Day: |
056 |
Date: |
Friday, 27 June 1986 |
Start: |
|
Finish: |
|
Daily
AT Miles: |
28.1 |
Daily Other Miles |
1.0 (0.2 shelter, 0.8 spring) |
Total
AT Miles: |
1101.2 |
Total All Miles |
1136.2 |
Weather: |
Hot, humid, mostly sunny, a little rain in
the late afternoon. |
Accommodation: |
|
Nutrition: |
Breakfast: Muesli, health drink. Lunch:
Soup, salad, dessert (All You Can Eat) Dinner: None. |
Aches: |
Sore feet. |
Animals Seen: |
Deer, 2 snakes, squirrels, tortoise. |
People Seen: |
1 AT Hiker (by sections), 1 overnight
hiker, 1 day hiker, many others. |
Pictures: |
Here |
GPS Track: |
|
Journal: |
I got up at 6am and left at 7:20am for what
promised to be a long day including the famous Cumberland Valley 10+
mile road walk which I was looking forward to. I said good-bye to
Kent and Sandy, and Paul. The Trail was easy going at first and I
made good progress. However, later there were some relocations
which took the Trail up on some very rocky ridges and the going
became very slow. It also got very hot. I was walking 5 mile
stretches between breaks because I wanted to reach a Carlisle Truck
Stop for a late lunch. After about 12 miles the Trail descended to
the road and I began the road walk. There was a fierce sun and I
was a bit worried about it blazing down on the back of my
neck. However, as the day wore on, the haze got thicker, eventually
turning into cloud, and the sun ceased to be a problem. After I’d
walked about 4 miles through the pleasing rural countryside, I
reached the small village of Churchtown and found Paul sitting under
a tree. He had taken some short-cuts again – a little tedious. He
then proceeded to follow me along the road about 100 yards
behind. There was supposed to be a lady living along the road who
gave ice-creams to AT hikers but, when we found her house, she
wasn’t home. I pressed on along the road walking the 4 miles to
the truckstop in an hour – amazing how much quicker the pace is
along the road. Paul fell behind, but not until after we caught two
other hikers, Gordon and Tommy, the former completing the AT after
starting last year and the latter out for two weeks. I was first at
the truckstop but was later joined by the other three and we all ate
big on the All You Can Eat soup, salad and dessert. It was
good. Paul and I left there at 4:45pm for the 7 miles to Darlington
Shelter. The first 3 or 4 miles were mainly on roads but then the
Trail climbed steadily and very rockily to a ridge. It began
raining lightly. I reached the Shelter at 7:15pm and set out on the
long overgrown walk (about ¼ mile) down to the spring. It had
stopped flowing and the water looked bad. I cursed not having
filled my water bottles at the truckstop. I drank my two cans of
Coke before setting off further down the Trail (1.7 miles) to a
supposed spring and campsite. I met Paul coming into the
Shelter. He decided to stay there. I reached the campsite at
8:30pm but couldn’t get to the water because of poison ivy so just
put up my tent (40% chance of rain) and went to bed hot (it was
still 80°F), a bit thirsty, but not particularly hungry. It took me
a long time to get to sleep. |
|
ADVENTURE LIST
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Via Alpina
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Three Peaks Race
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