Happy Trails!

Stats~Vol. 2

Here are the ending stats:

My pack-fully loaded: 27 bs.

Chuckwagon's Pack- fully loaded: 22 lbs.

My weight: 182.0

Chuckwagon's weight: 145.0

Miles hiked: 100.5

Bears seen: 0

Toenails Lost: 1

Bug Bites: too many to count

Pop-Tarts eaten: 18

Hours walking in the rain: 11

Thanks 🙏

I need to thank the following people: 

My sister, Lisa, for her hours and hours of help to make sure we had everything, and more, we needed. She has the kindest heart, and really wants everyone around her to be successful.

My wife, Summer, for letting me take big risks on adventures. Her support is all the affirmation I need in this world.

My family and friends for cheering me on, every little bit was helpful! 

And finally my son ChuckWagon. He was the inspiration I needed to keep getting up and get going everyday.

YouTubing it...

To conclude this blog here is a video we put together. It gives a good idea of the sights and sounds we got to see and hear. 

Enjoy!

"Ahuned Miles"

I asked ChuckWagon (or "C-Dubs" as it's been shortened to) to write down his thoughts, memories, etc. so people could hear them from his point of view.

"Ahuned miles 

 

This past week I hiked 100 miles on the Appalachian trail. 

Through all the blood sweat tears and absolutely the worst smelling clothes on the planet, I think that will cherish that hike forever. 

The first couple of days were definitely rough. Just getting on the trail and realizing I might be out here for a couple weeks was just so mentally tough. 

The first night we camped at one of the most beautiful spots in all of Virginia called three ridges, but don’t be fooled by beauty, the climb up was a staggering 6 miles of straight up hill. 

The second night we decided to go a whole lot farther and ended up going 20 miles to a sweet little town called Waynesboro. Got some Pedialyte, ate some Panera, showered up and went straight to bed in a hotel.

Day three wasn’t much better. We hiked 17 miles to a small shelter and camped there, and at that shelter is when I realized that I was going to be out here for a whole lot longer and have to hike a whole lot more miles.   

We hiked to a large campground called Loft Mountain. And just a couple of hours before we got there we were eating dinner and started to talk to a guy with the trail name MoneyStash. This guy was extremely nice and he was hiking the whole Appalachian trail. If I ever remember one thing from this trip it was some advice that he gave me. He said that I should forget the schedule get my feet under me and start hiking. Once I started to do that time went way faster, my pace was faster, and I was overall in a better mood. 

Day five we camped at this place called High top hut and met some more very nice folks. 

And at our final night at Bear Fence hut is when it hit me that I was 85% of the way there from going 100 miles. And on the final day we went 16 miles to sky land Lodge. 

It took me a while to realize I was done hiking. My whole mentality was wake up, eat breakfast, pack all my stuff up, and get to walk-in. 

I’ve learned so much from this trip such as how to filter water, how to pack a backpack for the wilderness and how to take down a tent and put one up in less than a minute. 

I also learned that for every raindrop in Virginia is a 16 ounce bucket of water being dropped on your head in Utah. 

It is a whole different world in the long green tunnel. Time moves differently, your body acts differently and you forget about everything else except for you and the trail. 

Your diet will change drastically from eating a couple meals today to eating pop tarts salted nut rolls pro bars carnations and rice. 

I feel so blessed I can say I went 100 miles in a week on foot in the Shenandoah National Park. 

And to conclude this glorious adventure I went to Dominoes and got a pizza to myself. When we got home I took the longest shower of my life. 

And now I can say I went Ahuned miles."

Day 7- "100"

"On your marks, get set..."

Today started in a pretty good fashion. We got up on time, got everything set up in the bags fairly quickly, and decided to eat lunch on the trail while hiking.

Our goal was to meet my sister at 3:00 p.m., and we needed to cover 16 mi in 8 hours to do that.

We made great time most of the day. In most ways it was very similar to other days we hiked. You know: get up, pack up, eat up, and walk up...hill...a lot.

The last four miles or so was a climb around Hawksbill Peak, which I think is the largest mountain in the Shenandoah National Forest. Even if it's not, it sure felt like it!

