Appalachian Trail - Cove Mountain Shelter to Cornelius Creek Shelter

The rain began just before 4am. The rain began pouring down by 4:15am. I was so thankful we were warm and dry inside our tents. For the next two hours, I drifted in and out of sleep before fully waking around 6:30am. Misty was awake, too, and we quickly packed up our gear. We decided to start the day in full rain gear as it was still coming down pretty good. We stuck our packs in the shelter while we packed up our wet, muddy tents. Ugh. They were so heavy and I had no idea how we’d get them dry again. 

We were on the trail before 8am and everything was foggy and beautiful. Our plan for the day was to either hike 17.2 miles to a shelter or 20 miles to a water source with camping. We had some major climbing to do, so we decided to play it by ear. 

After just a mile into the day, we stopped to remove all of our rain gear. We were hot already and were about to start our first climb. The rain had simmered down a bit and we passed several southbound hikers along the way. 

At Mile 3 we stopped for water. What had been just a slight trickle in the creek the day before was now a good flow today with all of the rain.  To top it off, someone had left two gallon jugs of water near the creek. We decided to fill our bottles with some of that water and then made our way down to the creek to gather more. After having little to no water options the previous two days, we wanted all the water we could get!

The rain was really coming down now and we couldn’t wait to get back into the trees, which blocked a lot of the rain from getting to us.  Mid-morning, we stopped at Bryant Ridge Shelter for a pack break out of the rain.  We were instantly cold and put our rain gear back on over our drenched clothes. We also dumped out our creek water to lighten our loads. We had a huge climb ahead of us and I was exhausted already. 

As we left the shelter, I questioned if we were making the right choice. Should we have stayed there and gotten into dry clothes to get warm?  A mile later, we were warm from the steep climbing, and I felt  better about keeping moving. Even this little turtle was on the move!

This climb was about 3,000 feet over 1.7 miles. We’d hike up steeply and then there would be a little downhill section which would have me freezing again. Then the trail would climb higher and I’d warm up again, only to get chilled again on the next downhill. As we climbed higher and higher in elevation, the wind became stronger and the temperature dropped.  I was not warm in my rain gear over sopping wet clothes. I started to panic a little bit. We decided we would call it a day when we came to the next shelter. It was so cold and windy at the summit of this mountain, and I couldn’t wait to get down to lower levels.

Over the last two miles, I came up with a get-warm plan. As soon as I got to the shelter, I planned to lay out my pad and sleeping bag, strip down completely naked, get into my sleeping bag liner and then get into my sleeping bag. I just hoped no one was in the shelter when we arrived, or they’d be getting a show!

Thankfully, we had Cornelius Creek Shelter to ourselves, and I stuck to my plan. Misty chose to do the same and soon we were both completely naked but warm in our bags!

When we were slightly warmer and could function a little better, we put clothes on-lots of clothes-and then made hot chocolate. It was glorious. 

We hung all of our clothes to dry on hooks and lines all over the shelter.  We had little hope that things would dry out but it was better than leaving things in heaping wet piles on the floor.  We tried to send out a few texts, but service wavered between one bar and satellite service, and we weren’t sure anyone was receiving our messages. 

By 5pm we were warm and ready for dinner, which we chose to make from the comfort of our sleeping bags. As we did so, a group of four men came into the shelter. These guys were a funny group-all brothers-from Pennsylvania and they just needed a short break from the still pouring rain.  We chatted until they decided to move on and we were thankful we wouldn’t be sharing the shelter with all of them, even though we would’ve if they had needed to do so.

Misty and I sat and ate our dinners and then enjoyed some hot cider.  As darkness began to set in, we chatted a bit, watching our gear and clothes drip from the rain into little puddles on the shelter floor.  We hadn't made it as far as we had planned, but we made a safe decision based on the weather conditions. Tomorrow, we decided, we’d head to a hostel to get things clean and dried out-including ourselves!

Total miles: 12.19

Total elevation gain: 3,176 feet

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

Isle Royale, Day Eight - 2026

 We awoke before sunrise, thanks to Dad's bladder.  And if Dad wakes up, he's waking up everyone trying to get out of his sleeping bag.  (If you know, you know.  Haha!)  It had been a quiet night, with just the sound of waves crashing on the Superior shoreline.  I had nothing to cook for breakfast, so I stayed in my bag a little longer while my dad cooked outside.

We packed up our gear slowly, in no particular rush.  The check-in for our departure was not until 2pm, so we had plenty of time.  Finally, we were ready to go.  As we stepped outside, it simultaneously started to rain!  So, we decided to hunker down in the shelter a bit longer.  It wasn't a heavy rain, but there was no point getting wet if we didn't have to.  

An hour later, the rain had passed and it was time to say goodbye to our little shelter.  We headed down to the docks, where they had metal cages designed to hang your packs safely away from critters and creatures while you waited for your boat.  We hung our packs and decided to explore a bit.

In an effort to prevent my seasickness from returning, I decided not to eat anything after having breakfast.  It was going to be a long day.  Aside from food, I couldn't wait to take a shower and exfoliate.  I'm here to tell you, after Day Six, everything just gets pretty unbearable, hygiene-wise.

We took a short hike north along the lakeshore, reading little signs here and there about the island's history. 

 Then, we hung out on the dock, waiting for the morning boat to arrive from Copper Harbor.  This would be one of the final groups of visitors to come to the island, as everything was shutting down in just a few days.  When the group disembarked, I was surprised to see 40 people had come over just for the day.  I just couldn't comprehend taking a 3.75 hour boat ride to spend less than three hours on the island and then taking the 3.75 hour boat ride back!  There was also a good group of backpackers excited and ready to start their adventures.

Eventually, it was our time to board the boat.  Packs were loaded, the captain huddled us once again to go over some rules, and then we were onboard.  Dad had some anti-nausea medication stashed in his pack and we each took a pill. I am not sure why he didn't have that available at the beginning of the trip!  Hopefully the lake would be calmer today and the pill would help us have an uneventful trip home.

The boat was nearly full, and we found ourselves sitting with Jim, our campsite companion from the first day!  We chatted with him the entire boat ride home.  He held a plethora of knowledge about the island, having been there 23 times since 2007!  He had some great stories to tell.

I am happy to report that Lake Superior was so kind to us.  There was barely a ripple on the lake the entire ride home and we made excellent time.  My stomach was calm and I arrived back in Copper Harbor safe and sound.  

We made quick work of picking up our gear and getting out of there.  We planned to drive all the way to our cabin, and that was more than six hours away!  It would be a late night.  As the sun went down, the full, harvest moon rose and lit up the sky.  What a perfect ending to an amazing trip!

I am so thankful that my dad wanted to take this adventure together!  At the age of 75, he truly did something epic!  We had so many laughs and not one tear!  Isle Royale is truly an amazing place and the memories we made will last a lifetime.