Appalachian Trail Day 36: First Injury

Not much to see today, and pretty uneventful unless you count when I slid down the mountain. I had my first injury today.

I got up early, super early. I wanted to try to beat the heat and be done by noon at the latest. I still have a hard time gauging how long it takes me to hike. I feel that 1.5 mph (as an average) is safe, although it doesn’t really matter since I no longer have to schedule shuttles. Of course, that was also with a full pack.

Anyway, I spent half of the hike with a headlamp. Most of the “views” were heavy in foliage, so it was hard to see them.

It wasn’t long before I looked at my watch and realized I might be able to do 10 by 10 (when you hike 10 miles by 10am), so I decided to speed things up a bit. But, one wrong placement of my foot on a slippery root sent me sliding down the steep drop from the trail. Thankfully, a downed tree caught me.

Now, most people would probably be so thankful and get up and sigh in relief. Me? No, I lay there looking back up this steep incline that I now had to go back up, saying, “Are you f’ing serious? I was supposed to be done with Up’s”.

Needless to say, I slowed my speed, which had previously picked up to almost three mph before the fall. And this is why I don’t go fast.

Coon Den Falls

I opted to skip this Triple B as I felt I had enough adventure for today. However, if you are interested in this Triple B, I was told the trail is steep. It is also about a mile off the trail. The waterfall itself is a 50-foot cascading waterfall. You can either turn around and return to the AT or continue and reach Dennis Cove Road.

Shortly after coming to the Coon Den Falls split, I met Pony Express. He was out doing a SOBO section hike from Marion.

Suspenders hiked up a bit and met me about .5/mile before Dennis Cove Rd. He had sent me an InReach message letting me know there was no cell signal at Dennis Cove and that he was grabbing his trekking poles to start heading my way.

On our way to the truck, we passed this old barn.

White Rock Mountain Lookout

I didn’t realize it at the time, even though I mentioned the road in my video below, but there used to be a lookout tower just a stone’s throw away from the AT. It was called White Rock Mountain Lookout, and it is around FarOut mile 417.2.

The only thing left from the lookout is the footings, and it’s fenced off. However, this is what it looked like during its glory days:

APPALACHIAN TRAIL DAY 36 VIDEO

AT Gear List

Interested in finding out what I carry on my Appalachian Trail Backpacking Trip? Check out my gear list here: