Appalachian Trail - Day 040 - Davis Farm Tk Jct to AT Mile 599.0

Day: 040

Date: Saturday, 03 June 2023

Start:  Davis Farm Tk Jct (AT Mile 577.0)

Finish:  AT Mile 599.0

Daily Kilometres:  36.0 (Ascent 4262', Descent 5118')

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

Total Kilometres:  1007.9

Weather:  Warm and sunny with a late thunderstorm and an hour's rain.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts 

  Lunch:  Mexicali subs

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals

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

Highlight:  Last night, as Dave was writing the blog, Julie, who was checking the navigation app for today's hike, announced that there was a diner on the trail where we could get burgers, ice-cream and drinks tomorrow then, 10 seconds later, she said, but it's closed on weekends.  Bummer!  Better not to have known it was there in the first place!  Anyway, as we hiked along on another very warm morning, sweating profusely on the hills, it was hard not to think about the diner and those cold drinks.  As we approached the location of the diner after 15 miles of hiking we saw an old notice posted on a tree, giving a phone number, and saying that Chuck & Donna liked to help thru-hikers and to text them if we needed anything and if they were available they would help.  Dave sent a text saying we wanted to make a quick trip into the small town of Bland, three miles away, to buy some take-out food and drinks.  Within a few minutes Chuck had responded that he was on his way, and the result was that we ended up with two foot-long subs for lunch along with some lovely cold drinks (which we ate and drank in front of a group of other thru-hikers who turned up while Dave was in town with Chuck getting the food while Julie minded the packs).

Lowlight:  It was again very warm and humid today and Dave is finding the warmer hiking conditions tough.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We were hiking by 6:30am on a mild morning as the sun rose ahead of us filtered through the trees.  The trail was easier underfoot than yesterday afternoon and descending, which made hiking pleasant.  Julie startled a skunk, which fled from the trail without giving her a "burst".

We leapfrogged a few times with three generations of a family on the last day of their annual week-long hike and chatted to them at various times, and saw quite a lot of others thru-hikers during the day, some clearly slackpacking.

Water availability was to be an issue for much of the day since the trail predominantly followed ridgelines, so we planned accordingly, taking breaks where we could get water to avoid carrying much if possible.

Sadly, because the diner we reached around 1:45pm was closed (see above) getting water there was not an option and there was no other water before we were to camp at day's end unless we detoured off the trail and descended a long way.  To solve the problem, Dave bought 3 litres of water while getting the lunch in town, and we carried that for the afternoon to our campsite.  We didn't like carrying that extra weight, especially up the long climb after lunch, but it saved time and effort later on.

After climbing onto a ridge again after lunch, the trail was again quite good and the heat was lessened by a thunderstorm and some steady rain.  It had stopped by 5:30pm and we were able to find a really nice campsite atop a knoll at 6:30pm.

For most of the day we were passing through woodlands with lots of wildflowers, many past their best now, and filtered views to the valleys below and mountains beyond.  Overall, apart from the warm conditions we had a good day.