There are rocky cliffs we had to walk along. And since it had been raining a lot the day before most of them were wet and running with water, or covered with mud. This slowed us down a bit, but we still kept a great pace. It might have been the thought of some different food, or maybe a shower that kept our steps light.

"One more hill"

It was about 90°, and very humid. Be paused at Rock Spring Hut to get a final drink of water, I decided to also pour some of that awesome Virginia Mountain Water on my head, a little bit of a spring shower. It felt amazing! I highly recommend it :-).

Passing the time

We knew we couldn't obsess about the steps in miles, it was driving us crazy. So we did things to occupy ourselves.

We named as many MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL teams we could think of. We got all 32 NFL teams, all but four baseball teams, all but two NBA teams, and, well hockey? We missed nine of those. 😂

It was the time of year for caterpillars to hatch, they were everywhere. They were kind of fun to play with as we were moving along. They seem to have their own personalities, but all had the same goal, get up the tree and make a cocoon.

100 miles 

We cruised into the parking lot about 2:30, just 8 hours after we left. We had done 16 mi, making a total of 100 total miles. ChuckWagon got to neet the goal he set!

We enjoyed one more salted nut roll, and waited just a couple of minutes for my sister to pick us up.

"Real food"

Once my sister picked us up, we promptly removed our shoes, socks, and clothes, and put on clean ones.

We put on clean ones and placed the dirty ones in a bag to be cleaned, or burned, later. 👟🔥

As one can imagine, we were hungry! James had a medium pizza with black olives and banana peppers. I had a barbecue sandwich with a small side of coleslaw and collard greens, and half of my sister's BLT. It was fabulous!

We made it home, and took a magical shower, and went to bed.

Coming up...

I have a lot of video to edit, and some special people to thank, so I'll post that next :-)

Day 6 - "Chilly" today, and Hot Tomorrow

Thank you!

Well whomever said the prayer for us to avoid the rain, it worked! It was a giant storm on the radar about 4:00 in the morning that was going to hit us all day, but by 6:00 this morning it hits split into and we were in the split. So thanks for that reprieve!

We got on the trail at about 7:52 a.m., and started heading NOBO.

Along the way we saw lots of clouds threatening rain, but it really didn't start coming down till about noon.

And then the heavens opened and dumped on us buckets of rain!

Sometimes you have to let them learn

I went ahead and threw on my rain gear, because it was dumping rain, but ChuckWagon elected to not put his on. He said the rain felt really nice because he was hot, and he was already wet. I said well I'm going to put mine on, and we just went on down the trail.

We stopped at a store at a campground, and while sitting on the porch he suddenly became very cold. He put on his rain gear to try to warm up, but just kept shivering and shivering. It looked like hypothermia to me? But I'm no doctor, but I know what it's like to be really cold and not be able to warm up.

We sat there on the porch for about an hour trying to get him to warm up. I went to the store and made a hot water bottle with a faucet in there, and hadn't put that inside of his coat. He said that helped a little, but was still not able to stop shivering.

We're just warming up...

We hustle down to Bearfence Hut, where we're going to stay (it was only about a mile) and set up camp real fast. I had him strip down and get into to his sleeping bag to warm up. He seems to be doing okay now 😅

Last night...

We decided to change our plan, and make this our last night on the trail. The goal is still the same, ChuckWagon will still hit 100 mi, and get to join the triple digit backpacking club.

We're going to have a big day for our last one, we're going to do 16 mi, and try to do it in about 8 hours total. That doesn't sound real fast but I think it's a decent pace for us.

Lighten the load...

Chuckwagon thought that since we had an extra day and a half of food that we're not going to use, we should do some "trail magic". So at this hut that we're staying at tonight we're going to dump all of our food we're not going to use into the bear box, so other hikers can just take what they want.

There's three or four meals, and a bunch of high protein high calorie snacks. I hope they enjoy it! I know we're not going to miss carrying it out 😂

After a shoe drying party, we're off to bed! I think we both enjoyed today, but looking forward to a shower that doesn't involve rain gear...🚿

Day 5 - Resupply!

