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 107

Day:  107
Date:  Sunday, 17 August 1986.
Daily AT Miles:  22.6
Daily Other Miles:  0
Total AT Miles:  2051.8
Total All Miles:  2109.8
Weather:  Warm, very humid, partly sunny.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Eggs, pancakes, orange juice.
  Lunch:  Biscuits and peanut butter, health bar.
  Dinner:  Macaroni cheese, instant pudding.
Aches:  None bad.
Animals Seen:  None.
People Seen:  10 overnight hikers, 5 day hikers, many others.

Journal:
I got up at 6:15am and after breakfast (big!) left Monson at about 7:40am.  Geoff and Jerry left with me and we all did the long road-walk out of town followed by a climb up on to a ridge on new trail.  The going was slow, but the forest was pretty and the Trail passed a number of attractive lakes.  Geoff dropped behind.  The Trail passed by Little Wilson Falls which were very pretty and followed by the first ford of the day.  The Trail then dropped off the ridge back onto a road and we had about five miles of road-walking, some of it in hot sun on a very humid day.  We reached the point where the Trail left the road and immediately had to ford Long Pond Stream.  We had lunch on the opposite bank at about 3pm while socks and feet dried, before leaving at 4pm to climb up 2000+’ Barren Mountain in very hot conditions.  There were some good, but hazy, views on the way up.  Once over the peak, the Trail descended and I reached Cloud Pond Lean-To at about 6:15pm.  It only had a dirt floor, but was in a very attractive setting by a lake.  Jerry arrived shortly after me, and Geoff at about 8:15pm.  It had begun to rain at about 7:45pm, and got heavier.  I blew out my candle soon after 9pm.
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