Isaiah 1 - 25
Iron Mountain shelter to stealth site 2 miles outside of Damascus, VA - 24 (!) miles hiked today - 468.5 total AT miles hiked to date.
VIRGINIA!! Late this afternoon we crossed the Tennessee/Virginia border and are now officially in our fourth AT state. Virginia will be our home for the next 540 or so miles, a longer distance than we’ve covered to date.
At the risk of sounding repetitively redundant (😉), this morning had absolutely perfect hiking conditions, weather, and terrain. Although we got some overnight rain, it had cleared up by the time I started out around 7:30. I was up early, although not by choice.
In a tactical blunder, we had inadvertently pitched our tents near the shelter the night before, not realizing that the early bird hikers from the bunkhouse the previous night were hunkered down inside the shelter. Sure enough, at about 5 am, they started the same cacophony they had provided the morning before. Bright lights, alarms, clanging and banging preceded their departure at 7. Unable to sleep until dawn, as is my preference, I went ahead and packed up and headed onto the trail.
Cool, clear, breezy weather made the morning go by quickly. Varied and forgiving terrain including smooth paths, fields, meadows, and a gentle ridge line trail made for a faster than usual pace. I had covered 12 mules by the time I stopped for lunch. The initial plan was to hike a total of 16 miles for the day, but our pace indicated the potential of much more.
Arriving at our planned stopping point by 2:45 (another shelter), there had been a controlled burn there in the past day or so, making the area less suitable for tent camping.
Side note - for those of you reading this in California, a controlled burn is when the Forest Service sets deliberately designed fires in a forest to burn away accumulated leaves and underbrush, thereby removing potential fuel for wildfires. This was the second such burn we’d encountered.
Deciding to move on from there, we adjusted our goal to a campsite just 2 miles outside of Damascus. Water was getting scarce to find, and that was the only water source between the shelter and Damascus.
We pushed on that last 8 miles, climbing over a couple of mountains on the way, passing a monument to a local hermit (pictured below).
We passed the VA state line around 5:45. From there it was just over a mile to our ultimate destination, and we were there by 6:30.
A quick setup, water run, and dinner followed, and then to bed, completely exhausted. Tomorrow- Damascus.
Until next time...
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