Up and at 'em!

Started by walking down to the camp store at the Loft Mountain Campground. What a beautiful view!

The plan today is to meet my sister about noon, about 6 mi down the trail. So we decided to go a little slow this morning. Didn't get on the trail till nearly 9:30. We were going to get started a little earlier, however I decided I wanted a cup of coffee from the store, a turkey sandwich, and James wanted some pickled carrots and an energy drink.

The Trail

Today the trail was much the same as yesterday. Very scenic! And of course lots of ups and downs. One thing I did notice that there was a few more overlooks on this one, so it's always nice to have a good view while you're putting in the work on the trail.

The trail is just full of these white flowers on trees. I think that they are mountain laurels? Somebody else would probably be able to correct me if I'm wrong, plants are really not my strong suit 😂

Fresh Clothes!

We arrived at the resupply on time, and had to wait a little bit for my sister to show. She's doing us a huge favor by driving most of the day to make sure we have food, fresh clothes, any extra gear supplies, and to take things away that we figured we don't need.

So we took this moment to just take a long break 🙏.

 

My sister showed up with tons of goodies for us, including subway sandwiches, and cold drinks. It was SO GOOD!  

We spent a few hours together sorting gear, and thinking through what we really need. 

We got a change of clothes and headed up the road a couple of miles to the next trailhead

We plan to meet again three days, and then decide what we will do... Go further or call it good👍.

 

Next up...

Tomorrow we will do 12-15 miles to the next shelter. We are hoping to dodge thunderstorms - the weather west of us didn't look great. So please, pray for gentle cool breezes and a little sunshine. 🌞

Day 4 - Up and Over

Water, Water Everywhere

Day 4 started early (5:00 am). We were in a cloud for about a half hour, which was pretty neat. It rained all night, and I was very happy with how well my tent held up. Very dry inside! 

We got up, lowered down our bear hang, and had a little breakfast. Based on what we had learned in the previous days, we decided to take it easy, so we were just enjoying our morning.  Once we did that we decided to start packing up.

That's when the heavens opened, and bucket sized raindrops started falling from the sky.

We packed the tent up fairly quickly, however it did get drenched. We figured we'd have to sort that out later. So we put on our rain gear and headed out.

It rained for about 3 hours. It was actually quite nice hiking in the rain, I'm not quite sure why? Maybe it was just a nice change of scenery? Maybe because it was cooler? I don't know, but we both agreed we enjoyed it after it was over.

No news, is good news...

Today was fairly uneventful besides the downpour.

I think we are getting a bit of a routine established, and that is helping things to seem "familiar", even if we've never done this before.

Around 11:00 we found a parking lot, and decided to set up all of our gear in the sunbeam that was there. We sat and ate a snack and marveled at the process of evaporation. After about 10 minutes everything was dry and we headed out again.

We passed by Blackrock Shelter, filtered a little bit of water and then made our way up over another mountain. And another mountain. And another one. 

Along the way there was a beautiful little park where we stopped and filtered a little more water.

We made it to Loft Mountain campground, which is very nice. There's a great store, showers, laundry, etc. We may take advantage of the showers in the morning. 🚿

Our neighbors in the campground were very sweet people, who were supporting a slackpacker. They were actually from Utah, and we're good friends with a friend of mine that I work with. 

We enjoyed our dinner, and a couple of bags of chips and dessert from the store in the campground. Then it rained again after dinner, so we retired to our tent.

Resupply!

We've made it to our first resupply day! Tomorrow my sister will meet us with a car full of goodies to restock us while we try to figure out what the rest of our week looks like. 

The Goal is a Moving Target

ChuckWagon has been great. He doesn't complain, leads the way, and has a good attitude. 

He stated yesterday that he doesn't know why he is out here, but not in a negative way. He said he doesn't like doing things without a purpose or goal.

So we brainstormed some goals, he thought he might like to hike 50 miles. I pointed out to him that we had already done that...😂.

So he said "maybe a hundred". This is well short of my original goal, however I really want him to enjoy this trip. So we may be heading in sooner than we thought. 

