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 111 - Winturri Shelter to Podunk Brook

Day: 111

Date: Sunday, 13 August 2023

Start:  Winturri Shelter (AT Mile 1729.1)

Finish:  Podunk Brook (AT Mile 1747.8)

Daily Kilometres:  34.1 (Ascent 4537', Descent 5781')

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

Total Kilometres:  2872.3

Weather:  Mild to warm, humid, mostly sunny with a shower in the morning.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Waffles & donuts

  Lunch:  Trail mix 

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals.

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  We had a very pleasant breakfast at the Abracadabra Coffee Shop with friend, Rob (añhiked with us for a few days in Pennsylvania and hosted us at New Haven for a few days off recently), who detoured on his way to climb 4000 footers in New Hampshire to meet up.  Also brought us a cold six pack of Diet Coke and some needed bug repellent.

Lowlight:  None really.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

There was some heavy rain overnight, but we were dry inside the shelter and kept our tent dry.  We left at 6:30am and followed a suggested trail detour, because of a washed-out bridge approach, which took us down a very pretty rural road in the early morning light.  Along the road was clear evidence of the flooding that had occurred in mid-July - road washouts, damaged bridges, landslips and toppled trees.

Fortuitously, the detour took us directly past the coffee shop where we had arranged to meet friend, Rob, for breakfast (see above) and coincidentally he arrived at the exact same moment as us.  We spent a pleasant hour breakfasting and catching up before Rob continued his journey north and we continued our hike.

For the second day in a row, the trail was in generally good condition and the hiking enjoyable apart from some serious climbs.  At the top of these climbs, however, there was some beautiful hiking through woodland with little undergrowth on pine needle- or leaf litter-covered trail. In places, the trail emerged into lush meadows offering good views and in the woods we often crossed or followed old stone walls indicating long lost farms.

Near the end of the day the trail passed through the hamlet of West Hartford from where we had a last climb before finding a nice camping spot beside Podunk Brook a little before 6:30pm.  We went through the usual routine and were settling down inside the tent for the night before 8:00pm, happy with our day.

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