Appalachian Trail - Fullhardt Knob Shelter to Cove Mountain Shelter

 Misty and I awoke long before we had planned and were up and mostly packed before 7am. It was so lovely to see the sun rising through the trees! We took the time to make coffee and have breakfast before hitting the trail. By 7:30 we were ready to go. 

We began our hike with a downhill section from Fullhardt Knob. Before we knew it, though, we were climbing again. 

Weighing heavily on my mind was the issue of water. Things were dry here. Very dry. Many listed water sources had clearly not had water in some time. We came to a small pool of water a few miles in that was filled with minnows. The water looked clear, though, so we filled our bottles. If we found something better down the trail, we could always swap it out. 

We continued on and there seemed to be so many more uphills than downhills. It was quite torturous and we stopped for pack breaks often. 

 Around six miles in, we came across a man gathering water and we chatted with him while we filled our bottles. This water was slowly trickling but it was flowing with the help of a well-placed leaf, and we were happy with that! The man informed us that the next possible water was ten miles ahead. That was good with us, since we could fill up before heading to our campsite which we knew had no water. 

The day was warming up quickly, and we were thankful to have the water. Soon the trail spit us out onto an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The view was amazing from that vantage point!

We continued on the trail while the parkway continued parallel to us. At least we were in the shade and not out there on the road! Each time as we left the parkway, we’d have a long steep climb up and away. Pack breaks continued quite often, and the heat of the day was starting to get to us. 

Also at the parkway overlooks were an abundance of lantern flies. These are beautiful but invasive little creatures. Even so, I couldn’t bring myself to kill any of them. 

We continued on, climbing in the hot sun and then dropping down to the shade. The rocks were abundant and my feet were feeling it. 

Mid-afternoon we stopped for a break, and we were hot. I don’t think I have ever sweated so much in my life or wanted to drink so much water. I had drunk two liters since our last stop, but I was saving one in case the next water source was dried up. 

We came to the water source, which ended up being a nasty pipe coming out of a mud hole into a questionable pool. We had no choice. We were three miles from camp and needed water. The minnow water from earlier suddenly became much more preferable. We couldn’t fill our bottles completely due to how shallow the pool was, so we just did the best we could with the small trickle coming out of the pipe. In the end, we had one liter of minnow water and about a liter and a half of this gross water. We decided we’d filter and treat this water at camp before using it and just drank our filtered minnow water for the last three miles. 

Up next was a long, slow mile-high climb up Cove Mountain. It was brutal. Our packs felt heavier than ever, it was so hot, we were so thirsty, and I could barely get my feet to move forward. 

Despite the difficult climb, the views were amazing! Once we made it to the top, we had some lovely downhill moments, despite the rocks. The fall colors were coming out nicely and we were nearing the end of our day. 

Just after mile nineteen, we came to our shelter and camping area. We were so thankful to get our packs off of our shoulders and threw up our tents quickly. While we made dinner, we also boiled, filtered and chemically treated our disgusting, yellowish water. Thankfully, after all of that, the water looked clear and tasted good. We only had about a liter and a half for breakfast and to get us to the next water supply. Tomorrow was calling for rain and cooler temps, so I hoped we could get by with a little less water. 

After dinner we retreated to our tents where we cleaned ourselves up and got our things organized. We lounged there chatting for a long time. Eventually, another hiker came in and set up a tent. We’d have to find out about the water situation from him in the morning!

Once again, the crickets and birds and other insects were chirping and chittering away full force as we drifted off to sleep. 

Total miles: 19.2

Total elevation gain: 3,822 feet

Appalachian Trail - Daleville, VA to Fullhardt Knob Shelter

Is there a better time for hiking than fall?  I've been to some amazing places in the last month, but the Appalachian Trail has my heart.  With just 134 miles left to hike in Virginia, Misty and I made a plan to finish the state: Nine days, no hostel stays or re-supply points-just pack it up and go.  Generally on the AT, you hike through towns every three to four days, so there's never a need to carry a lot of food, but we weren't going to do that this time, so we were carrying Nine. Days. Of.  Food.  Let me tell you, that adds some weight!  To add to our loads, we were going into this section knowing that water was scarce.  That would mean carrying up to three liters at a time.  A liter weighs 2.2 pounds, so three liters would be 6.6 pounds!  The weight was sure to be an issue.  This wasn't our first rodeo, though, and we were both confident that we'd get it done.

The first day of October arrived, and we were on the road by 5am.  We had a near ten hour drive ahead of us and we still had hiking to do after that!  Misty had arranged for a shuttle driver to meet us in Waynesboro, Virginia where we would leave my car for the week.  He would then drive us to the start in Daleville, and we'd simply hike back to my truck over the course of the next nine days.  

 Corey, our shuttle driver, along with his sweet dog, Ada, drove us to Daleville, where we had ended our very first AT section hike in 2023.  We reminisced on how we didn't know anything back then about the trail or backpacking or anything and we had just been winging it the whole time.  We sure have learned a lot in the last three years!

We hit the trail with less than two hours of daylight left, and with five miles of trail that held nearly 1,700 feet of elevation gain. Contrary to what we expected, the trail did not go straight up, but instead held both steep uphills and downhills, bridges, and, of course, rocks. 

We were racing the sunset, it was 86°, and we were dripping with sweat. My pack was sooooo heavy, especially on the steepest uphills. It was great to be back in the Appalachian Mountains, though, and we continued on through the crunchy, fallen leaves. 

As we climbed higher and higher towards Fullhardt Knob, the sun sank lower and lower in the sky. We stopped for just a moment to catch the last sight of it before it dipped below the distant blue ridges. 

And then it began to get dark in a hurry. We were hiking as fast as we could and I had to get out my headlamp to see the trail. We had hit the five mile mark and still there was no sign of the shelter.

 It was very dark now and we were so over the climbing. At Mile 5.4 we finally saw the turnoff for the shelter! When we arrived, we discovered we had the place to ourselves. Quickly, we put our tents up, got things situated inside them, and made our way over to the picnic table for dinner. 

The sounds of the crickets and other insects were so loud, and they seemed to get louder as we crawled into our tents for the night! Although we were at the top of a small mountain, the night was warm with a pleasant breeze, and I knew we’d have no trouble falling asleep after our long day. 

Total miles: 5.46

Total elevation gain: 1,854 feet