Overnight to Elliot Knob Backcountry Penthouse

OVERVIEW

Late-August, the last of Virginia’s summer green canopy, cool mountain breezes to counteract the deathly cville heat, a lovely picnic dinner complete with warm nalgene water and instant mashed potatoes, singing John Denver while watching the vibrant sun dip slowly behind our beautiful Virginia mountains from a picturesque little fire tower nestled atop Elliot Knob. If you imagine this to be your ideal Friday night after a long week of being in the sterile indoor cages that we call classrooms, you’re in luck!

We implore you to bring your finest backcountry cuisine, your best mountain tales, the biggest smile imaginable, and the positive attitude needed to complete the four mile trudge up to Elliot Knob from the trailhead. We’re gonna do BYOD (bring your own dinner (and snacks and breakfast and water and oxygen and whatever else you will need to intake friday afternoon-saturday morn)) bc I am hardly an adult and can barely support my own consumption of nutrients much less 7 others. We will supply tents for everyone – but if you all could bop over to the gear room and get other gear/belongings/things on the to bring list, that would be incredibly awesome :))

If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of summiting Elliot’s fine knob, be aware that it is about 2500 feet of elevation gain to the top and it is an absolute glory to behold. There is an abandoned old lookout tower perched about 40ft high at the very summit of the mountain that provides 360 views in every direction as it is one of the highest peaks in Virginia. While we would normally promote a one night backpacking trip as very beginner friendly, we do want to assert that the trail is very steep up to the summit and that you need to be comfortable hiking 4 miles with this much vertical gain. More info about the trail can be found here: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/virginia/elliott-knob-trail.

Schedule:
3:30 pm: Meet @ corner of Echols Dorm
4:45 pm: Trailhead time
7:00 pm: Arrive to our lovely backcountry fire tower penthouse
7:45 pm: sunset and dine
sleeeeep
6:30 am: sunrise
8:00 am: scoot down the mountain
noon pm: back @ grounds w a big day ahead

Stuff to bring:
-2 Nalgenes of water (or other size equivalent) idk how much water actually fits in a nalgene so I am unable to supply numerical quantity
-Sleeping bag
-Sleeping pad
-Food! enough for dinner, breakfast and snacks if you need them
-Things to cook your food on
-Backpacking backpack
-Musical Instruments if you desire
-Toothbrush/paste if you vibe with that
-camp shoes if you want but not necessary
-raincoat/base layer of some sort/maybe pants – shouldn’t be too cold though
-wool socks for sleepy time
-headlamp!!! We might be hiking in the dark if we are moving a bit slower than expected.
-hiking shoes whooo

If you need a backpack, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, or headlamp, we can provide that for you! The gear room has all of these things and they can be checked out for one week at a time (see gear room emails). PLEASE CHECK OUT GEAR FOR YOURSELF! We can help picking up things for you if you absolutely cannot make a gear room, as I don’t want for this to keep you from getting out, but it makes things a lot easier for everybody if you are able to check out and return your own gear.

DRIVERS NEEDED!
-Drivers need to show up to Echols with a full tank of gas!
-Drivers get priority off the waitlist. The club reimburses for gas +50% tip!

See you there xoxo
-Eliza and Burke