And that's ok. I'm having a great time, and I want him to also have a great time...

Day 3 - Oh Shenandoah!

"HYOH"

Day 3 started with an intentionally late departure. We had run ourselves into the ground the day before, and decided to take it as easy as possible. 

We are learning to let go of the notion of "miles" and "schedules". This is hard to do, but the more we do it, the more enjoyable our trip becomes.

On the Appalachian Trail (AT) there are many acronyms and sayings people use.

"FKT" - fastest known hike, these are people who have the fastest time on the major trails in the world

"Thru Hiker"- these are people who are attempting to walk the entire trail, about 2,200 mi. It takes them months to do this

"LASH" - long ass section hike. This is what ChuckWagon and I are doing. These people try and tackle the AT in sections.

"NOBO/SOBO" - The AT runs north and south. If you're northbound you are "NOBO", and southbound is "SOBO".

"HYOH" - hike your own hike. This means don't worry about what's right and what's wrong with your hike. Just do what's best for you.

Some people walked the whole thing unassisted. 

Some people "slack-pack", when they pay somebody to drive their gear from point to point, and just carry what they need for the day. 

Slack packer "Jaws", who has his wife meet him everyday or so. He also goes for 30 plus hours straight without stopping. 

And some people stay in hotels 😊. Which is what we did for one night.

SNP

So far the Shenandoah National Park has been beautiful. There are large stretches through Meadows, lots of forests, lots of views, and tons of flowering trees along the way. It's been really gorgeous

Tomorrow we make for a place called Loft Mountain. It's 14 mi away. 

Our first obstacle is making it to Blackrock Shelter which is 8 mi away with just the 2 liters of water we have left. We were told when we left the Calf Mountain Shelter that there was not much water between here and there. So we've been carrying an extra few liters. We're both down to 2 liters, but we're using about 1 l every 3 and 1/2 mi, so I think we'll make it just fine.

Once we get to Loft Mountain there's a large campground we want to check out. It has lots of facilities, and such. 

Happy Trails!

Day 2 - Learning Curve

Day 2 did not go as planned, and that is ok!

Spoiler Alert

We stayed in a hotel our second night 😳 ... read more to know why.

Splendid Morning

The view from our campsite was amazing. I had some hot tea, some Belvita crackers, and a Carnation instant breakfast. We got a game plan together, and decided we would make for the Paul Wolfe Shelter, which would be about a 14 mile day. We took off feeling great.

About 30 min later, we stopped to filter water. After breakfast, and drinking a bit to get ourselves going We just needed another couple of years. This took us about 20 minutes, then we are on our way again.

Climbs

We had a few pretty rough climbs, and by the time we reached the shelter about 5pm we were pretty tired. We had drank about 4-5 liters of water, and were still parched. We filtered some water with our SLLLOOOOWW Sawyer Water filter. While we were filtering we debating going to a nearby town called Waynesboro. We had heard Waynesboro was a great town and really wanted to check it out. 

Also, there was a camping outfitting store there that was pretty awesome, and we decided maybe we should get a second water filter in case this one fails and maybe we could filter water twice as fast with two of them.

I called the store the guy said he could hang out till about 7:00. I could have waited until the morning, but they wouldn't have opened until 10:00 or so, and I was itching to get this problem solved.

Also we had burned through our cell phone batteries through just plain-old-overuse. We had heard we could charge our phones at a spot there in town by the trail. Also we thought we could pick up a couple more snacks for our bags. 

It was just under 5 mi and we thought we could probably knock that out. So we loaded up our packs and headed that way. Our plan was to try to find a hostel to stay in, or to find a place to camp. 

Rockfish Gap

For some reason when I heard the word "Gap" I thought oh we must be going downhill. I probably should have checked the profile map. It was a ton of uphill on very tired legs. By the time we got to Rockfish Gap it was about 7:30, and we were just spent. 

Down the mountain I had been texting for a shuttle. We finally found one, and waited for him in the little parking lot. Our driver was named "Rumble",  and might have been the nicest and coolest person I've met in a long time. 

