Month: April 2021

Miles 464.3-470.7 (6.4 mi.) Total ascent: 804′; descent 2566′ We made it to Virginia just an hour or so into our hike today, only to stop for another rat snake. Like his buddy we met two days ago, this one was taking advantage of the sun shining through the trail’s canopy gap. Much as I […]

Miles 452.2-464.4 (12.2 miles) Total ascent: 2771’; descent 3186’ I didn’t take any photos today, which I’m happy about because it means I spent little time on my phone. What I didn’t spend behind a screen (and then some) I spent gabbing. We said a long, Midwestern goodbye to Cindy and Suzanne this morning, who […]

Miles 441.5-452.2 (10.7 mi.) Total ascent: 2375’; descent 2146’ I must have recently upset some wind spirit, probably by cursing the gusts at Roan Highlands.  Days after a tree almost fell on me, a hickory limb near the porch of my and Rachel’s home fell and broke part of the railing. Nobody was hurt, and […]

Miles 428.4-441.5 (13.1 mi.) Total ascent: 4790’; descent 2920’ The highlight of today is also the reason I write this with a headlight: Rachel and I spent more than an hour checking in with each of our families. It would be unfair of me to recount their news publicly, but I’ll say that everyone seemed […]

Miles 422.0-428.5 (6.5 mi.) Total ascent: 2467′; descent 2474′ We had more of a hike and more rain than we’d hoped for this morning, but we made it to Boots Off around 11 a.m., just an hour later than we’d planned before tacking on yesterday’s final three miles.  Pond Mountain, the centerpiece of today’s hike, […]

Miles 410.2 to 422.0 (11.8 mi.) Total ascent: 2995′; descent 4409′ What a day of waterfalls it was!  Guilty as I feel saying it, Rachel and I actually skipped some of the most popular falls trails in order to make our miles. Also, guiltily, I slept for a full 12 hours last night, meaning our […]

Miles 395.3-410.2 (14.9 mi.) Total ascent: 4705′; descent 4081′ What a different post I’d be writing right now had Rachel and I hiked just a bit slower, or stopped for a break just a bit sooner. How glad I am to be writing this, now a few days later, in a cabin while under a […]

Miles 392.3-395.3 (3.1 mi) Total ascent: 597′; descent 2280′ Nothing could taste better than the simple burger and fries, from the on-site food truck that serves nothing else, that we just ate. Our room at Mountain Harbor is an 80-square-foot job, with a low-slung king bed somehow squeezed through the sliding barn door. Mountain Harbor […]

Miles 377.1-392.3 (15.2 mi.) Total ascent: 3858’; descent 4646’ I make no bones about it: Today was hard.  Our day began around 7 a.m. with a bottle of missing hand sanitizer. We connected it, after calming down and washing our hands with soap and water, with the missing trowel: We hadn’t been doing site checks […]

Miles 363.6-377.1 (13.5 mi.) Total ascent: 4915’; descent 3530’ Well, I’m no master toenail trimmer. Neither of the problem corners is bloody or pus-covered, but neither lets a step go by without complaint, either. I can’t cut them further, so my only option is to monitor. With that one pain aired, today was otherwise amazing. […]