Today we crossed Max Patch Summit. Max Patch is a homophone that replaced the original name “Mack’s Patch”. This summit was cleared for grazing cattle many years ago. Today it is maintained as a bald, and is a very popular AT destination. There is a road to Max Patch and a parking lot right below the summit. Lots of day hikers visit since it’s an easy hike from the parking lot and a great place for a picnic. The views are stunning, and the weather was great that day. There was trail magic at the summit, one guy was coming around with a trash bag, offering to take all the trash the thru hikers were carrying. We carry every single piece of trash from our food bags until we reach a trash can. We try to leave no trace, other than our footprints on the trail. It’s nice to unexpectedly have an opportunity to get rid of our trash. Another girl lugged an ice chest nearly as big as she was up to the summit from the parking lot and gave us cold sodas. A cold coke tastes unbelievable after a steady diet of only filtered spring water.

5.0 and I sat at the summit for a while, then began the descent to Walnut Creek Shelter. We still had over ten miles to hike so we didn’t linger too long. The hike was enjoyable, we hiked a little over five miles with little elevation change. We had one five hundred foot ascent, followed by a slight descent to Walnut Creek Shelter. It was a very good day on trail.