This morning we entered the home stretch of this summer long adventure… the 100 mile wilderness. For the next 5 days we won’t have any access to major roads, and therefore no access to the conveniences of towns. When we got out of bed this morning we did so knowing that the next time we sleep in a bed we’ll be Appalachian Trail thru-hikers.
It was a muggy day, and we both were dripping in sweat soon after starting. The trail was nothing too difficult, but not easy either. A lot of short ups and downs, and lots of roots. We had a few stream crossings, but they weren’t very challenging. Since it’s been a dry summer many of the streams and rivers that would normally need to be forded are easily crossed by rock hopping. We took our two breaks by the water today, and we even went for a little dip in the second one, at Vaughn Stream, which felt really nice.
The end of the day was capped with the biggest climb of the day up Barren Mountain. There were some really good views on the way up at some ledges, overlooking a pond and the vast wilderness beyond. At the top was a dismantled fire tower, and many short pines, so no open views, so we didn’t hang around long. We reached the Cloud Pond Lean-to right around 6:30pm, completing 19.1 miles for the day. Since we’re heading into fall, daylight has been fading quickly. By 7:45 we were eating our dinner by headlamp. We’ll be trying to stop a bit earlier the next few nights. Only a few more days to go….