We headed Rockfish Gap Outfitters. The person who helped us there was absolutely awesome. He  got us our stuff and out of their quick.

We discussed where we wanted to stay, and ooted for a hotel. We are beat,and didn't feel like dealing with a hostel or trying to hunt down a campsite - although Rumble offered to help with both 😊.

Since I had points on hotels.com, our room was free. We got to charge our phones, feed our bellys, drink lots of water, and sleep solidly. 

Tomorrow we should be in the Shenandoah National Park 👍👍🎄🌲🐿️🐿️

Day 1!

Stats~Vol. 1

Here are the starting stats:

My pack- fully loaded: 32 lbs.

Chuckwagon's Pack- fully loaded: 26 lbs.

My weight: 187.2

Chuckwagon's weight:151.0

Miles hiked: 0

Bears seen: 0

---------------------------

First Steps

So we're off. We started at the Tye River crossing near Tyro, VA. My sister dropped us off after a fun drive through the Virginia countryside.

Where we started has a really neat suspension bridge. Very cool thing to see 60 seconds into our hike!

We made it to Maupin Shelter about 6 and ate dinner. Along the way we saw some.cool waterfalls and lots of trees with flowers.

So, I am VERY allergic to.poison ivy. So much in fact, my dad said I used to get it just by looking at it. After years of working in land surying, playing, hiking, backpacking, and camping in the woods, one might assume I know what poison ivy looks like.

I don't.

I know it has three leaves. Today I saw about 900 different plants with three leaves. So I'm sure I am doomed. Oh well...does anyone know who the patron saint of calomine lotion is? If so please say a prayer for me.

Well I'm tired, so good night! Tomorrow we are going to try to make it to Rockfish Gap. It's 18.6 miles away, so lets see if ChuckWagon can top his personal best (oh yeah, it's going to be a long day for me too 😉).

Supply Chains

Getting to the Appalachian Trail (AT) involves a bit of forethought to get stuff moving. The kind of forethought that really stresses people like me out. But I've tried to treat it more like steps on the trail - one foot in front of the other.

My Stuff!

It took a variety of modalities to get my gear here (like food, water, shelter, medical, etc). 

We used REI via USPS, UPS ground, Amazon, and Southwest Airlines got the job done. 

The only one that was late was UPS, and unfortunately they were tasked with delivering the bulk of my gear from Utah to Virginia. I sent it 10 days before I needed it there, and they said would be there in 7 days. It took 11 days.  

This caused a full day of loss on the trail. I couldn't pack and make final preparations without it. But I guess this is the part where I get to learn to be flexible? 🙄

Amazon delivered mostly food (you can buy a lot of stuff ready-to-eat from them) and a few other odds-and-ends (pack cover, permethrin, and a bear-hang kit)

Southwest Airlines delivered our packs, and of course, us!

Checking Backpacks on an Airline

I followed an online suggestion and bought two cheap duffels from Ikea and put our packs in those. These protect the packs and keeps all those straps from being caught on conveyors and such. They worked great and everything arrived intact.

We had a great flight, and the layover was a bit long, but we made the best of it. Check out this video to see some of our ideas of killing time on a layover.

All-in-all, we, and our stuff, made it here safe and sound. 

Next Steps

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will finish packing and sorting gear. Since we'll be met by my sister about every four days to be resupplied with food and clothes, a fair amount of time was spent today sorting stuff into our dropboxes. That was actually exciting, despite what it might sound like.

We took another look at the calendar, and made sure the resupply makes sense. 

Barring any further "flexibility lessons" we'll be on the trail by noon on Thursday.

We may actually make it all the way to the West Virginia border, but that'll partially be up to us, and on what the trail will allow 🙂👍.

"ChuckWagon"

My hiking partner is a +6' tall, 15 year old who eats 5 times a day. He's always hungry. Always. 

Time of day is irrelevant. 

Convenience is irrelevant. 

Nutritional value is irrelevant.

He just consumes food.

Did I mention he's vegetarian?

