Appalachian Trail - Day 039 - Tilson Gap to Davis Farm Tk Jct

Day: 039

Date: Friday, 02 June 2023

Start:  Tilson Gap (AT Mile 555.1)

Finish:  Davis Farm Tk Jct (AT Mile 577.0)

Daily Kilometres:  36.5 (Ascent 5636' Descent 4741')

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

Total Kilometres:  971.9

Weather:  Warm and sunny.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts

  Lunch:  Trail mix

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals

Aches:  Dave - very tired and a few niggles; Julie - nothing to report.

Highlight:  Sharing a picnic table and conversation with a couple of young thru-hikers outside Chestnut Knob Shelter for lunch overlooking, far below, Burke's Garden valley.

Lowlight:  The last six miles of the day, when we were already hot and tired, exhaustingly followed the spine of a long rocky ridge that was very difficult going. Short ups and downs, and rocks at every angle meant every step had to be precisely placed.  Very tiring and slow.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We were hiking by 6:30am and finished our descent into a lovely valley through meadows as the sun rose.  It was a joy to be walking in such a place.  After crossing a minor road we climbed through more meadows and eventually back into the woods.

We crossed another road after three miles and saw there was a large picnic shelter, that even had power points, so we stopped there for an early breakfast and charged our phones while we ate.

From there it was back into the woods and a huge and sweaty climb over a ridge before descending to a river on the other side.  Unfortunately, a bridge had been washed out so we had to ford the river.  Dave took a chance that his Goretex boots were high enough to keep his feet dry, and judged correctly.  Julie took her shoes off and waded across through the cold water.

Then it was an even bigger and sweatier climb up to the summit of Chestnut Ridge, which was largely treeless and gave fantastic views.  We stopped for a pleasant late lunch at a shelter atop the ridge (see above) at 4,400'.

We saw a lot of thru-hikers today and were a bit disappointed to see that so many of them were slackpacking, that is, making use of shuttles to avoid carrying their full packs, most of them much younger than us.

We descended from the shelter and loaded up with water at a spring for the last six miles to a target campsite which had no water.  The extra weight made those last six miles particularly tough (see above).  With about a mile to go we crossed a road where there was a large encampment of hikers and others already in party mode.  Julie was offered a joint and a beer on arrival.  She declined, but did get some candy and Gatorade.

After another mile we reached out tent site and gratefully set up camp after a long day.