Dave Byrnes

Appalachian Trail - 1986

Overview Map Diary Pictures

Day:	099
Date:	Saturday, 9 August 1986
Start:
Finish:
Daily AT Miles:	20.0
Daily Other Miles	0
Total AT Miles:	1906.2
Total All Miles	1961.7
Weather:	Warm, humid, mostly overcast, some rain.
Accommodation:
Nutrition:	Breakfast: Muesli, health drink, sub, ice-cream. Lunch: Biscuits and peanut butter. Dinner: Cheese Florentine, pop tarts.
Aches:	None bad.
Animals Seen:	Grouse, squirrels.
People Seen:	20 overnight hikers, some others.
Pictures:	Here
GPS Track:
Journal:	Got up at 6am and left at 7:25am hoping that it would only take two hours for the for the five miles down to the road where I was supposed to meet John. The going wasn’t too bad, and I arrived there 1½ minutes ahead of schedule. John was impressed. He was waiting there with his father and they drove me the eight miles into Andover where I resupplied and bought a sub, a quart of orange juice, and a pint of ice-cream. We drove back to the Trail and, after a quick re-pack, set off with 15½ miles to go at 10:45am. The first six miles to Hall Mountain Lean-To were covered in 2½ hours and we stopped there for lunch. The Trail wasn’t too bad, but was becoming more boggy. After lunch, our progress seemed to be much slower though it was hard to know whether it was because we were slower or because the miles were long. We descended steeply into Sawyer Notch, then had a tough climb up and down a mountain, then another big ascent to the 3600’ mountain of Old Blue. Unfortunately, the fog was thick and there were no views, but at least the rain had stopped. We were both tired and still had three miles to go. It went very slowly as we crossed bog after bog and didn’t reach Elephant Mountain Lean-To until 8:10pm. It was already fairly dark and we were disappointed to find the place crowded with a French-Canadian camp group and several other hikers. There was only room for one more in the Shelter, so John slept there and I put up my tent while John cooked us some dinner. Within and hour we were in bed.