Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 71 – Completing the rollercoaster
5th october 2023
Creek and Tentsite (1193.4) - Manassas Gap (1215.6)
Daily miles: 22.2
Total miles: 1223
It was a very mild night and it was so nice to be in my net only. I did wake up at 3am and struggled to get back to sleep so I was up until 4am doing sums and comparisons and statistical analysis on 2018 vs this year.
I was back on trail at 7:20am. Only a 22 mile day so it was going to be another day where I could cruise.
Morning on trail
I caught up to Lemonhope at a water source and passed him, and he caught up to me again at the next water source where I stopped to have a snack.
Lovely clear cold water
We hiked together for a bit, and it was nice because we passed the 1000 miles to springer sign so we celebrated together.
1000 miles to go!
The morning so far had been the ups and downs of The Rollercoaster, no where near as bad as 2018, but with this hot weather it was still humid and sweaty and I was constantly wiping my face of sweat.
We did the last 2 ups and downs on The Rollercoaster and came to the sign which marked the end of it for us. I was thankful, even though it wasn’t the end of the ups and downs it was the end of my (unnecessary) worry about The Rollercoaster.
Following Lemonhope
We finished the rollercoaster
LEAVING the rollercoaster!
We took a break around 12pm for lunch. I can’t even remember what I ate. Sausage and Pringles probably. We thought we may see some of the others but we didn’t see anyone.
We carried on and I needed to get going because we had only just managed 2 miles an hour. I picked up the pace a bit and the afternoon was quite a nice walk. After all the rocks of The Rollercoaster there was some really nice sections of trail. Nice dirt path.
I was moving along nicely but around 3:30pm I needed a quick sit down and a snack as I was fading fast. I drank the last of my water so for the last 4.5 miles I was pretty thirsty and looking forward to being done.
Bog boards. No bog. Still useful
Snack break
Fresh blowdowns
Wise words
A beautiful trail
Yellow jackets
I had been messaging Lesley (who I summited Katahdin with) and she told me John (who I also summited Katahdin with) was back on trail after being injured, going north from Front Royal. I hadn’t seen him yet and I guessed that he may be at the same shelter we were heading to.
I arrived at 5:20pm and John was camped right next to the trail. Partly because he prefers camping to staying in shelters and partly because he was trying to ensure he didn’t miss me which was really sweet.
Reunited with my Katahdin buddy J13
I sat with him and we talked for an hour. Lemonhope and May Queen arrived too and they also sat with us which I thought was really nice because they could have just gone down to the shelter. Around 6:30pm it was starting to get chilly and dark so John came down to the shelter to eat his dinner with us.
Toe, May Queen, Puff Puff, J13
The shelter was great, only a short distance from the trail and with a nearby water source with water coming straight out of a pipe. Perfect.
There was also a SOBO flip flopper there but he was camping so we had the shelter to ourselves. Toe came in just before it got dark, and Toe and May Queen had met John (trail name J13) at Caratunk so that was nice.
Cal arrived around 8pm and he had been taking it easy as he was still in recovery from his FKT.
I had my corn patch on for 48 hours now so it was time to change it for a new one. My foot has still been sore, but less sore and I only had to take my shoe off once today because of pain. The patch is definitely doing something to my skin and the area around the corn is bright white and kinda gross looking. It’s not soft yet though.
The corn after one treatment
Not much more to say about today, it was just a pleasant day, and tomorrow is supposed to be the last day of the mild weather so I’m making to most of the warm night. It’s 8:30pm and I’ve just finished writing this which is excellent as I’ve not been going to sleep until about 10:30pm most nights which is too late!
Oh I went to the privy here as I had needed to poop all day. It was one of the more disgusting ones. The smell was pretty eye watering. The pit was just a massive pile of turds because there was no sawdust or duff. Unfortunately it took me a while to work things out so I was in there a lot longer than I wanted to be!
