Miles 751.9-767.2 (15.3 mi.) Total ascent: 3773’; descent: 2884’ Mid-Virginia is known by hikers to be mentally challenging. The “Virginia Blues” afflict NOBOs and SOBOs, and have a complex mix of causes. At this point, the trail is no longer new. It has relatively few features or landmarks ahead, at least for NOBOs. Everyone’s body […]
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5/26: Curry Creek to Bearwallow Gap
Miles 738.9-752.0 (13.1 mi.) Total ascent: 2116’; descent: 1512’ All sorts of plaques, signs, and historical markers dot the AT. A handwritten laminated sign we encountered today identified an area 50 feet in diameter that was once a collier’s pit. In the “pit,” from the late 19th century through the early 20th, charcoal was made […]
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5/25: Daleville to Curry Creek
Miles 730.3-738.9 (8.6 mi.) Total ascent: 2536’; descent 2156’ It’s now clear to me Rachel and I needed our zero in Daleville. The Pearisburg-Daleville stretch has been the most beautiful but also the most challenging of Virginia. We got a late start in our hotel, probably because we needed it. Around 9 a.m., I walked […]
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5/24: Zero in Daleville, Virginia
Mile 730.3 Self-care is, or should be, a whole-body activity. But if you need to pick two parts to treat, make it your head and your feet. First on the slate today was a haircut. After a bagged hotel breakfast — the important parts of which were blueberry muffins and coffee — Rachel and I […]
Miles 721.0-730.3 (9.3 mi.) Total ascent: 528′; descent: 1335′ The hike into Daleville was the first stretch of the AT I could’ve confused for the West. The sparse pines and sun-bleached rocks, surrounded by scrubby, flowering Mountain Laurel, looked to me like the Transverse Ranges of California in spring. Ignoring the rolling mountains beyond, the […]
Miles 705.4-721.0 (15.6 mi.) Total ascent 4626’; descent 4390’ For the first time today, we’re going to hike past dinner. We’re doing so not to make miles, but because 1.4 miles south of our campsite is Tinker Cliffs. The northernmost of Virginia’s “Triple Crown” natural wonders, Tinker Cliffs is a series of eight or ten […]
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5/21: Trout Creek to Unnamed Brook
Miles 696.7-705.4 (8.7 mi.) Total ascent 1470’; descent 1175’ In Virginia, the “Triple Crown” refers not to the three U.S. long distance hiking trails or the horse racing triumph, but to three of the state’s top natural attractions. We summited the southernmost, Dragon’s Tooth, today. We expect to hit the other two, McAfee Knob and […]
Miles 681.8-696.7 (14.9 mi.) Total ascent: 1699’; descent 3510’ One con to some shelter campsites is their “driveway”: They must be hiked in and out of, sometimes as far as a mile. Such was the case at Sarver Hollow, located four-tenths down a sluice of wobbly rocks. In our first true mile of the morning, […]
Miles 665.8 to 681.8 (16 miles) Total ascent 4439’; descent 5043’ I don’t particularly feel like writing this evening, after our rockiest, longest, sorest day in recent memory, but too many things demand to be written about. First, the whippoorwill shouting its name so loudly I can scarcely think. I am not sure I have […]
Miles 657.9-665.8 (7.9 mi.) Total ascent 2520’; descent 951’ The airborne insects of western Virginia are back like it’s their first day on the job. A small bee decided my knee needed some more pain. Gnats and black flies buzzed about whenever the wind was still enough. We checked for ticks as we went and […]