Day 62 - 1st June - Windrock campsite to Sarver Hollow Shelter - 15.9 miles

This is one of those horrific days on the AT where you climb huge mountains and then descend for no pointless reason and then climb again. In AT terminology it is called a PUD - pointless up and downs. This is a PUD  to remember. We make two ascents of 1700' and 1500' [total climbing over 3000'] and two descents of 2000' and 1800' [total descents over 3800'].

We have been following Tater Chip in the shelter registers- he is now walking alone a few days ahead of us, since Stickbuilt dropped out, and he is walking 20+ miles a day. We wonder how long he can do this for? We hike up to a road and meet Shakin again and yes - we get another soda from his car, which is very welcome.

One of the very special memories of the trail is finding an abandoned farm house from the 1930s which is still standing, at a lean, just off the trail. We detour down to have a look and think about the history of the farm that would have once been in this area.

The old farm house - it is on a tilt, the floorboards are rotten but
it surely gives a feeling for who lived and farmed here.

Before the final ridge, we come to an old oak tree - 300 years old and 18' in circumference. It is called the Keffer Oak. It helps us put things into perspective. Most of the forest we are hiking through is less than 80 years old, having been planted in the 1930s.

Alison standing with 300 years of history.

We follow along a ridge which is really spooky - there are igloos of rocks piled up everywhere.It has to be man-made - and we wonder about the history of the area. We know that people were evicted from this area in the 1930s, and we decide that the rock piles are to create more 'growing space' in between the piles for farmers living at subsistence level.

We decide not to descend to the shelter and clear a campsite on the ridge. Digby leaves his pack and descends half a mile in stone steps to the shelter to get water for us at an old well and house site.