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 087

Day:  087
Date:  Monday, 28 July 1986.
Daily AT Miles:  22.7
Daily Other Miles:  1.2 (1.0 in Hanover, 0.2 to Shelter).
Total AT Miles:  1707.1
Total All Miles:  1756.2
Weather:  Very warm, cloudy in the morning, sunny in the afternoon, humid.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Oats.
  Lunch:  Sub, fudge brownies, ice-cream, chocolate milk.
  Dinner:  Pizza, ice-cream, orange juice.
Aches:  Feet a bit sore.
Animals Seen:  Chipmunks.
People Seen:  1 AT Thru-hiker, 4 day hikers, many others.

Journal:
Woke up at 5:30am after a good night’s sleep to hear it raining lightly outside.  It was very tempting to roll over and go back to sleep.  I got up and packed up using the shelter of my suspended groundsheet, but it had really more or less stopped.  I ate the last of my oats for breakfast and set off at 7am through damp undergrowth.  The Trail wound around through the wet dripping forest across pastures and through bogs, so it didn’t take long for my feet to become thoroughly saturated.  I aimed to walk the 12 miles to West Hartford taking only short breaks and arrived at the general store there at about noon.  I bought myself a big lunch.  Another Thru-Hiker who had spent last night at Cloudland Shelter (I passed it mid-morning) turned up and we chatted briefly while we sat on the bench outside the store and ate.  (He had hitched from Dalton to Killington because he said he had walked that section before.)  I left at 1:10pm to walk the remaining ten miles to Hanover, the first town in New Hampshire, where I planned to resupply.  The calories I ate for lunch seemed to give me a boost and the time passed fairly quickly as the day became sunny hot and humid.  I stopped at Norwich Post Office en route and posted off some used maps.  The Trail crossed the pretty Connecticut River where people were swimming and climbed into the pretty college (Dartmouth) town.  There were lots of joggers out.  I was undecided whether to stop at an Inn in town or keep moving, after buying groceries, to the next Shelter.  I also had to ring Peter and John C.  I felt that, after the last expensive motel, another Inn was not really justified. Also, if I stayed, I would probably call Barb in the morning – more expense.  I walked through town and ½ a mile out the other side before I knew it.  There I found a supermarket and did my shopping and then repacked it on a bench in the foyer.  By this time it was 6:10pm, and I decided to have dinner, make the calls, and keep moving.  I walked back into town – very swanky, full of students and beautiful people, and had a pizza in a shop.  I made my calls and arranged to meet Marj (aunt) and Peter (cousin) next Friday night at Cascade Inn in North Woodstock and call John C from Pinkham Notch in a week.  I then went to another supermarket, bought some ice-cream for dessert and another quart of orange juice (we’ll see what half a gallon of orange juice does for me tomorrow!), then walked out of town in the gathering dusk at 8:10pm.  I arrived at Velvet Rocks Shelter at 8:45pm – almost dark.  There was no-one there (it looked like a nice spot).  I quickly set up the tent, ate the ice-cream, drank the orange juice, had a wash, hung everything up, and retired at 9:20pm to update my diary and sleep.  Not such a bad day.
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