Appalachian Trail - Day 064 - Brook (AT Mile 994.1) to near Blackburn Trail Center.

Day: 064

Date: Tuesday, 27 June 2023

Start:  Brook (AT Mile 994.1)

Finish:  Nr Blackburn Trail Center (AT Mile 1013.8)

Daily Kilometres:  34.8 (Ascent 5456', Descent 4823')

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

Total Kilometres:  1706.8

Weather:  Very warm, overcast and very humid with a heavy thunderstorm and rain around midday.

Accommodation:  Tent 

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts 

  Lunch:  Hot dogs, potato salad & snacks.

  Dinner:  Trail mix.

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

Highlight:  At around noon, when we were due a break and Dave was totally over "The Roller Coaster" (see below), we reached a trail junction sign with cardboard attached pointing to Bears Den Hostel (which we hadn't been intending to visit) saying there was "Trail Magic" there today.  It was only 0.1 miles off the trail so we went to investigate.  As we arrived in the grounds of the magnificent stone hostel (circa 1930), the "Trail Angels" were packing up the BBQ and food in anticipation of a thunderstorm that was imminent.  We just got into the pergola and sat down when the rain started and soon became torrential with lightning and thunder.  What timing!  Despite the weather, the "angels", who had met when hiking the trail in 2012 and had stayed in touch, prepared us two hot dogs each and gave us potato salad, chips and other goodies as well as cold drinks.  It was a much-needed boost.

Lowlight:  "The Roller Coaster" is a named 14-mile stretch of the trail with a reputation for being tough.  As the name implies, there are a lot of ups and downs, but what the name doesn't tell you is that the difficulty is magnified by how rocky and technical the trail is.  Today, it was also very warm and humid, and it was tough, especially for Dave.  Every step seemed to involve a high knee lift and careful foot placement and he was bathed in sweat with it running off the end of his nose like a leaking faucet.  Although it was pleasant forest and had a couple of good views, it was a very draining 14 miles.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We were hiking by soon after 6:30am on a very still, warm and humid morning, somewhat apprehensive about "The Roller Coaster" (see above), the start of which we reached after two miles.

Not long after that we met Phoenix, a fellow thru-hiker we have stayed in touch with, who was slackpacking in the opposite direction and we chatted for a while.

Initially, "The Roller Coaster" didn't seem too bad, but it gradually wore us down as the day wore on.  Fortunately, there were a few milestones reached to offset the enervating hiking during the day - we passed the 1,000 mile mark of our hike, and we left Virginia and entered West Virginia - both very significant.

We were also the very lucky recipients of some perfectly timed "trail magic" at lunchtime (see above), which powered us (maybe an exaggeration) through the last four miles of "The Roller Coaster" in mid-afternoon.  Although the rocky technical trail continued to challenge in places, the last part of the day was much more pleasant as we travelled along a lightly wooded ridge as the evening approached.  There was even some sunshine.  Because we had spent nearly two hours at the Bears Den Hostel eating and avoiding the thunderstorm, we walked until 7:30pm, which is quite late for us, and found a nice camping spot near a viewpoint on the ridge. We just had trail mix for dinner, having eaten so well at lunchtime, before getting into the tent for some much-needed rest.