Spring Break Backpacking – Triple Crown Extended

OVERVIEW

I’m bad at writing good trip introductions, so I’ll just jump right in. We will start at the awesomely named Pickle Branch Shelter near Catawba, VA, and head north on the Appalachian Trail. We’ll hike through the Virginia Triple Crown and then continue on to the Thunder Ridge Wilderness, ending at the James River in Snowden, VA. If you aren’t familiar with the area, we’ll be hiking through some of the most beautiful and picturesque parts of Virginia. This will be a harder trip, but well worth it.
First of all, this is an intermediate/advanced backpacking trip. It’s a week long, and we’ll be covering about 90 miles, averaging 12 miles a day on the Appalachian Trail. Although this section is entirely in Virginia, it has a significant amount of ups and downs with an average cumulative elevation gain of about 2500 ft per day. Prior backpacking experience is expected; this is not a beginner trip and will be much more exhausting than a beginner trip. Please make sure you’re in good health/relatively active leading up to the trip– if you’re not relatively active, it may be a good idea to do some training for the trip. Averaging 12 mpd for a week with elevation gain/loss can feel like a lot. Prepare accordingly. And please fill out the medical info question. Reach out to me if you’re not sure or have any concerns.

Here are the budget considerations:
1) Shuttle money (I have to call, but I would guess it wouldn’t be more than ~$40 per person, and hopefully less) – If this is a concern, just talk to me, and we’ll figure something out.
2) Food (bring your own)

Shuttle money will be collected sometime prior to the trip, as I will reserve it for the group.

Here’s the rough plan/itinerary:
If people want to leave on Friday, that works for me.
Alltrails link: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/custom-routes/custom-route-8eff601?u=i&sh=q1daiz

Itinerary:
2/28 Saturday Drive/shuttle* and hike in to Pickle Branch shelter 1.2mi
3/1 Sunday Hike to John Springs shelter 13.1mi
3/2 Monday Hike to Lambert’s Meadow shelter 9.7mi
3/3 Tuesday Hike to Fullhardt Knob shelter 14.7mi
3/4 Wednesday Hike to Bobblets Gap shelter 13.3mi
3/5 Thursday Hike to Bryant Ridge shelter 12mi
3/6 Friday Hike to Thunder Hill shelter 10mi
3/7 Saturday Hike to Matts Creek shelter 12mi
3/8 Sunday Hike out and drive back 2.3mi
*We will park the car in Snowden and shuttle to the southern trailhead on day 1.

Here’s the deal with gear:
A lot of the club’s gear will be used for Moab over Spring break. That’s ok, we have some options. I’ve put a question in the waitlist form to figure out what gear people have and what they need. For things you don’t have, consider first if you can borrow them from someone you know. Confirm with that person, then make sure to tell me so I can take it off the “gear to find” list. From there, for gear people still don’t have, I’ll figure it out and make sure people have everything they need from a combo of: me having extras of certain gear items, whatever is leftover in the gear room not being taken to Moab, and if those options don’t work, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Because we will be on the trail pretty early in the year, we can plan to use the AT shelters instead of packing tents. I’ll still bring an extra tent just in case someone needs it, but we won’t need to worry about competing with Moab for tents.

Here’s what you need:
I can’t put spreadsheets in the description, so here’s a link to the recommended gear list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/121MaooIFb-TWky01xf1L3Vce4WoNNRgUdQtXH05rb6c/edit?usp=sharing

Note: Emergency/First Aid gear is usually carried by me, however, I would encourage you to bring a personal First Aid kit in addition to the emergency gear I will have.
I know this sheet has a lot of gear on it. Please ask about anything you don’t have or are unfamiliar with.

NO COTTON CLOTHES – please read tags – Cotton loses most of its insulating power when it gets wet, making for a miserable experience and a quick route towards hypothermia. I’m not kidding about this; even cotton blends are not ok.
Stoves can be shared – we’ll coordinate later
Hiking shoes or boots MUST be broken in. You should have already used both your socks + shoes on a long hike, to ensure you don’t get surprise blisters

Food: 8 breakfasts, 7 lunches, 8 dinners — we will not have any resupply stops
Here is the link to a doc with suggestions for good backpacking food options (disclaimer it’s not my doc): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s7lCUJHsYKi5hyuoHnaEJS8eLnQ-a1vFpAe6wgG51s4/edit?usp=sharing
FOOD NEEDS TO BE IN BAGS CAPABLE OF HANGING FROM A ROPE IN A TREE
If you really don’t have a bag like that, you can either hang your backpack with your food or bring an old pillowcase, and I’ll make it work.
Paracord for a bear bag should be about 30 feet (you can get 100ft at Walmart for like 5 bucks)

Bears: Don’t worry about them; only black bears live in Virginia, and they are generally not aggressive to humans. They do, however, want our food, hence the bear hang.

Weather: The weather could be good, and the weather could be bad. In all likelihood, the lows will be around 35 and the highs no more than 60. We will likely experience rain at some point. I’ll update with actual forecasts as we get closer, so we can plan accordingly.

Here’s my contact info:
(630) 697-0459 or aum8jy@virginia.edu
Phone is preferred
Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions/concerns/hesitations. There’s a pretty good chance I forgot to mention something. I’ll reach out to anyone who puts any questions/concerns in their waitlist questions.
Thanks to Carson, whose description template I copied lol

It’s gonna be awesome.
– William Kuehner