Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Weather Update
Well....we're still here in Marion. We are going to make a decision tomorrow. As of now it looks like we may be spending tomorrow day and night as well, revamping our gear and taking a few precautionary measures (weather radio, plastic bags to keep feet dry inside shoes, extra batteries and fuel supplies, etc...) and then hopefully heading back out on the trail as long as the weather stays the same. Here in town, at much lower elevations than we'll be after about 2 miles back on the trail, there is still several inches in the woods. After talking to a couple fellow hikers, it seems we're all in the same predicament. A few inches of snow isn't too big of a deal, but hiking in 3+ feet (mt rogers, grayson highlands...) isn't in the cards. We'll keep you posted, but know we're hoping to forge on, all the way to Georgia :) Happy Halloween!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Virginia Snow Day(s)
Writing to you all from the Smyth-Bland Regional Library in Marion, Virginia. With the given weather, happy to report that we are dry, warm, and temporarily living inside. We are going to hole up for a couple days and wait to see what this storm does. The last 24 hours has dumped over 2-3 feet on the peaks of the very mountains we're headed too, and we're not really equipped nor do we desire to hike in the over-knee deep snow at this time... We are evaluating the weather and what steps we'll be taking if we head back to the trail. That may sound a bit dramatic, "if we head back out", but the last 15 miles we hiked was truly a wake up call that has left us up in the air about what to do. So we're waiting, we're letting our skin heal from the brutal cold snow and wet that we hiked in for 7 hours and making sure that we're better equipped to handle this type of situation again if and when the snow clears from the peaks. But enough of that, we'll let you know what we're doing when the time comes (assuming we have internet access!). Onto updates from the trail.
Last time we wrote, we had just gotten out of Shenandoah National Park. The Central-Southwest part of Virginia has been really enjoyable. We've had some amazingly wonderful weather before that whole Hurricane meets Nor'easter thing... This part of the trail also held a lot of symbolic things for Abbey and I. Virginia accounts for 25% of the entire A.T. and also has a lot of majorly photographed areas. McAfee Knob, Tinker Cliffs just to name a few. Places that we've seen pictures of for over 2 years and only dreamt about actually getting to. We had perfect weather on McAfee Knob with cloudy fog packed days before and after, we are blessed. It was really quite emotional for us to be somewhere that we heard about 1600 miles ago from Northbound Thru-Hikers. We've come to terms with the fact that we've come a really long way.
Virginia started with some of the easiest terrain we've seen on the entire trail with long but gently climbs and descents, then even easier walking through the National Park. And we enjoyed being able to look around at all of the fall colors while walking instead of worrying about tripping every few feet.
Then those beautiful leaves started to fall on the trail at the same time that the trail turned into very Rocky, like Pennsylvania Rocks, maybe worse in some areas (really no difference, not sure why Pennsylvania gets such a bad Rep). We had a beautiful week of warm weather but paid for it with leaves 5-6 inches deep on the trail hiding all of the ankle-rolling-rocks, holes from rocks dug out, holes from old trees, tree roots, etc... Some very mentally tiring hiking. But we as always, see beauty everyday. Slept in some absolutely gorgeous areas, often in Rhododendron Thickets near summits with sunrise overlooks, which we've gotten very accustomed to enjoying everyday.
At this moment we're 75% done, amazingly astonished on how long and how short this journey has been. We're grateful for everything, even the hard times, sometimes we're more grateful for those than anything else. For instance, we could have waited at a road yesterday morning after 4 miles of walking in the snow, but we decided to push on another 10 to the town so we could walk in on our own feet. Makes the hardships worth it I guess.
This is/has been an amazing journey. We're excited and anxious to see how the next few days go and what will end up happening. Thanks to you all for being along for the ride and supporting us all the way!
-P&A (Spartan & DreamCatcher)
Last time we wrote, we had just gotten out of Shenandoah National Park. The Central-Southwest part of Virginia has been really enjoyable. We've had some amazingly wonderful weather before that whole Hurricane meets Nor'easter thing... This part of the trail also held a lot of symbolic things for Abbey and I. Virginia accounts for 25% of the entire A.T. and also has a lot of majorly photographed areas. McAfee Knob, Tinker Cliffs just to name a few. Places that we've seen pictures of for over 2 years and only dreamt about actually getting to. We had perfect weather on McAfee Knob with cloudy fog packed days before and after, we are blessed. It was really quite emotional for us to be somewhere that we heard about 1600 miles ago from Northbound Thru-Hikers. We've come to terms with the fact that we've come a really long way.
Virginia started with some of the easiest terrain we've seen on the entire trail with long but gently climbs and descents, then even easier walking through the National Park. And we enjoyed being able to look around at all of the fall colors while walking instead of worrying about tripping every few feet.
