Getting Through Virginia On The Appalachian Trail Part One

If you know anything about the Appalachian Trail, you likely know the state with the most miles of trail in it is the Old Dominion state. Approximately a quarter of the entire trail is in Virginia. And that quarter of the trail was spectacular.

I loved my time in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, but I really think that for me, the Appalachian Trail thru-hiking experience really kicked off in Virginia. I’d definitely felt like a thru-hiker before, but in Virginia, I really got into a groove and the experience became something truly special.

I couldn’t get enough of Virginia. It was so beautiful.

Trail Town USA

I entered Virginia, the fourth state in my thru-hike, on April 13, a month after I began walking from Springer Mountain in Georgia. My first day in the state I walked into Damascas, Virginia, a classic trail town that calls itself “Trail Town, USA.”

Damascus was a wonderful town. I stayed at the Broken Fiddle Hostel where I met up with a few folks I’d met earlier on the trail. We went out to a tavern for some dinner and beers as well as a diner for breakfast.

Pushing Mileage Through The Grayson Highlands

Once I left Damascas, I really got into a groove and was doing bigger mileage days. I had done several 20+ mile days before, but in these early days of Virginia that was becoming a regular occurrence. I was really moving up the trail.

During this time, I went though Grayson Highlands State Park, a beautiful area that many call their favorite part of the trail. I loved it there. The park is famous for the Grayson Highland ponies, a fleet of horses that park maintainers keep there to curb negative vegetation. As I approached the park, I saw a couple of these beautiful ponies grazing in the grass.

That night, I woke up in the middle of the night to some clumping. I thought somebody really heavy-footed was walking into camp, but I was shocked to find a few of the ponies were coming right up to the shelter I was sleeping in. I was surprised with how close they got to me and the shelter.

The next day, I made my way through the park, enjoying the lovely scenery. And then dealing with some hail in the afternoon after making it out of the park. You never know what the trail will throw at you.

Soon after the Grayson Highlands, there was a shelter—Partnership Shelter—that was near enough to a road that a pizzeria in nearby Marion, Virginia would deliver pizza to it. A few fellow hikers and I had a fun time ordering food and hanging out by the shelter.

After that, I continued pushing mileage. In these days the scenery became more beautiful than it had been my entire trek.

When I was in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, I loved the views up in the mountains. I will admit though that, with some exceptions, the trees were bare without leaves and it made some of the views a little less spectacular. I began the hike excited to watch spring unfold before my eyes every day. However, it took longer than I anticipated. A month in, the trees had not sprung for the year.

While I was in Virginia, that all changed. Every overlook I saw became absolutely majestic. I loved seeing the different hues of green as far as my eyes could see. It was amazing.

Virginia had more open fields than earlier parts of the trail too, typically around the base of mountains, and this provided opportunities to see more of these wonderful mountains.

A Pink Tutu And A New But Short-Lived Hiking Group

During this stretch of time, a few fellow hikers that I’d run into a few times over a couple days told me they were staying at a hostel called Woods Hole and recommended I go too.

Woods Hole, I learned, was an iconic and historic Appalachian Trail spot. In the late 1930s, the original owners of the hostel discovered a cabin that had been built in the 1880s and fixed it up to create Woods Hole. This made for a really cool hostel.

The hostel also did wonderful farm-to-table meals and they had yoga and meditation session. It had hippie vibes in a good way.

While I was at the hostel, another hiker was wearing a tutu. After talking with them more, I learned that this tutu had been passed from hiker to hiker and the goal was to bring it all the way to the end of the trail in Maine. It came with a booklet that said that the exercise was an effort to raise awareness for mental health—a very good cause. I had heard about a brick that was being passed from hiker to hiker in similar fashion. This seems like a more pleasant (lighter) alternative to that fun tradition. I quickly accepted as I thought it was a fun idea.

So after leaving Woods Hole, I hiked wearing a tutu for the next couple days. I thought it was a fun conversation starter, and I was proud of how hard I rocked that tutu.

However, I was surprised how difficult it was to find another hiker to pass it on to. Other hikers found it too embarrassing to be wearing the tutu (The male hikers that declined weren’t as secure in their masculinity as me, I suppose.). At that point, I was a little concerned about whether I’d be able to find someone to pass the tutu on to.

I rocked the tutu.

At Woods Hole, I’d met a number of kind hikers. And once I was back on trail, I kept running into those hikers. One of them was KitKat, a nice gal from Ohio. I eventually convinced her to take up the mantle and was relieved of my tutu-wearing duties.

KitKat was among several hikers I’d run into a couple times during that period. I also met a young married couple from Pennsylvania named Sonic and Local, Old Man who was from Georgia, Canada Dry from Alberta and Chappy, a retired military chaplain from South Carolina.

Old Man, Canada Dry and Chappy had been hiking together for a bit, but the rest of us had just met them, and we formed a little hiking group, though it was unfortunately short-lived for some of us. The ages of the group ranged kind of widely. Old Man was ironically the youngest at 19 and Chappy, who was Old Man’s cousin, was in his 50s. The rest of us were in our 20s though, and Old Man’s 20th birthday will likely happen while he’s on trail.

One of the days I was hiking with them, while hiking we came upon a Forest Service employee who informed us that there was a controlled burn that got out of control and that Forest Service crews were working to put it out. That meant a small stretch of the trail was closed temporarily. Fortunately, he said the trail was reopening early the next day, so we just decided to cut our day short a few miles and tent right before the closed section of the trail.

This closure turned into some real fun for us. There was a shuttle driver who was shuttling hikers that didn’t want to wait for the trail around the fire. We didn’t take him up on that offer, but we did ask if he could take us to a gas station to get snacks.

We came back with candy, beers and a pie and had a fun time waiting for the trail to reopen. I joked that we were “celebrating the Forest Service’s almost successful controlled burn.”

Cheersing to an almost successful controlled burn.

The Virginia Triple Crown

The next morning we went on through the formerly closed portion of the trail. There, we walked along the Eastern Continental Divide, the ridge line that straddles the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico’s watersheds.

We also entered a portion of the trail dubbed the Virginia Triple Crown. The triple crown refers to three really cool landmarks: Dragon’s Tooth, MacAfee Knob, and Tinker Cliffs. These landmarks lived up to the hype.

A photo of me on top of Dragon’s Tooth.

Dragon’s Tooth was a really cool stoke monolith that you could climb up for wonderful views. We climbed up, got some awesome photos and enjoyed the sights.

MacAfee Knob is perhaps one of the most famous spot on the Appalachian Trail. It’s said to be the most photographed location. There’s a really cool ledge there that protrudes from the mountain and is great for a photo op.

I got ahead of the rest of the group and arrived at the top of the knob about an hour and a half before the others. It was a lovely place to hang out so I just chilled there, cooked my dinner and read some of my book.

Once the others arrived, we got some great photos and all marveled together at the view.

The next day, we came upon Tinker Cliffs. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but this might have been my favorite of the three. The cliffs had some amazing views, and it was awesome to just sit by the cliffs and enjoy the view.

From the cliffs you could see MacAfee Knob and it looked so far away, but it was only six miles away. It was wild to think I’d walked from what looked so far away in just a morning. That was a common experience I had throughout this thru-hike.

I think this stretch of the trail was my favorite so far. The landmarks themselves are really cool, but I also just found the greenery and views to be just amazing here, the best of my journey so far.

That evening, the trail crossed real close to Daleville, Virginia where the group of us walked into town for barbecue, another lovely pit stop. After dinner, the rest of them stayed at a motel in Daleville.

However, I hiked on because I was meeting somebody that I’ll tell you about in my next post.

Continued in my next post.