Two Day Triple Crown

OVERVIEW

1. Echols 5:30 AM with stuff in tow.
2. Head to Macafees knob. 3 ish hour drive gets us there around 9:00 AM at the latest.
3. Complete half the loop, bout 17 miles.
4. Sleep.
5. Finish the loop, another 17 ish miles.
6. Leave and maybe get some celebratory dinner otw back to Charlottesville. Unsure of exact return time but Ill try to get us there by 9PM at the latest.
Difficulty: Dont come if you havent backpacked before. Another good rule of thumb is if any of the following items to pack were surprising to you.

1. Bring five liters of water, minimum. If you have a water filter bring that too. We are bringing this so that you do not die. Without water, you will actually begin to break down at a cellular level. You also will have brown pee, which seems very offputting. Then you will die unless you receive good medical care. Avoid this.
2. Bring two days of food, specifically breakfast lunch and dinner along with some trail snacks. One helpful tip is to make sure your food does not need to be refrigerated. If it does, your food will go bad. This is because refrigerators are in fact not naturally occurring. You do not want your food to go bad because if you eat food that is rotten you could end up with any of the following:
1. Diarrhea
2. Diarrhea that burns
3. Parasites, often accompanied by diarrhea or perhaps diarrhea that burns.
4. Vomiting
5. Extreme fatigue
6. An unpleasant disposition
7. 4 through 6, and also parasites and diarrhea that could possibly burn. You might also develop a distaste for whatever you ate, like I ate bad chicken one time and I swear I read the communist manifesto twice over while sitting on the toilet I was on there so long, anyways I couldnt even really look at chicken for a while without being like ew communism and diarrhea just are not fun either separate or together and now its all together, united in this abominable defeathered lump of meat. I do like chicken though so I cook chicken more often nowadays. Still not a communist, though one good thing about communism is that unlike chicken it has never (to my knowledge) given me diarrhea, so if youre a communist and youre reading this Id like to let you know that Im at least a little open minded to your movement.
8. All of the above and then you die.

You should also bring a tent and a sleeping bag, because shelter is important. If you do not bring a tent and/or sleeping bag you will be treated to a pleasant night of hypothermia. This is because it is currently autumn and you will be on a windy mountain. This is not conducive to staying warm, which means you will get cold, which means that without proper protection you will get hypothermia because you probably dont have fur and/or a thick sheet of blubber covering most of your body.

For that same reason I ask that you bring plenty of layers of clothing, because it will be very cold and again I would like to point out that you are not a walrus as far as I can tell, so showing up naked to this will not work in your favor. If you are a walrus, I humbly ask that you deeply consider your ability to go on this backpacking trip. For everyone else I recommend as a rule of thumb two hoodies/fleeces, two long sleeve shirts, long underwear, two pairs of pants, and a heavy jacket, i.e. a down jacket, ski jacket, etc. i also reccomend a rainjacket as this can be used as a windbreaker but also is, as you may have guessed, good for not getting wet in the rain. Also bring plenty of socks and underwear. A good rule of thumb here is to bring too much socks and underwear, to the point that youre like why in the world did I bring so much socks and underwear. One time I brought so many socks that I said that I brought too many. Its not an interesting story at all, I just felt like I needed to add something on this point.
A compass. I will provide a map for you. You should bring this so that you do not get lost. If you get lost, you will miss classes, your favorite tv show, etc. Also you could die if you get lost but to be fair if you get lost just keep walking downhill into the valley and then knock on the door of one of the farmers in catawba, theyll probably feed you and get you back home. Theyre pretty great. But yeah dont get lost.
Aside from that Id say a first aid kit is a good idea for any sorts of booboos and a ukulele for really no reason at all.
Anyhoo let me know if youre confused by any of this

A bit about catawba, which is where well be hiking. Its down in southwest virginia, in a beautiful valley with lots of farmland and at least one secret barbecue shack that I honestly dont know how to renavigate to but the food was great. Lots and lots and lots of mountains so expect lots and lots and lots of elevation change. Also very cold, windy, etc.Also fun fact, has some of the best views on the appalachain trail. Cuz southwest VA is simply built different, baby.
Final note, I will sing bohemian rhapsody at least once on this trip. You will be lucky if it is only once.