break next to a stream.  As I set out up the mountain on the other side, I met a little man with paint brush and pail who was putting the blaze marks on trees for the Trail.  The climb was steady but, for some reason, I was in better spirits today and it didn’t bother me and I still made good progress despite limping.  I had a late lunch at 3pm with only a little over six miles to go to my target Shelter.  It had warmed up, but was still quite pleasant walking in the forest – I guess a bit of altitude helped.  At the top of Glastonbury Mountain (3750’), I climbed the old fire tower which gave absolutely superb views in every direction. Lots of mountains and the Green Mountains National Forest.  It was great.  It was then a fairly rocky descent to Kid Gore Shelter where I arrived at 6:50pm.  Had it to myself.  A porcupine visited after dinner.  Decided to sleep without the tent – nowhere to pitch it – and hope the bugs aren’t too bad.  Went to bed at about 9pm.  Not a bad day.
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