♥: Backpacking the Appalachian Trail

I got it into my head at the beginning of the year that I wanted to do some sort of girls adventure. Devin goes every year on High Adventure with the Young Men, and I wanted to do something along those lines. In thinking about what I could do, and what Virginia has to offer I thought of the Appalachian Trail. It was intriguing, especially the more I read about it, and so I started to prepare for this new adventure.

Having never led anything like this before, I did a lot of reading and YouTube watching to prepare. I studied the maps of the Northern Virginia section. I came up with a plan and invited anyone who wanted to to come.

Our itinerary looked like this:

Memorial Weekend

Day 1 (Friday): Harpers Ferry to David Lesser Memorial Shelter 9.3 miles/ late-comers start at Keys Gap 3 miles

Day 2 (Saturday): David Lesser to Bears Den Trail Center 11.2 miles (take in part of the Roller Coaster)

Long Hike (June 16-18)

Begin at Bears Den 1002.6

Camp Day 1: Rod Hollow 992.7 (day total miles: 9.9- first 9.6 miles will complete the Roller Coaster)

Camp Day 2: Manassas Gap 979.8 (day total miles: 12.9)

Finish Day 3: Front Royal 969.1 (day total miles: 10.7)

I was excited about the new challenge. Going into the first weekend I felt like it was my practical exam. I had done so much reading and preparing, but now the test was to see if I could actually do the most important things like setting up my hammock, cooking food, and starting a fire. And. how would it be hiking all those miles with a 25lb+ pack?

The Appalachian Trail is amazing. It spans over 2100 miles from Georgia to Maine, and it is well cared for and maintained. My goal was to complete the Northern Virginia Section of the AT, a total of 54 miles. Before I strapped on my backpack and walked it, those 54 miles seemed mammoth. Now, having done it, and having talked to so many long section hikers and through hikers, it seems more like a mere speck in the grand scope. It especially felt minimal when we talked to two women who were long section hikers. They asked us where we were hiking to and after we told them they probed, "and then where?". These two women were making their way through over 500 miles and they were 70 years old! And they weren't the only ones like them.

I was enthused when our first 20 miles was completed without mishap. Well almost... We did hike almost a mile past our shelter, and we confidently told two solo hikers also hiking to David Lesser that we were going there too and it was them who had gone passed it. Not only had we gone too far, but we had climbed steep ascents and gone down and then up some more (of the roller coaster!), only to realize our mistake, finally, and have to retrace our steps, climb back up what we had just done, and then walk shamefaced into camp (those two men were just chuckling). Honestly, those moments were of the greatest hilarity, even though we were so tired. We learned a very valuable lesson... Always look at both sides of the sign as you pass! Those things I had worried about before setting foot on the trail... setting up camp, filtering our drinking water, cooking, making a fire, all that we did like pro's.

The other side read "Appalachian Trail..." with directional arrows NB and SB.

We met with some beautiful views. I might have been a broken record, exclaiming everywhere "this is so pretty!" and I felt quite a lot like my Grandma Sorensen at those moments. It was pretty! Those trees are amazing, they are so tall and they canopy over the trail.

Something I have learned about myself is that I love being outside in nature. It's where my soul belongs and I feel free (and not just because I was free of children ;-) ). Something about big open spaces invites me to take those deep, cleansing breaths, hoping I can absorb it all in (am I sounding too hippie?).

Filtering our drinking water

We also saw lots of wild life. Snakes (mostly long black ones or tiny harmless ones with an orange ring around its neck, but also a couple copperheads), toads, salamanders, squirrels... We heard about some bears, and I did have my bear spray ready, but we never needed it. I brought Bruce along with us, for protection...although he would have been a terrible protector. The first time out on the trail he growled, cowered, and tried to run back the other way when he saw hikers approaching with their trekking poles. But I did still feel better having him along, and once he got over his fear of trekking poles, he was a great trail dog! He had endless energy, and I felt taken care of because of the way he would "herd" us (running back and forth from the front to the back of the line). Other hikers we camped with seemed to really like him too.

To complete the 54 miles on the trail we split it up into two weekends. This way we could have a bit of a "trial run" to make a check on our gear, and reassure us that we knew what we were doing.

Our first weekend out I learned how hard it could be to hike! Granted we were hiking fast. We had over nine miles to get in before dark and we didn't leave until 3:00PM (plus an additional mile or two). When we finally made it to camp I felt like I had just gotten a long run over with. The pack I borrowed was nice, but too long for my short torso and I came home with swelling on the lower portion of my back where the pack rested. We had sore muscles, but I recovered fast. And all the time and planning beforehand really paid off because it went so well! Encouraged, I could look confidently forward to the second trip.

We picked back up at Bear's Den, six of us girls setting off for the remaining 33 miles.

