Appalachian Trail - 2024

We made it into Marion a day ahead of our original schedule. When I had started planning for this trip, I had us getting from banner elk to Damascus in 4 days, and us getting from Damascus to marion in 4 as well. Both segments only took 3 days. I slept pretty good. Our campsite wasn't super level, but with good sleeping temps and a light breeze acting as background noise, I slept very well. There wasn't any particular standalone mountain that we were aiming to get over today, just walk slightly over 25 miles into marion. The weather was perfect, and we did exactly that. By the end of the day, my feet were extremely tired. At this point in the hike, a lot of the muscle and joint pain is completely gone. Sure, my calves, hips, and shoulders aren't perfect, but the only really noticeable thing that consistently aches are my feet. We started hiking around 8am, and by 5:30 we had gone 25.2 miles. We ordered $130 dollars worth or pizza, burgers, subs, and wings, and by the t...

The Grayson highlands are still as unique as the last time. We woke up before 7 and got back on trail before 8:30. We started our morning off by ascending Virginia's tallest mountain, mount Roger's. Thankfully, since we had just done whitetop the day before and camped between the two, we only had to go up less than 1500 feet of elevation, over 4.5 miles. On the way up, we again realized just how many people were out and about, enjoying the beautiful weekend. The Grayson highlands are a very unique part of the south. Although there are a plethora of balds, there's really nowhere that looks like the highlands. There are a lot of exposed ridges, grassy Meadows, and stubby trees. It's hard to explain, but Google it if you're curious. There is also a decent herd of "wild" ponies that get managed by the state but are essentially allowed to roam freely in the park. Just like last time, we saw a handful of them during different sections of the day. The highland...

Day 37 Being in Damascus again was a somewhat surreal experience. Even though it's only mile marker 472, just being back in Virginia seems like we're finally making decent progress. Also pushing out marathon days will do that. We got on trail around 9:45 and started the ascent out of town. Even though the climbs are less steep and long, going into town is always followed by a climb back into the mountains. Most of the morning was spent going up and over ridges, trending upwards.  Around noon we stopped next to a beautiful, clear mountain stream and ate our first lunch. For some reason, I must have thought that I was going on a 7 day expedition -- I way overpacked on food! I don't know what was going through my mind.  After lunch, we could see whitetop mountain, our big climb for the day. Our plan was to camp right after whitetop but before mount Roger's.  Going up whitetop was pretty much as challenging as it was last time. Over the course of 4 miles or so, you gain 220...

Well, we finally finished the approach trail to Virginia. There was a single focus today -- get to Damascus ASAP.  We woke up and started moving at 7. After packing up, eating breakfast, using the bathroom, and filling up water, we were on trail by 8:30.  While filling up water at low gap right after our campsite, we had a SUV fly by us, slam on the brakes, throw the car in reverse, roll down his windows, and ask us if we wanted any cold beer. It was 8:30... lo and behold, we declined the guys offer. Can't say I've had that experience before. Especially since he really insisted. Whatever -- we're just not the 8:30 am AT Thru hiker beer drinkers I guess... Anyways, our day was super simple. Just like yesterday, we had a series of ridge walks that were even easier than the day before.  At 11:50, we hit the VA line! And by 12:45 we were walking through the downtown streets of Damascus. Not much had changed in the small southern town, but like many areas that relied on small ...

I've never hiked a marathon before but today we broke that.  Camping near the lake worked out perfectly for us. We had a nice tentsite and although a local, I swear, was burning rubber for half the night, I slept pretty good -- 50 degrees makes for great sleeping.  We got on trail by 830 and the intention was to hike 26.3 miles to a campsite right before US 421 / low gap, and that's exactly what we did.  The morning consisted of getting back to elevation, and by the time we had lunch at slightly before 12, we had only gone 8.5 miles. However, we had chipped away at roughly half our elevation for the day -- 2500 feet. A day or two earlier when we were in the roans, I pointed out the ridge that we would walk all the way into Damascus. Now, at elevation, it was time for that ridge walk.  Although it was a long day mile wise, it wasn't a hard day. We really did just walk the ridge. There were minor ups and downs, but compared to the smokies for example, it felt like we w...

