Appalachian Trail Hiking 2004

30 July - After my new friend Bend told me of this adventures hiking on the nearby portions of the Appalachian Trail, I decided  that a hike of my own would make for a nice summer vacation. Ben & I started making plans a few weeks in advance, and today, my adventure was about to begin. I left Madison around 4:30 am. I left early so I could avoid Chicago rush hour traffic and get to Blacksburg early. My drive was pretty uneventful - long, but uneventful. I liked the mountain curves in West Virginia. I got to Blacksburg at 6 pm. Ben showed me around his place and then we headed out to dinner. We headed to a place downtown that served Lebanese food. After dinner and conversation, Ben took me on a walking tour of campus. I had been to Virginia Tech once before, but I didn't remember much of it. It was getting kind of late when we got back, but we watched Old School before calling it a night.

31 July - First thing in the morning, we packed up our hiking and camping gear. Then, we went out to a place called Gillie's for breakfast. Very tasty way to start the day. After that, we drove back to Ben's to pick up our gear and my car. We drove separately to the parking lot by where we would finish our hike, and left my car there. Then we rode together to the start of the trail. Once parked, we were off. It was a pretty sunny, warm day. This first part wasn't the AT, but a trail leading to it. Unfortunately, it was mostly [straight] uphill. There were a few occasions where I had to stop and catch my breath. About halfway up a really steep part, I had to stop and reset for about 15 minutes until I felt well enough to keep going. After that, I was okay, but I felt pretty bad about it. Our first day was pretty light overall. Once we hit up with the AT, we walked downhill to our campsite. I think it was about 4ish when we started to set up camp. The forecast said there was a chance for rain during the day, but luckily, none came. While we waited for dusk to start cooking dinner, Ben and I played various card games, chatted, and watched a pair of deer come really close to us. Once it got dark, Ben proudly showed me the tin can stove he made. We boiled water for our dehydrated Pasta Primavera and mashed potato feast. Ben also brought along a bottle of wine which we shared. After dinner, we tried to get a good fire going, but most of the wood was too wet to get anything decent going. After a long time trying, we gave up and decided to call it a night.

Officially made it to the Appalachian Trail!