Now, one thing I couldn't plan was weather. Our first day of the big hike we were aware that a big storm meant to move in. We weren't so worried, the sky had been clear earlier in the day, actually the weather seemed to be doing us favors... cooler temperatures and nice breezes, but then it got cranky; within minutes it went from breezy beautiful to dark and threatening. It was around 4:00PM, we had been filtering our water at a stream when the afternoon darkened, and I knew we were going to have to book it to camp. We still had phone service and we were inundated with weather alerts: tornado warning, hail warning, flood watch... I started at a fast walk, then a trot, then went into a run as the rain began to come. All along I was praying that God would stay the storm for us.

We were blessed because we did make it to the shelter before we got too wet. We ended up crowding 14 people in the shelter to stay protected in the storm. The shelter looked decent, it was big enough, and it had a top bunk, but it had a leak right in the middle. Lucky we set up before all the other hikers rolled in, we took the dry spots, and a random man slept in the middle of us six girls (in the drippy spot).

That night was not even near comfortable, in fact, I slept terrible! Because I planned to sleep in my hammock I had no pad or pillow to sleep on. I was trying to keep hold of Bruce so he wouldn't sit on anyone's face, or jump off onto the people below... I figured he'd just sleep on the dirt, but when Little Santa and Lucky's tent flooded, they took the ground, so I slept with bent knees to make room for Bruce at my head, and slept semi-conscious most of the night. Around 4:00AM I finally decided to put up my hammock, and the next two hours were the best I slept all that night!

Little Santa and Lucky were just coming up on their 1000 mile mark on the trail and they said that was the worst night they'd experienced yet on the trail. We were proud we'd lived through that initiation!

Playing a game of dice before we got crowded out.

Best sleep! I love my hammock.

Boo. Not my favorite shelter.

In the coming days, we found evidence left by the raging storm. There were so many fallen trees we had to scramble over, and some spots had a tree leaning precariously against another (we moved quickly under those). In some places the trail was almost hidden from view because of the trees and bush obscuring the path. We read in one log of a man who had been sleeping in a tent during the storm, rolled over, and a tree fell onto his tent, hitting right where he had just been lying (I think he was injury free). As things looked so much worse further along the trail, we determined that we must have been on the outskirts of the storm. Blessed!

Kind of peculiar, but a fun way to meet people along the trail was by their trail name. Hikers would never introduce themselves by their real name, it was alway the name that the trail gave them instead. And then they could keep track of each other in the trail logs (trail notebook) at every shelter. My favorite name was "Faceplant", someone we never met but heard about; he got his name because he was always falling. Then there was 'Grandma', 'Beast', 'Little Santa' and 'Lucky' I already mentioned, 'Foxtrot', 'Double Dip'... and there was always a story behind the name... Lucky was daydreaming about hot dogs, and a while later they ran into some trail angels handing out hot dogs, Grandma was a guy who brought his knitting, Double Dip got her name on a trip to town when she double dipped in the shared ketchup. It took us until about our last day to get our trail names, but we eventually came up with some good ones.

Bruce got a name too, because he was so picky about his food.
Not even he would eat our left-over oatmeal.

We hit the "Roller Coaster" early on, and were a bit surprised that there was something to that name. The hills were solid ups and downs. It was all manageable but really! My knees were aching. You'd only just get to the top when you'd have to go right back down, and then hit another up. We loved the brief spaces of flat earth, especially when the trail was also smooth. In places the trail could be super rocky too. Those miles were the slowest for us.

Finished the Roller Coaster!

City of Hammocks

Bunk hammocks!

"Kill me now!"

The best shelter we ate lunch at! (Jim and Molly Denton)

Horse shoes

Someone planted a rubber snake... we fell for it!

Stream crossings

Lovely bridges!

At the end!!

We completed my goal! I was so happy! More or less, I think everyone was glad to have done it. Katie got the brunt of the bad luck. A through hiker spilled over his boiling water and she was sitting in just the wrong spot, it burned her leg badly. Her feet also were covered in blisters. On the way home we picked off ticks. And when we got home we found out how badly we needed showers (but while we were on the trail, we thought we smelled fine enough). It was a true experience...

A happy sight!

Would I do it again? Yes! In a heart beat. I loved it. Three things about me: I love being outside, I love being active, and I always like a good challenge ... thus, this is my thing! I was nervous going into because I had anticipated it for so long, and I thought and hoped I would like it, but worried I might be disappointed. However, I had a great time, and I was with great company! Six of us girls out there together on the trail, sharing laughs and stories. Sometimes just sharing in silence, listening to the quiet sounds of the woods. Always with a happy heart sharing an awesome experience.

And last but not least... Best way to top the hike off was with some ice-cream!