Trip number 2. This year we have a low attendance of kids interested in going, and we have always had parents in the past bugging us for an opportunity to hike, so, our leader set us up with a group including 3 adults and 8 kids, and the second group with 5 adults. I was hiking with the adults this year, and since I was the only one with any (not much at that) AT experience, I was nominated the leader. Being leader of an adult group is kind of tricky, some adults like to take all too many gadgets, and it is hard to get some of them moving in the morning to start the hiking day, but we all got along well and I chose to mostly let everyone have equal say in the group, we are all adults after all.
This trip went very well, we encounterd thousands and thousands of Rhododendrun plants (not really blooming) and some wild ponies which are unique to this area. The first day was a tough hike, started right out with a climb, hiked from about 7:30am to 4pm and made it to a camp shelter just as a rain storm hit, slept in the shelter that night to keep the tents dry while we can. Day 2 we left about 7:30am and finished about 4:30pm, this was probably the toughest day, a 1900 ft climb followed by a 900 ft climb an hour or two later. Very scenic day and our first pony sightings. We hiked the last 15-30 minutes of day 2 in a slight rain, but it cleared up for a dry dinner and a dry night. Day 3 wasn't too bad for hiking, started with quite a bit of down, mostly through boulders which were kind of a pain, saw some more ponies and some open field hiking with some nice views. About 8am to 3:30pm with a nice lunch at Wise Shelter. Day 4 was probably the easiest day, mostly down hill, mostly on a dirt road, wears on the knees and toes, but easier than going up mountains for me. Mostly hiking in the trees today, not much for views, mostly focused on finishing. 8am to 1pm.
June 15 US 58 in Damascus to Lost Mountain Shelter 10.8 miles
June 16 to Thomas Knob Shelter/tenting area 12.6 miles
June 17 to Old Orchard Shelter 10.6 miles
June 18 to VA650 100 feet west of VA 16 near Dickey Gap 10.2 miles
No comments:
Post a Comment