Then those beautiful leaves started to fall on the trail at the same time that the trail turned into very Rocky, like Pennsylvania Rocks, maybe worse in some areas (really no difference, not sure why Pennsylvania gets such a bad Rep). We had a beautiful week of warm weather but paid for it with leaves 5-6 inches deep on the trail hiding all of the ankle-rolling-rocks, holes from rocks dug out, holes from old trees, tree roots, etc... Some very mentally tiring hiking. But we as always, see beauty everyday. Slept in some absolutely gorgeous areas, often in Rhododendron Thickets near summits with sunrise overlooks, which we've gotten very accustomed to enjoying everyday.
At this moment we're 75% done, amazingly astonished on how long and how short this journey has been. We're grateful for everything, even the hard times, sometimes we're more grateful for those than anything else. For instance, we could have waited at a road yesterday morning after 4 miles of walking in the snow, but we decided to push on another 10 to the town so we could walk in on our own feet. Makes the hardships worth it I guess.
This is/has been an amazing journey. We're excited and anxious to see how the next few days go and what will end up happening. Thanks to you all for being along for the ride and supporting us all the way!
-P&A (Spartan & DreamCatcher)
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Here are the next few Mail Drops for us. We love getting letters and goodies... :) Love you all!
Mail Drop # 21
Big Island, VA 24526
10/15/2012
Mail Drop #22
Catawba, VA 24070
10/19/2012
Mail Drop #23
Pearisburg, VA 24134
10/22/2012
Mail Drop #24
Atkins, VA 24311
10/27/2012
Mail Drop #25
Damascus, VA 24236
10/31/2012
Mail Drop # 21
Big Island, VA 24526
10/15/2012
Mail Drop #22
Catawba, VA 24070
10/19/2012
Mail Drop #23
Pearisburg, VA 24134
10/22/2012
Mail Drop #24
Atkins, VA 24311
10/27/2012
Mail Drop #25
Damascus, VA 24236
10/31/2012
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Virginia!
We are in Virginia! And actually a little over 1/4 done with it.
This week we explored Shenandoah National Park. A completely different experience than the other 10 national parks we've been too. We've camped in all but one of them, but of course our presence there was completely different. Shenandoah is a little over 100 miles long from end to end, with Skyline drive running often times parallel to the AT. In the past, we would have been one of 'those people' in the cars, driving and stopping at all the viewpoints. We usually car camp for a few days and have backpacked a few days in different parks before, but Walking In and Out was really unique. We felt at times as if we were a 'Site to See' while we were there and have our answers to all the questions down pretty well. Here's out side of the conversation, you can probably figure out the otherside (this literally is what it's like 99% of the time)
"in Maine"
"From Georgia"
"June 11"
"Hopefully by Thanksgiving"
"Yes, it's hard"
" only 1 bear, lots of poisonous snakes"
"25lbs for her, 30-35 lbs for me, I have a camera)
"in a really good tent"
...you get the picture.
So now we're in Waynesboro, VA for the night. On our way through the rest of Central Virginia.
Weather was cold this week, hoping to warm up a little the next few days, we had rain/sleet/snow and below freezing temps at night and early morning, not a good combo. But the weather looks good the next few days :)
Hope you all are well. We're going to try and write back to all of you that wrote to us :)
Love and Hugs,
Preston & Abbey
P.S. One really cool thing that happened, we ran into a section hiker that we hiked with in Maine! (for those of you who remember the guy that put us up in a hotel for a night, that's the one!!!)
This week we explored Shenandoah National Park. A completely different experience than the other 10 national parks we've been too. We've camped in all but one of them, but of course our presence there was completely different. Shenandoah is a little over 100 miles long from end to end, with Skyline drive running often times parallel to the AT. In the past, we would have been one of 'those people' in the cars, driving and stopping at all the viewpoints. We usually car camp for a few days and have backpacked a few days in different parks before, but Walking In and Out was really unique. We felt at times as if we were a 'Site to See' while we were there and have our answers to all the questions down pretty well. Here's out side of the conversation, you can probably figure out the otherside (this literally is what it's like 99% of the time)
"in Maine"
"From Georgia"
"June 11"
"Hopefully by Thanksgiving"
"Yes, it's hard"
" only 1 bear, lots of poisonous snakes"
"25lbs for her, 30-35 lbs for me, I have a camera)
"in a really good tent"
...you get the picture.
So now we're in Waynesboro, VA for the night. On our way through the rest of Central Virginia.
Weather was cold this week, hoping to warm up a little the next few days, we had rain/sleet/snow and below freezing temps at night and early morning, not a good combo. But the weather looks good the next few days :)
Hope you all are well. We're going to try and write back to all of you that wrote to us :)
Love and Hugs,
Preston & Abbey
P.S. One really cool thing that happened, we ran into a section hiker that we hiked with in Maine! (for those of you who remember the guy that put us up in a hotel for a night, that's the one!!!)
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