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 113 - Mink Brook to Jacobs Brook

Day: 113

Date: Tuesday, 15 August 2023

Start:  Mink Brook (AT Mile 1764.7)

Finish:  Jacobs Brook (AT Mile 1783.2)

Daily Kilometres:  29.0 (Ascent 5374', Descent 5272') 

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

Total Kilometres:  2928.8

Weather:  Overcast all day with steady light rain in the morning.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts

  Lunch:  Trail mix 

  Dinner:  Noodles

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

Highlight:  It was nice to get some good views from the fire lookout tower on Smarts Mountain even if clouds obscured some of the vista.  There were mountains near and far.

Lowlight:  A fast pack up in steadily intensifying rain in pre-dawn darkness wasn't much fun, though our gear didn't get too wet.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We woke at 5:00am and realised as we were packing the stuff inside the tent that it was starting to rain.  So, we got the tent down and packed out gear away as quickly as we could by the light of our headlamps and were hiking before 6:00am on a very gloomy morning in light rain.

It was a day of big climbs, starting with Moose Mountain (2292') in the morning and the more arduous Smarts Mountain (3237') in the afternoon with the Holt's Ledge in between.  All provided some views, despite the weather, with those from Smarts Mountain being the best.

After each high point we had to descend to cross valleys which were usually quite marshy.  The trail was also frequently boggy, but not as bad as some recent days.

We startled and glimpsed a bear rapidly descend from a tree around noon and saw a small snake lazing on one of the rock ledges as we climbed Smarts Mountain.

On top of that mountain, we also got our first taste of the wiry, gnarly conifer vegetation we are going to see more of at altitude as we head north.

Dave found the steep and technical climb later in the day very tough, so we were happy to have covered 18+ miles for the day and reach our target campsite beside the rushing Jacobs Brook around 6:15pm.  There is a "trail family" (a group of hikers, generally young, who travel together) also camped here but, after some initial boisterous was, they are quiet now.

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