Max Patch on the Appalachian Trail

July 5th, 2023

This was the second hike of the trip, and it went a lot smoother than the trip to Laurell Falls on the 4th.  The drive up to the trail head was an hour from base camp.  but only 20 miles.  It took us about 15 minutes to finish the first 12 miles.  The last 8 miles was a knuckle biting trip up a gravel/dirt road that also raised us about 2200 feet from the start off of I-40.  The road had some wash outs and potholes that made poor "River" shudder and burp her way up the side of the mountain.  But with a bit of persistence and stupidity we reached the trail head.  

Once there, it took about 10 minutes to lather on some Off Mosquito and Off Tick spray.  A healthy coating of sunscreen and on went the packs and off we went.  The hike took us from about 4200ft to 4600ft of elevation. But the trail lowered us to about 3900ft before the climb up to the summit.  The backside of the loop trail from the summit was a single gentle slope (an old logging road) to the parking area where River awaited.  Seeing as how weather was moving in, this was a relief.  The subsequent drive out in the rain, was uneventful.

The total hike was about 2.6 miles in the loop from start to finish.