1 Aug - I had a bit of a tough time sleeping the night before, so I work up still a little tired. Ben & I packed up the tent and everything, ate a protein bar each for breakfast, and used Ben's water filter to give ourselves enough water for the day. It was cooler but still very humid this morning. We had to backtrack to where the Andy Lane trail met the AT. That was mostly uphill and I was a very sweaty, hard-breathing gal by then. Where the two trails met was called the Scorched Earth Gap, and from there, it was a half a mile uphill to Tinker's Cliffs. By the time we reached the cliffs, the sun had come out and was starting to burn off some of the haze. We ran into a pair of high hikers and their dog at the top, then wandered along the long stretch of cliff face marveling at the view. Only the day before, Ben had pointed out the narrow ribbon of rock high above that I was standing on. From Tinker's Cliffs, we could see where we were going for the rest of the day - following the mountain ridge along to the next big peak, McAfee's Knob. It looked a loooong, hard climb up to it, but there was no turning back now. I had a bit of a scare leaving the cliffs and rejoining the trail - there was a snake curled up right where I was about to walk. Ben pointed out that it was a harmless snake, but harmless or not, I didn't want to get bitten. It slithered away, and I was able to walk on. From that point for the next few miles, the trail led downhill, through the woods along the top of the ridge. I'm glad I had my mom's walking stick, because it gave me more stability, and I didn't jar my knees too much. It was pretty peaceful there. Every once in a while, Ben & I would have a conversation, but for the most part we walked in silence. Up, down, up, down, over the path covered in tree leaves, rocks and the occasional tree root. It continued on like that for a few miles before we stopped to rest briefly at the top of a rock overlooking Carvan's Cove. Ben got out his maps and trail books, and showed me what the rest of the hike had in store. I really wasn't looking forward  to that final push towards McAfee's Knob. Shortly after that, it started raining pretty hard on us. Thankfully, it wasn't storming. We up ponchos on our packs and kept hiking. The rain actually felt really good. We kept on hiking until we reached the campsite at the base of McAfee's Knob. There, we rested up, and I ate a sandwich. I needed some energy for the next big hike. Ben told me that the last time he climbed this bit, his friend had to stop often. I was pretty sure I would be the same way. For the first time, as we were leaving, we started meeting other hikers on the trail as we left the campsite. And up we went. It was a long series of switchbacks to the top. Surprisingly, I made it to the top pausing only once. I had a huge amount of endorphins coursing through my body after that, so I felt really good. We put our packs down and admired the view. We didn't stay there long. Ben wanted to show me a better area, so we went down looking for the trail to it. Finally, we found it, got on the rock, and put our packs down. Ben got out his camera and had me stand on a certain portion of rock near the edge. A couple came by and offered to take our picture together. Afterwards, I walked back and got a look at what I was standing on - a relatively thin overhang of rock. Good thing it wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere. We sat up there for a bit taking pictures and resting under a light fall of rain. We still had a good bit to go before we got to my car, so we didn't sit long. Going back down was a little tricky, because the trail was covered in small rocks. I was about 3.5 miles from McAfee's Knob to the parking lot - a long way on tired feet. Oh, I forgot to mention that the elevation of the Knob was 3,200 ft. We ran into a group of volunteers who where working on moving a section of the trail. We got into a steady rhythm going down. After a while, we had to make the choice of taking the real trail the rest of the way, or a fire road. I elected to go on the fire road, because it seemed a lot smoother and wider. We set off down that and after a little ways, came across something strange. Ben put out a hand and held me back. Up ahead on the road was an eastern rattlesnake. We backed up and waited for it to make a move off the trail. It looked a little strange. It seemed to be writhing and had flies all around it. After watching it for a bit, we realized that it didn't have a head. We started to walk around it when it flipped over onto its back. That pretty much indicated it was dead, and sure enough, it didn't have a head. However the snake lost its head, it mush have happened right before we got down there. From then on, it was a quiet walk, with a surprising number of uphill climbs. Finally, we got to the highway. All we had to do was cross the road and we could finally stop walking. A hiker came by asking for a ride to nearby Dragon's Tooth. It wasn't far, so we obliged. After dropping him off at his car, I drove with Ben to where we had parked his car the day before. After that, it was a 30-40 minute drive back to Blacksburg through windy little roads. we got back to his place, unpacked, and I took a nice shower. Ben & I were both pretty exhausted, so we just made a frozen pizza and watched Idle Hands before calling it a night.

View to McAfee's Knob

On a cliff

With Ben on the cliff

Carvan's Cove

On McAfee's Knob

 2 Aug - My initial intention was to drive back to Wisconsin today, but because I could barely walk yesterday, I asked Ben if I could stick around one more day to recover. He was kind enough to consent. We slept in this morning, with Ben waking me when he had to come into his room to get ready for work. I got ready for the day after he left, watched some TV and read. I met up for lunch with him at an Indian restaurant. Yummy buffet. After lunch, I took a quick drive to see if I could find the restaurant that I had been to on my previous visit to Blacksburg. I found it, then drove back to Ben's. I spent the afternoon reading until Ben came back from work. We chatted for a while, then decided tonight would be a beer-tasting and movie night. He wanted to show me a place called The Cellar, but it was closed. Instead, we went to Kroger and got a bottle of Belgian beer, a six-pack of apricot ale, and some bread and cheese for dinner. When we returned, Ben made me a drink called a caipirinha with the Brazilian liquor cachaça. Very tasty. We had a nice dinner of bread, oil & balsamic vinegar and Camembert, and exchanging stories. After dinner, we watched Ocean's Eleven. I was pretty tired through it. After the move, Ben & I had a little chat which cleared up a lot of things. I ended up going to bed around 2. Too late a night, since I had to get up so early.

3 Aug - My alarm woke me at 7 am, and I was on the road shortly after 7:30, having packed up and said thanks and good-bye to Ben. There's always something about the return drive that makes it seem so much longer than the drive there. It was pretty uneventful, and I spent most of the drive listening to The DaVinci Code on CD. I decided not to go back through Chicago on my way back, because I would have hit the city around the afternoon rush hour. Instead, I dealt with the infinite flatness of central Illinois. I called my friend Becky to liven up my drive. Finally, I made it safely back to Madison, through I ran straight into some traffic in Janesville and a thunderstorm. I was sore & tired, but I wouldn't have traded this past weekend for anything!

{transcribed 1/15/2020}