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 035 - Lost Mountain Shelter to Jefferson National Forest (AT Mile 508.5)

Day: 035

Date: Monday, 29 May 2023

Start:  Lost Mountain Shelter (AT Mile 486.7)

Finish:  Jefferson National Forest (AT Mile 508.5)

Daily Kilometres:  35.7 (Ascent 4938', Descent 3369')

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

Total Kilometres:  860.8

Weather:  Cold and raining until noon then occasionally sunny with occasional drizzle.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts 

  Lunch:  Trail mix

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals

Aches:  Dave - trench feet from walking in wet shoes and socks all day; Julie - nothing to report.

Highlight:  Grayson Highlands lived up to expectations and the weather cleared up nicely to give us great views across the moor-like high plain punctuated by rocky outcrops.  We also encountered some of the fabled wild ponies (who didn't seem very wild).

Lowlight:  The trail was hard work most of the day. Rocky, rooty and very wet; river-like in parts with many big, deep and unavoidable puddles.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We packed as quietly as we could to avoid disturbing the other shelter residents and left at 6:40am hoping we hadn't left anything behind in the dark shelter.

It was very gloomy and soon began to rain again, having rained on and off all night.  On the trail it was dark enough to use a headlamp in the rhododendron groves even though it was past sunrise time.

There was also a lot of climbing as we ascended to near 5,000' on the shoulder of Beech Mountain. It was cold and wet as we skirted the slopes of Whitetop Mountain with the trail becoming a stream and huge puddles.

Fortunately, as we neared the more open country at the higher altitudes there were a few breaks in the rain and the visibility improved to the point where we could see the fog-shrouded surrounding mountains and valleys.

Because of the wet weather we delayed our breakfast break and then ended up delaying our lunch break as well, which we eventually had at Thomas Knob Shelter, sharing it with a number of other hikers and enjoying some interesting conversations.

After lunch we entered the Grayson Highlands State Park and with better weather enjoyed our transit (see above).  We thought we were done with the rain, but drizzle and occasional fog returned in the late afternoon though, by the time we found an excellent tent site on an open ridge around 7:00pm, there was some more sunshine and it was a nice evening. We even had some wild ponies come and visit after we had retired to our tent.

We completed five weeks hiking today and also passed the 500 Mile mark.

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