Day 29 Restart

Writing from my tent after getting back on trail and making it farther than we expected.


All things considered, today went very well. We set up our next couple supply drops and Tyler’s dad dropped us back at Devils Fork Gap. In a sick twist of fate, a famous trail angel named Fresh Grounds was at Devils Fork. Tyler and I know Fresh Grounds from 2020 and he is incredibly nice person who spends the whole hiking season driving up the trail with the first major group of hikers. He travels from Springer to Katahdin in his van, feeding hikers as they pass road crossings. Unfortunately we weren’t hungry as we had already eaten breakfast. Hopefully we run into Fresh Grounds again.



After Devils Fork we had perfect weather and a pretty easy section of trail. Before long we had gained a decent bit of elevation and were able to see the ridge that we would be hiking for the rest of the day. 



Eventually we ascended the ridge and realized that we would be done with the planned 12.5 miles by like 3PM. So we planned to go another 4 miles. 


As we began ascending Big Bald, the only major mountain for the day, we had excellent views from the ridge. 


Before 5:45 we summated Big Bald and stopped for a snack. Behind us we could see the towering Smokies and in front we could see into the Roan Highlands. 




From Big Bald we dropped down for two miles and set up camp. 


I definitely lost some endurance and strength. My legs were pretty tired coming into camp. However, I’m very happy with covering 16.5 miles between 10:30AM and 6:45PM. 


The one area where I struggled today was eating food. I still have a hard time eating and the more I make myself eat the more nausea I start to feel. I don’t think I’m at risk of throwing up again but it makes eating unpleasant. 


Tomorrow we are planning to hike around 18 miles and make it past Uncle Johnnie’s hostel, where we left our next resupply. The trail doesn’t gain much elevation so it should be a pretty easy day. It’s supposed to start raining around 7PM so hopefully we can beat that. 


It feels great to be back on trail and making progress again. We lost some momentum but we will gain it back within the week. It was awesome to hike without ankle or calf pain. I hope that doesn’t come back. 


Goodnight,

Walker 


If you want to follow Tyler or Spencer, here are their logs as well:


Tyler: https://tylerat2024.blogspot.com/?m=1


Spencer: https://www.instagram.com/baxter.bound?utm_source=qr&igsh=MWx4MzRqa3M4dGk3Mw==

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Epilogue

I am officially an Appalachian Trail thru hiker. We hiked the AT from start to finish. It took 125 days, with 20 days off. Counting my 2020 attempt, I have hiked over 2,830 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Including days off we averaged 17.58 miles a day for 125 days. Not counting days off we averaged over 20 miles a day. It was harder, more beautiful, and more worthwhile than I hoped for or expected. When I think back on the hike as a whole, the generosity of our friends and families is foremost in my mind.   My biggest fears going into the hike were related to health and weather. When asked for prayer topics, these were the primary two items that came to my mind. The largest injury suffered through the entire hike was when Tyler cut his finger after a fall in New York. Otherwise we had all of the minor blisters, sore joints and muscles that you would expect, but we had no major injuries. We were given remarkable weather throughout the hike. Without a hint of exaggeration, I believ...
Read more

Day 125 Summit Day

Image
Today we finished the Appalachian Trail.   A quick note before I get into the update for today. In a separate post I will write out an epilogue where I go over my broader thoughts and experiences of the trail. For today, I will write like I have for all the other days, capturing my memories and sharing my initial thoughts.   I slept well last night between 9PM and 4AM. We woke up early to make the 2 hour drive to Katahdin Stream trailhead. We grabbed left over pancakes from the day before and hopped in the car. The drive to the trailhead went smoothly. We arrived at Baxter and made it to the parking lot with some time to spare. We registered with the park ranger and got our AT Thru Hiker finisher cards.  Spencer and I are 40th and 41st people to finish the AT this year.  Spencer, Brooke, Ashley and I started hiking at around 7:30 with 5 miles to the summit.   The initial ascent was quite easy. With 10 miles out and back to hike we really weren’t in a rush. Ashle...
Read more

Day 118 Fording Rivers

Image
Today we forded 4 rivers and hiked 26 miles in 90 degree heat.   I slept very well last night, pretty much straight through the night. We woke up at 6:30 and started hiking around 8.  We had a couple decent views from the Pleasant Pond ridge before dropping down into the valley.  We spent most of the day just hiking through the woods. Occasionally there would be mud or roots or rocks, but overall it was pretty simple.  Before climbing our only mountain for the day we passed Moxie Pond.  Then we climbed up Moxie Bald Mountain. On the way up the trail went through some really cool rock formations and caves.  The top of Moxie Bald had a couple good views.  After Moxie Bald we spent pretty much the next 18 miles hiking through woods.  The only remaining excitement for the day were the river fords. None of them were dangerous, but we had to walk through the river to get to the trail on the other side. We forded Bald Mountain Stream, Marble Brook, and t...
Read more