We almost got a full marathon in today and the rain held off!  We woke up at 6:45 and of the two groups in the shelter, we were the first to get moving. The weather people had called for gusts between 50 and 60 to come through our area of TN the night before, but we thankfully really didn't experience them. Even if our whole intention for staying in the shelter didn't materialize, we still slept well last night. In fact, since it was moderately warm, that was the first time that I had really slept decently in two days. We got on the trail by 8:15, and spent the morning walking through rhododendren forests. There was the occasional moment where we'd pop out into more hardwoods, but for the first 9.5 miles of the day we skirted ridges, walked in rhodos, and passed a few small waterfalls.  Around 12 we stopped for lunch at a shelter to get out of the wind and slight rain that had started. Originally, there was supposed to be rain all day long, and anywhere from a half inch to ...

The Station at 19e might be the best hostel on trail.  We woke up at 8 and began packing up frantically to get out of the wind. Throughout the night, a cold wind moved in and started rushing up the hill we were camped on. In the middle of the night, I developed a random headache, had to pretty much put all of my clothes on that I brought with me, finagle with the bear bags for 30 minutes to get them down (which is a whole different story), grab ibuprofen, and then get back and go to bed. Really, I only slept from about 330 to 8. Not to bad, but not ideal.  Our day was split up into two sections -- descend from the roans, and head back into the mountains after resupplying. One caveat is that before we could descend, we had 1.5 miles of hiking up to hump summit... In 2020, when Walker and I summited hump, we had brutal rain / sleep and horrendous winds. We'll, this time, we didn't have rain, but the wind was otherworldly. Based off what we felt and based off what we head from ot...

The only thing that I could possibly even remotely complain about today is that the morning and night time temps were a bit cold -- but really the day was perfect.  I woke up at 8, started to pack up, and we were on trail slightly before 9. We went 1 mile to warm up, and then stopped for breakfast. We've been really slow in the mornings recently, which was exemplified in the fact that by 10, we had only gone 1 mile. Needless to say, it was time to get moving.  In the morning, we climbed up a thousand feet to a Vista that overlooked eastern Tennessee. The climb up was a little chilly, but the views were nice and the sun had started to warm up the rocks. After the summit, we climbed a couple miles down to Hughes gap, at the base of roan high knob.  Roan high knob was our big climb today, going slightly over 5.2 miles up, and ascending more than 2,000 feet. By 1:15 we were 1.2 miles from the top, and stopped for lunch at ash gap. During this time of day, there was almost no ...

Without a doubt, it was the right call going to the shelter last night. Thr rain came down all night. Waking up inside a dry shelter, being able to move around without getting wet, and being able to slightly enjoy the morning was quite nice.  Plus, although not major, a wet tent does add a pound or so to the total pack weight -- something that I'd rather avoid. On that note while I'm thinking about it, I weighed my pack the other day and without water or food, my base weight is 13 pounds. So, on some of these days when I'm headed into town and only have a quarter liter of water and a single meal, my pack doesn't weigh more than 15 pounds -- which is just great!  As expected, the most common injury out here is just overused muscles. Even though having adequate gear is important, my philosophy is to be as ultralight as I'm comfortable with and reduce the total weight that I have to carry. It might not seem like alot, but carrying 10 less pounds every day compared to s...

Today was your typical downhill ascent into town.  I woke up around 7:30, called Kristina briefly while she was heading off to work, and then started to pack up afterwards.  By 8:40, we were done eating breakfast and were ready to get out of the wind that had started to blow through the east side of big bald mountain.  Today, our main objective was to FINALLY HIKE into the town our Erwin, grab our resupply, charge our phones, and then hike slightly out of town.  As for the descent, there's really not much to say about it. There was a nice mix of hardwood and rhododendren forests, and there was even the occasional softwood thrown in there. 90% of the trail was gradual, and even the few steep sections didn't last very long.  Having started the day at 8:45, we were down into Erwin around 3:50. By 5:45, we had packed up and started heading out.  Originally, we were planning on camping 1.5 miles out of town, but after thinking things through and noticing the imp...