3 Day weekend

My little hatchbacks wheels struggled for traction. Summer performance tires are no match for rained out, non maintained national park roads, especially when climbing uphill. There were stretches of road that I could really open up and semi rally my way through, but the bulk of my travel was in the single digits. I was already behind schedule and what I imagined taking 30 minutes was now over an hour in the making. 7 miles. That's all it was, but man was it rough. My sport suspension was howling at me to stop but I just kept it in first and let her drag me up the hill. I looked forward to the descent, but come to find out, it wasn't as much fun as I had envisioned.

Finally I had made it to the top of the mountain. The turnaround point of my last trip and the starting point of this one. They call the last chunk I had done the “approach trail” to the AT. What I was about to embark on was the actual Appalachian Trail, and I couldn't be more excited. My itinerary was pretty relaxed, 8.1 miles the first day, 7.7 the second, and 8.1 the following, where my wife would meet me at a park in the mountains to bring me back to my vehicle. After speaking with a couple from New York who travel the US chasing the best hikes the nation has to offer, It was time for me to start mine.

Not two weeks had passed, but the trail had changed from a somber deciduous forest to a luscious and densely packed wilderness. Already, I was hearing life that was non existent on my last trek. Although I was later than I had planned, it was still before 10AM and the song birds were still out, removing my desire to plug in headphones. After hiking for a bit and passing a few interesting groups of people, ranging from 50 year olds to teenagers I found a quality watering hole and broke for lunch. A volunteer approached me and we talked for a bit about the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and what her roll was. She was out marking with flags, areas of the trail that could be improved. I noticed them after we split ways and made an effort to look at the trail the way she did, taking note of what she was recommending. Some parts of the trail were washed out and in need of repair, others were small ground water run offs that could be dammed and turned into refilling stations. Either way, it was interesting to see that although it isn't paved, the AT is without a doubt maintained.

The goal was to stop at Hawk Mountain Shelter and break for the day, but when I hit the 8.1 mile mark in just under 3 hours, I could not justify stopping. I had done a fair bit of reading and knew that the Hawk Mountain Shelter would be my last water supply until Justus Creek, about 6 and a half miles away. My choice was to pound out the miles or sleep between water sources. Seeing that my food required water to cook and my body needed it to survive, I was forced to push on.