Julie and I are hiking the Appalachian Trail in the US from Springer Mt, Georgia, to Mt Katahdin, Maine, in the north, a distance of almost 2,200 miles (3,540 km). Our journey will start in early May 2023 and is expected to take about five months. We will be mostly camping, carrying 3-5 days of supplies to get us between resupply points, where we will be staying in hostels/hotels/motels where we can. I hiked the entire Appalachian Trail back in 1986 so it will be interesting to see how much has changed and how much it has stayed the same.

Appalachian Trail - Day 031 - AT Mile 440.2 to AT Mile 462.6

Day: 031

Date: Thursday, 25 May 2023

Start:  Ridgetop at AT Mile 440.2

Finish:  Unnamed ridge at AT Mile 462.6

Daily Kilometres:  37.9

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  784.4

Weather:  Warm and partly sunny

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts

  Lunch:  Trail mix

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals

Aches:  Dave - very tired; Julie - nothing to report

Highlight:  After we crossed Tennessee Route 91, we had about a mile of walking through fields covered in yellow daisies(?).  It was nice to be out in the open and to have views all around, but the flower display was the icing on the cake.

Lowlight:  None really.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Today was unremarkable.  We woke at the usual 5:30am and were hiking by 6:30am.  For almost the whole day we were following a ridge that oscillated between 3,000’ and 4,000’ walking in the woods with green understory and filtered views hrough the trees of blue hazy mountains.


Generally the trail quality was good and, although we always seemed to be going up or down, the grades were reasonable and we made the good time we hoped for.  Tomorrow we reach small town of Damascus, where we will be having Saturday off, but would like to get there before lunch on Friday because we have some parcels to collect from the post office.  Also, as we have found out from fellow thru-hikers this evening, we should aim to get to the Damascus Diner before 11:00am when they stop serving their renowned breakfast.


The only real variation to the ridgetop scenery today was the short pastureland section after a road crossing (see above) which was a welcome change.


We have seen and chatted with a few thru-hikers today and have ended up camping with Tassie, the girl from Tasmania, along with some other section hikers who, we hope, aren’t planning on being too noisy at the campfire they have going.


There are bears in the area with numerous sightings today, but not by us.  Hopefully, we to not get any nocturnal visitors.
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