The trail traverses 541 miles in the state of Virginia alone, which is about 25% of its mileage. So much of the Appalachian Trail lay in Virginia that there is a name for the melancholy some experience while hiking the state: The Virginia Blues. I am anything but blue right now because I have hiked the next section many times and I love hiking here! We will be hiking through the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, in the Jefferson National Forest. The highlands are absolutely breathtaking here, and I am so excited for GG to see them! I am also thrilled to get to experience walking the entirety of the AT through the highlands and see all the fabulous views.
The highlands will be no walk in the park, by any means. We will be crossing two of Virginia's highest mountains: Mount Rogers and Whitetop. March is not the best time of year to hike across exposed mountain ridges, and the hiking opportunities will be few and far between as a polar vortex is expected late next week, bringing snow, freezing wind, and sub-zero temperatures to the area. At least the weather is better now than it was last month! The best time to hike this area is summer, but I hope to hike the entire state of Virginia this calendar year, so we have to get going!
Currently, the temps are highs of 40's to low 50's at the lower elevations, with rain forecast in a couple days. The wind chill is causing single digit temps up on the mountain ridges. But there is a shelter near the top of Mount Rogers, and we will have only 10 miles of really rough weather, so we have packed accordingly.
I found a place to park in Troutdale, Virginia for the next week. Shuttle drivers are hard to find in this part of the trail, and many of the hostels are still closed for the season. Thru hikers who started in January are starting to appear in the area, but there are so few of them that the hostels won't make enough to cover expenses and thus remain closed for another month.
I found a driver named Cole through reading the comments in the Far Out app. He was kind enough to let me park the truck at his place while we hike. He drove us to the Broken Fiddle yesterday where we had a bunk room to ourselves. We grabbed dinner and a beer at Wicked Chicken Winghouse, which was great, then went back to the hostel for some final adjustments to our packs.
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| $1 drafts at Wicked Chicken Winghouse |
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| Broken Fiddle |
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| A Bunkroom to Ourselves |
We got up early this morning, excited to get back on the trail, which literally runs in front of the hostel. We say goodbye to Damascus as we follow the white blazes out of town via a gravel towpath, which is also part of the Virginia Creeper trail. Once we are out of town, we mount the stairs that will take us into the highlands, and we start our next adventure.
We gain elevation in fits and starts; the trail will gain in elevation then decrease slightly just to gain a little more. We lost our trail legs again, so we take frequent stops and take off our packs many times. We have all day to hike. Granted, it's a short day because we the sun will set at 5:30 pm, but we only plan to walk 10 miles to the next shelter.
Spring is evident in the woods, with leaf buds of hardwoods just starting to emerge. I see the occasional cut-leafed toothwort and claytonia, which are the first understory plants to surface. Fuzzy, small mounds of chickweed line the trail, enjoying their last hurrah and setting seeds before they die off. I walk slightly off the trail to grab handfuls to munch on, thus avoiding any that may have been urinated on by a passing hiker. The paw paws, prolific along the streams at the lower elevations still have smooth and bare branches.
We arrive at the Saunders Shelter with plenty of daylight. We stopped here for water when we hiked 25 miles into Damascus southbound before Trail Days a couple years ago, so we are familiar with the layout. Although we are the only ones here, we both elect to camp out instead of sleeping in the shelter, since we will have plenty of shelter time once the weather changes in a few days.
The temp is mid 50's with a decent breeze, and I lay on my sleeping pad in a sliver of sunlight in front of the shelter and elevate my legs on the seat of the picnic table. I am in this position when I hear someone walking down the blue blazed trail to the shelter. It's hiker 38! He decides to set up in the shelter tonight because he must do 25 miles tomorrow so he can catch a shuttle the following day to a family event.
Tonight, I am sleeping on the ground without a tent. I always wanted to "cowboy camp," and I decided I would try it out on this trip, since the weather will force us into shelters anyway. I do have my tarp, and I set it up between two trees as usual. I spread out a groundsheet, which is a piece of Tyvek cut to the size of my sleeping pads, plus a little extra to lay out my belongings. On top of the Tyvek, I place a Borah Bivy, which is a very thin, very light shelter the size of my pads with a bug net, which I probably won't need this time of year. I lay a z-fold eggcrate pad and a heavier Thermarest Xtherm which, at 6.9 R value, is worth every one of its 15 ounces. I top it off with my heavyweight down topquilt.
The three of us tuck into our respective sleeping places at 8 pm and I am asleep almost immediately.
Today's stats: 10 miles, 2785 feet ascent, 1430 descent
Trail stats: 480 miles, 114,000 feet ascent
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