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 093

Day:  093
Date:  Sunday, 3 August 1986
Daily AT Miles:  13.7
Daily Other Miles:  0.3 (to shelter)
Total AT Miles:  1801.2
Total All Miles:  1854.7
Weather:  Warm, humid, partly sunny, fog in the morning.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli, health drink.
  Lunch:  Biscuits and peanut butter, health bar.
  Dinner:  Noodles, instant pudding.
Aches:  None.
Animals Seen:  Squirrels, chipminks.
People Seen:  1 AT Hiker (by sections), many other overnight and day hikers.

Journal:
Got up at 6am after a restless night.  Fortunately, it didn’t rain (though it was quite windy) but lots of people climbed over me during the night to get to the loo.  I packed up and woke Pete at 6:30am.  We had breakfast and left at 7:45am after asking the campsite caretaker to book us into the AMC Lake of the Clouds Hut for tomorrow night.  The fog was clearing and we could see some of the closer mountains.  The Trail was slow going and we made our first stop at AMC Galehead Hut where we had peanut brittle (good!...all we could eat for 50¢!).  We then carried on along the Trail which was mostly through scrubby conifer.  We had lunch at an overlook near Zeacliff in improving weather before walking down to the AMC Zeacliff Hut (all the pancakes you could eat for 20¢!...good!).  It was then another five miles to our target of Ethan Ponds Shelter.  Peter had been moving better today (less uphill) and the last part of the Trail was easy walking with good views and we arrived at 6pm.  In residence already was southbound AT Hiker, Tom, and seven young people (kids, really) from some camp.  It was pretty noisy, but they all went to bed at 9pm, which was good.  Ten of us in the Shelter built for a maximum of eight was a bit of a squeeze, but we managed.  It rained a little, but not much, at dusk.
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