Appalachian Trail - Day 071 - Peach Glen to Middlesex

Day: 071

Date: Tuesday, 04 July 2023

Start:  Peach Glen (AT Mile 1109.5)

Finish:  Middlesex (AT Mile 1132.2)

Daily Kilometres:  38.9 (Ascent 2667', Descent 3465')

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

Total Kilometres:  1904.8

Weather:  Very warm and humid and mostly sunny.

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts

  Lunch:  Turkey & cheese sandwich, ice-creams.

  Dinner:  Bacon cheeseburger & fries, ice-creams.

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

Highlight:  The afternoon's walking, though it was very warm and humid, was enjoyable as we traversed the Cumberland Valley across and alongside fields and past farms and crops.

Lowlight:  Dave learned this morning that a long-time American friend - an adventurer, mountain climber and talented runner - who had hiked with him for a week on the Appalachian Trail way back in 1986 as well as sharing other adventures, passed away yesterday.  He epitomized living life to the full, and gave Dave much to think about as he hiked this afternoon.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We were hiking by 6:10am on a beautiful sunlit morning after some torrential rain overnight.  Our hiking friend, Rob, was being picked up and taken back to his car from the Green Mountain Store at 9:00am so that was our first objective.

We reached there at 8:00am after an easy descent through pleasant forest but, sadly, though not unexpectedly, the store was closed until 10:00am because of American Independence Day.  Despite the early hour, we were both keen get some cold drinks from the vending machine outside the store but, also sadly, we didn't have the right change to buy even one drink!

We said our goodbyes to Rob who, after being shuttled back to his car, had a long drive back to Connecticut.  We had enjoyed his company for the past three days and he may be able to join us again later on the trail.

After leaving Rob, the trail climbed back up onto a ridge with rocks becoming more numerous in the mostly open forest.  Later in the morning, on the aptly named Rocky Ridge, it became very rocky with the trail, seemingly gratuitously, winding its way over boulders and through narrow rock passageways that provided no views and could have been bypassed.  It was slow going and tiring.

We took a morning break around 9:30am after about eight miles and about one third of the way to our objective for the day, a motel in Middlesex.  After the break, we had about another six miles of hills and rocky trail before we emerged into the pastureland of the Cumberland Valley and much easier walking.

Another two miles brought us into the pretty little town of Boiling Springs where many people were out enjoying their Independence Day holiday.  We passed the swimming pool which was teeming with children and followed a lakeshore path into the centre of town where we found a park bench in the shade.  Dave dried out our very wet tent flysheet while Julie walked to a nearby convenience store and bought us some lunch and very welcome cold drinks which enjoyed on the bench watching the world go by.

After lunch we continued our journey across the valley on a beautiful afternoon (see above) and eventually reached US 11, where we left the trail and walked about 0.5 miles along the road to the motel we had booked, arriving at 5:40pm.  Camping is very limited along the trail in the Cumberland Valley, so the motel was a convenient and welcome choice after a very humid and warm day.

We quickly showered and washing out our hiking clothes, then bought some dinner and supplies for tomorrow from a nearby highway service center.

It had been a long but interesting day, capped off by the motel management letting off fireworks outside our room as we are about to go to bed.