We drove to Virginia and on the way there we got mad at the GPS because it wanted use to turn in to a big river. Thank God we didn’t, it had something wrong with it so we just turned it off. When we got to our campsite at Claytor Lake Sate Park, we set up camp and had hamburgers; I learned how to cook corn in the husk. Also the crescent rolls over the open fire were really good. I also saw a Pileated Woodpecker and it is rare to see the nest of this bird. Also something you don’t see very much of: two chicks coming out of the hole and the mother woodpecker feeding the babies.
Tuesday 6/3This was the day we started hiking, but first we had to drive to where we were going to start. When we got there we saw three thru-hikers, Low (m), Unicorn (f), and Pegasus (m). They had the cutest dog and they found the dog in Virginia a few weeks before they met us. The dog hiked in one day 40 miles, we could barely do 10 miles in a day.
So we started on our journey and the first thing we came to was a ladder - we didn’t know that we had to climb over things. It turns out that that was the easy part of the whole trail. After that we started walking. We had to climb a mountain that was 3,876 feet up. We did not know that we had to climb a huge mountain. After we started walking we got up about half way and we started looking up trying to see the top but we couldn’t, we thought “When is this suffering go to stop? There is no end.”
When we finally got to the top we took a well-deserved 45-minute break for lunch. Also there we meet Sea Bass (m) and he said “That is one huge hill” we said “Ya it almost killed us, we didn’t think it would end” but it did. Then we walked some more along the ridge where we had to scale rocks to get to the other side of the mountain. We took a five minute break and I saw the mountain ranges, I never thought I would see the mountain ranges. As soon as we started to walk again it started to pour and it was thundering so hard I could feel the rocks moving beneath my feet.
We started down the mountain and it began to rain harder. It was getting late and we thought we were not going to make it to the campsite, but we did and we made it alive. When we got there we had to set up camp in a downpour, every thing got wet. We should have waited because the rain stopped for a short time - it was a great time to get water, so that’s what we did. Then it started to pour again, so we got in our tents and got out some food. We ate breakfast for dinner because we were too tired to cook. That ended the first day.
We hiked another 10 miles, up the mountain and then down the mountain. Two hikers carried too much weight so they had to drop some stuff off. Also during the last stretch of the hike two of the hikers got dehydrated and we had to leave them so we could bring back some water. Nevertheless they were fine but it was a close call. We had a nice dry night and I even cleaned myself up. We had to walk a half a mile just to get water. When it came time for dinner I was too tired so I just ate my cereal again. I was getting eaten alive; there were so many mosquitoes, and small flies that could bite you. I didn’t know something so small could bite so hard.
We stayed at a hotel; it was so great to have a shower and a dry bed, and most important water that I didn’t have to clean and I knew it was safe. I went in the spa in was the best feeling ever in my life. I cleaned all my dirty cloths- they smelled so bad I thought I was going to die. Also we went to a Golden Coral, which is an all you can eat buffet. That night the buffet lost a lot of money because I was so hungry, I think I ate 3 plates filled with food.
My advice to first time A.T. hikers would be, You can never practice too much, so walk a lot, you have to be in shape to go on this trip. One of the most important things you have to do on the A.T. is walk at your own pace and drink as much water as possible, because if not you’re in trouble.
What does self-reliance mean?Self-reliance means taking responsibility and making good choices. The choices will affect you in a good way or in a bad way, the choices are yours to make. For example you get to make the choice on how much food and water you take, but if you don’t be careful the outcome may well be disastrous. If you take too much then you end up carrying weight that you didn’t need to carry, but if you don’t take enough then you can get dehydrated and can’t go on. Another choice you can make is to bring a water filter or tablets or chlorine, those are all choices and trade offs. Everything is a trade off.