 

Your normal backpacking trip takes a fair amount of planning. Planning for 2 weeks takes just a touch more. The basic needs are no different whether you're going for a one night, or a month. Food/Water/Shelter/Medical are basic concerns that don't change a whole lot from day to day. It's the amount of days that ratchets up the amount of planning.

    Water can be an issue if you're going a long distance, particularly in the desert where watering holes can be non-existent for long stretches. That adds a ton of weight. Based on what I've read about the Appalachian Trail, however, this isn't really an issue. I read that people take only one to two liters of water at a time. This is vastly different than the hike I just did the other day where we were carrying 8 to 10 liters, and filtered two more for a 48-hour trip. 

    Of course, food just grows based on the amount of days. I don't eat a whole lot like I used to. I usually hang around 1,500 calories a day. I'll probably be burning close to 3,000 calories per day, if not more, so I'll have substantial meals twice a day, a light breakfast, and two calorie dense snacks.

    "Chuckwagon", my son, however will have all of that plus one extra meal. As mentioned above he is vegetarian, although he'll enjoy a fine chicken nugget every now and then. But since we'll be a little short on microwaves and dino-nuggets, I don't think we'll be able to rely on that. Also he's a bit "picky" 🙄.

    Because of this I've had to get pretty creative. I've read hundreds of vegan backpacking blogs, tried dehydrating my own food, and used my vacuum sealer fairly religiously since January. 

    I have a mixture of off-the-shelf backpacking meals (our favorites come from Backcountry Pantry and Good-to-Go), and homemade goodies to hopefully keep him satiated.

    We are also taking some protein bars (Pro Meal Bar) and Salted Nut Rolls. A friend of mine who we were backpacking with last weekend was feeding him those, and it seemed to work. The salted nut roll is a great option, because it doesn't have chocolate (no melting) and higher in protein and salt than maybe some other candies. So that's what we're starting with.

    I told him if we're going to lug all this food around for him he's going to have to carry it... hence his new moniker "Chuckwagon". It'll work great as a trail name for him, until a need arises for a new one.

Here's to fueling lots of miles!

One week out!

One week out and I'm having trouble sitting still!

For over a year I have been thinking about, reading, and preparing to section hike part of the Appalachian Trail.

On June 6th I will fly out to Hampton, Virginia to meet my sister. I'm taking along with me my son, who is 15, soon to be 16, who'll be my "tramily," along the trail. We'll call him "ChuckWagon"- I'll explain that in a later post.

I shipped three large boxes of food and gear to my sister's house. She's going to help me by meeting me every 4 days along the trail to resupply our food and any gear we need. I'm also using the power of Amazon prime to get to her a bunch of other food that my growing 15-year-old will need.

The current plan is to fly in on June 6th. We will then spend June 7th preparing: going through our equipment one last time, preparing the drop boxes my sis will drop off, buying any last minute things we think we may need, and of course packing our packs.

On June 8th she'll drive us near Lexington, Virginia. This is not an arbitrary starting point. My father, grandfather and great-grandfather all went to college there at VMI, and I want my son to see that place. We'll then hit the trail in the afternoon, and be on our way.

I'd like to get about 8 mi in that first afternoon, so we'll see how that goes. 

The plan is to do between 15 and 20 miles a day for 13 days. I know we can do this, as we did a shakedown hike in the desert last weekend and learned a lot about our limits. I've never hiked the Appalachian Trail, just read a lot about it. Based on what I've read if we do about 17 miles a day, we'll get over just over 200 miles in. We will be heading northbound (or NOBO), and from what I understand our stretch is one of the easier ones on the over 2,000 mi of Appalachian Trail. But we'll see :)

As mentioned above, my sis will meet us about every 4 days, and then pick us up on the 20th. Not sure where that will exactly be yet, but hopefully in the northern end of the Shenandoah National Forest. 

I'm excited to have an extended backpacking trip.

I'm excited to be in the forest for so many days in a row.

I'm excited to be able to spend time with my son in a moment of his life that will not last.

I'm excited to finally put action into a long-standing goal of mine, which is to hike the entire Appalachian Trail (eventually).

I'm excited!