2021 Aug Section Hike Day 4- Campsite above Matt's Creek Shelter to Thunder Hill Shelter

Miles Hiked: 11.9

Date Hiked: 8-25-21

We broke camp early to try to beat the heat. Didn't work. We ran out of water and trudged up a climb hoping the next spring would be flowing. 

Pretty tame deer, we walked up rather close. 

Hiking in Central VA in July. Sweat, heat...climbs. This was not a fun day. 

Thankfully, it was flowing well, in a shady spot and cold. We sucked down lots of water, ate a snack and recovered. 

My zpacks Nero can carry a surprising amount of water. 2L bags in each side pocket, plus whatever I stick on the front and back. I have a pocket on the right that holds a 1L Smartwater bottle and a smaller pocket for a 16-20 soda bottle on the left.  The next shelter has a spring, but comments on my trail app make it sound like it may not have water. So I carried as much as I could. Yay..more weight for the climbs. 

Avocado taking a break at the spring to recover before continuing the climb. Tough day in the heat. 

Still Climbing

We made it to an overlook with a big rainstorm threatening in the distance. Ended up getting rained on a bit, but it was so hot there was no point in getting out the rain jackets. 

A forest service employee stopped by so we asked him to get our picture on the overlook. 

We made it to the shelter, finally. Shortly after arriving the hostel owner we had called to pick us up tomorrow  hiked in with some water and cold treat for us. Incredible. Especially helpful since the spring was dry at this shelter. 

Muscle spasm...my fingers were stuck like this for a bit. I usually get some kind of muscle cramps on day 2-3 of these hikes, first time it was in my hand. Normally in my legs or belly. 

The shelter had a bear box, which made things much easier. No finding the perfect limb and hanging our food, just chuck it in the box. Love these things...really a great convenience when in bear country. 

 

I climbed in my hammock early to escape the bugs and to hopefully cool off. Hot, sweaty, dirty and ready to be done with this hike. 

2021 Aug Section Hike Day 3- Punchbowl Shelter to Campsite above Matt's Creek Shelter

Original Date of hike 8-24-2021 

Miles Hiked: 13.4

Temperature: July in Central Va - Too Hot

We packed up and headed out from the buggy campsite. 

    Rewarded with a nice view and cell signal. Called home and chatted for a few minutes. 

Right after I called home, we came upon this plaque with the story of a little boy who died up here. Very sad. 

This is a trail?

More views. You can see the humidity in the air, going to be a hot day. 

Never one to pass up a good sitting log, Avocado takes a snack break. I wasn't feeling too good at this point, summery hiking really takes it out of you. 

More views. 

Panoramic View

Nice stretch of trail along a stream. Also a nice break from climbing. 

Avocado pushed ahead and started to cross the James River Bridge

A long footbridge for the AT. 

Still alive..and baking in the sun

The day was really getting hot. We found a water hole to cool off before we arrived at our campsite. 

A little snack at Matt's Creek Shelter

Nice shelter, but we decided to do one more climb to set us up for tomorrow. Also, there's a nice campsite at the top according to Guthook. 

Nice Campsite indeed. We got setup before sunset. 

In my hammock and ready to sleep. Watching the sun go down.  A tough day of hiking in the heat, but it was nice too cool off in Matt's Creek and now we're up on a ridge with a good view and cell service. 

2021 Aug Section Hike - Day 2 - Brown Mountain Creek Shelter to Punchbowl Shelter- 10.5

Avocado spent the night in the shelter and I hung my hammock nearby. We slept in a bit longer due to the late arrival.

Cheap Ridge Outdoors bugnet Hammock coupled with my dyneema tarp. Surprisingly comfortable hammock, and I slept pretty well for the first night on a trip.

Leftover Pizza....the perfect breakfast. 

It was a cool and moist start to the day. Forecast says its going to be hot.

Back on the trail and making good time.

Plenty of water on this first stretch of trail.

First break...it is getting hotter.

Yeah, it's hot. Maybe hiking in Central Virginia in August was not one of our better ideas. 

While I filtered water from a nearby cold, clear spring, Avocado took a nap. Sometimes a nap is the best way to progress down the trail.

Cold water sucked through a Sawyer filter, with a pepperoni and cheese wrap...a fine lunch.

       Time for me to take a nap too

Fed, hydrated, rested and back to climbing the mountain.

800 miles from this point down to Springer Mnt, the southern end of the trail. We ran into a southbound couple who had hiked from Maine down to this Point. They estimated 37 more days needed to finish the remaining 800. Yeah, an average of over 21.5 miles a day. 

We hiked on, starting to slow down. It was hot, and I had to carry extra water because we were starting to approach a drier section of train. 90+ degrees plus limited water sources is a tough combination.

We made it to Punchbowl shelter. Water was scoopable above the pond, and flowing decent (a bit green) below. I'm not a water snob....I gathered  the water, filtered it...and survived. We hung our hammocks to escape the mosquitoes and went to bed early. 

2021 Aug Section Hike- Day 1- Long Mountain Wayside(us60) to Brown Mountain Creek Shelter

  It's been 2 years since our last section hike, work schedules, global pandemics, etc...have finally aligned and we're back on the trail. We got a late start, I picked Advocado up at work and we started heading to the Central Virginia portion of the AT.  As Advocado now has a gluten allergy, our standard stop at subway won't work. Instead we got her a gluten free pizza. 

Our late start plus stop for pizza meant we didn't hit the trail until after 10pm. No problem, we turned on the headlamps and hiked an easy 1.8 miles down to the shelter. 

Weather forecast looks like it will be hot during our trip 93-95 down in the valley. Sure...it's a few degrees cooler up on the mountains....but it will still be hot.. We will see how this goes...