The moment I finished my tests, I packed up my backpack, hopped in my car, drove to Damascus, VA, pulled on my boots, and spent the next three days on the Appalachian Trail with my good friend Ducky!
Here's my account of the experience, in parts:
DAY 1
We arrived in Damascus and parked at the Mt. Rogers Outfitters Hostel on 3rd St. Met some really cool people there. We had not realized this, but this is the time of year that all the AT thru-hikers pass through southwestern VA.
These hikers, for those of you who don't know, start out on the Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain in Georgia, usually in mid-March, and will walk all 2,100 miles of the AT to summit Mt. Katahdin in Maine sometime between July and September. They are the toughest of the tough. A few thousand people start the Appalachian Trail every year, and only a fraction of that finish the entire hike (about 1 in 4). By the time they reach VA, about half of the original hikers will have already dropped out. The hikers we met had just reached their 500 mile marker.
So this is why, when we arrived in Damascus, our primary company on the streets were other people wearing over-sized backpacks, bandanas, and hiking boots. We stood out like sore thumbs, having not yet acquired the rough and smelly ruggedness of these weathered hikers. We met a man at the hostel named Moose (not his real name. One cool thing about the AT is that everybody has a trail name. This allows everybody to maintain some level of anonymity, while also signifying the "other world" feeling of being on the trail.) Moose offered to shuttle us to our starting point at Fox Creek Horse Camp.
So that's how we ended up on the Appalachian Trail by 10:00 AM that first morning.
Almost instantly, we had our very first experience with "Trail Magic."
"Trail Magic" is the term used on the trail that describes random acts of kindness and good vibes that occur on the trail via the generosity of strangers. It is one of the best parts of hiking the Appalachian Trail. Two minutes in, we saw this on the trail
Another hiker left a sack of oranges for other thru hikers to enjoy! "Trail Magic!"
Shortly after that, we came to our first shelter, Old Orchard Shelter. Shelters are these little huts built along the AT for hikers to camp at. They usually have a picnic table, a campfire ring, and occasionally a trail register notebook for people to write little journal entries in with their thoughts on the experience, weather conditions, updates on the trail, etc. We ate a quick snack here. And we found a copy of the Hunger Games that a nice thru-hiker left for people to read! "Trail Magic!"
We got moving again and the next cool spot we came to was our first grassy bald! Balds are big open fields on top of mountains that were primarily used for grazing livestock before the wilderness surrounding the Appalachian Trail became a national park. Most of the balds have begun to grow back up into forest, but due to the presence of wild ponies (yes, WILD ponies!) and some cattle that get herded through the area once a year several of them have managed to stay wide open and gorgeous. We ate lunch on some boulders and took in the view.
We hiked down from the bald into our first valley, and came to a sign. The AT is really well marked and taken care of. There are plenty of signs that help show you exactly how far you have walked, and how far you have to go. The sign told us we were an eighth of the way into our journey! Woohoo!
It was hot out, and we had gone through most of our water already. We each had a little less than half a liter of water left. But we knew from the map that we carried that there was a water source just a few miles away, so we were determined to get there and refill. Hydration is extremely important on the trail. Sure enough, we rounded a corner past a grove of rhododendron, and there it was! Water!
The water was running and crystal clear. We practiced using Ducky's new filter but we hardly needed it, the water was so clean. We used drops to purify it. Water gets tricky, because no matter how clean it looks, there's still a strong possibility that it is contaminated with bacteria like e.coli and viruses like the norovirus. None of these things are fun, so we used chlorine drops to bleach out the bad stuff. We each drank a liter a piece before we left the water source, filled both our bottles to the brim, added more drops, and then started off again.
We hadn't taken more than 40 steps away from the water when we rounded another rhododendron grove and came face to face with...a longhorn bull.
The guy was MASSIVE. And he couldn't have been more than 30 yards away. He was tagged, but there were no fences separating him and us (no fences at all for that matter that we'd seen). He looked right at us. I remember saying to Ducky "If he charges...just drop. Hope he only attacks our packs. I'm not outrunning this guy." Thankfully, he just lowered his head down. Clearly we were less interesting than grass. Phew! We walked on, a little more wary of our environment than before.
We started up our first major climb next. The mountain we were climbing wasn't named on my map, but it looked fearsome from where we stood.
We thought it was going to be intense, but it actually didn't take long at all. Before we knew it, we were at the top!
But it was not over yet. The peak behind Ducky and I in the picture above is where we were headed. We would have to climb down into another valley, and then back up onto the final ridge, where we planned to make camp for the night just on the other side of the peak. We had done approximately 9 of 14 miles at this point, and it was about 3 o'clock. We needed to make camp before dark, so we had about 5 hours to knock out the final 5 miles to Rhododendron Gap. Not too shabby.
Before we knew it, we were on top of that peak.
My finger is pointing to the spot where Ducky and I took the previous picture together. Kind of cool.
The trail register announced to us that we had officially entered the Grayson Highlands part of the trail. This is the region that is famous for the wild ponies, grassy balds, and spectacular views. It is often mentioned by thru-hikers as one of the best parts of the entire AT. Just as we were down from the peak, about a mile and a half from our camp spot, we saw them. PONIES!
This guy walked right up to me to see if I had any snacks for him. Sorry Charlie, got nothing for ya. I guess even though the ponies up there are technically wild, they are so used to day hikers and thru-hikers that they aren't very skittish. They will walk up to people and nibble around looking for food. When the pony realized I didn't have anything for him, he sauntered onwards. Once again, the wildlife deemed us less interesting than grass.
But that was okay. At long last, we had found our campsite. The first day on the trail was done! We found a spot to cook away from our tent site (so as not to encourage bear visitors) that overlooked the whole valley north of us. It was breathtaking.
We cooked a dinner of lentils and rice in a small backpacking stove that I had brought. It cannot possibly be overstated how good food tastes after 14 miles of hiking in the hot sun. We finished up by brushing our teeth on top of a boulder watching the sun set. Then we packed up the food into a bear bag, hung it out of reach and away from our tent, did a little yoga to prevent muscle aches for the next day of hiking (17 miles!), and then hunkered down in our nice warm tent for the night.
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