2011 Trips
Sandia Mountains / Faulty, Barts, South Crest, and CCC Trails
12.5 miles of hiking • 3000' elevation gain •
From Canyon Estates parking lot we took the South Crest trail to the Faulty Trail, then took Barts Trail up the mountain. Faulty Trail was very wooded with less rocks—much like the trails I'm used to back east. The Barts Trail was rocky and straight uphill for an hour until we reached the the South Crest trail that runs the along the ridge of the Sandias. Went south (coming the opposite direction on this trail from our last hike). The views along this easy trail were amazing and in some places you had a 360 degree view. Along with the cliffside views there were also some wooded areas that had snow still remaining from last week. At one point we ran up a hill to check out its view, and then saw our trail further down a bit which was easily accessible from the hill...so we just walked straight to it. I think this was actually a part of the Embudito Trail, which we hadn't intended on taking, but I'm so glad we did because it ended up being the best part of the hike. We came off the Embudito Trail where it met the South Crest, much to our surprise...then hoped to find the CCC trail which was supposed to be nearby and would take us straight back down, even though it wasn't a normal trail and lacked a marker. We chose a route that looked to be the CCC and luckily we were right. And I'm glad we were going down and not up. Yay, then end.
October 15, 2011
October 1, 2011
PETROGLYPH NATIONAL MONUMENT / VOLCANO TRAILS
3.5 miles of hiking • 500' elevation gain •
August 28, 2011
Sandia Mountains / South Crest Trail (partial)
12 miles of hiking • 2000' elevation gain •
Our first long day hike in NM, the first weekend after finding a place to live in Albuquerque. We met several lizards that looked like bearded dragons, although they were more colorful. We hiked from the Canyon Estates parking lot up the South Crest Trail until we reached the northern Embudito Trail trailhead—then turned back around due to looming storm clouds. Great view of Abq once we made it up to the southern part of the ridgeline.
August 13, 2011
Petroglyph National Monument / Rinconada Canyon
2.5 miles of hiking • 0' elevation gain •
Our first walk in the desert, and on our 1st anniversary. This was a nice way to experience a very unfamiliar landscape as the trail was short and we were in the presence of 700 year old petroglyphs. Really fascinating.
August 7, 2011
Landsford Canal State Park
1.5 miles of hiking • 0' elevation gain •
Walked the Canal Trail for Alfie's birthday and to check out the condition of his knee after leaving the AT. We must have seen 5 or 6 snakes, one of which fell out of a tree directly beside me. He immediately headed for the river just a few feet away. I like snakes but this freaked me out.
April 6, 2011
AT / Troutville to Pearisburg
75 miles of hiking • 3500' elevation gain • 6 nights
My husband, Alfie, and I planned to hike SOBO from Rt. 11 (from where we left NOBO for our previous hike) and go all the way on the AT to Springer Mtn in GA. We left April 2nd and were aiming to be picked up the first weekend in June, which would have left us time to go slow and possibly take some side trails through the Smokies...
Day 1 / April 2 / Hiked 9 Miles — Decided to set up the tent at a campsite along the trail.
Day 2 / April 3 / Hiked 11 Miles — Hiked Tinker Cliffs and McAfees Knob. Before hiking up the McAfees we had a delightful lunch in a meadow. Called Grandmama from McAfees, who immediately asked worriedly if we needed to be picked up. Stayed at Johns Spring Shelter, where we met a couple of NOBO thru hikers who put our mind at ease about cooking in camp, hanging food, and other things that were still a bit mysterious to us at this point. Also learned the real reason to use earplugs: snoring in the shelter. I also realized that I sleep fifty times better with the earplugs, and of course never wake up worried about what that strange noise was.
My right shoe (Vasque Breeze), having given me NO problems for 50+ miles, began to rub against my outer ankle. It seemed to be the hard structural piece within the shoe, causing me sharp, cutting pain every time I put my foot down. Being only Day 2, I would not have this. After wedging a piece of our sham-wow beside my ankle, and having it not help nearly enough, I decided the perfect solution would be a small inflatable piece, similar to an air cast. Eventually I remembered that we had these "Buddy Fruits" liquid fruit snacks that had a plastic pouch with a screw-on top. I ate the fruit, blew into it, closed it, and wedged it in, thus ending my foot pain for the rest of the trip. Awesome.
Day 3 / April 4 / Hiked 14 Miles — We walked a half a mile to a convenience store and ate hot dogs and drank Dr. Pepper, both of which were amazing. Then we went up to Dragons Tooth, where we ran out of water and passed no water sources until we reached Pickle Branch Shelter, thirsty as hell. There we met Gadget who was trying to hike the AT in 100 days to raise money for St. Jude's. He was moving fast; I hope he reaches his goal. This night Alfie and I realized that we could zip our sleeping bags together! Snuggling is a huge morale booster. A crazy thunder storm also went through that night.
Day 4 / April 5 / Hiked 16.5 Miles — This is the day that Alfie's knee started to bother him (or at least this is when he let me know about it). It became hard to judge whether we should stop or continue at each shelter, because it really did hurt him, but he still wanted to get to the next one (bringing us closer and closer to Pearisburg). I decided to listen to music for the last part of this day, which made me feel amazing as we went across the rocky ridge of Sinking Creek Mountain with beautiful views on both sides. It did rain, snow, and hail on us a bit during the last few hours, and Alfie's knee was killing him so we were going very slow. When we arrived to the sign for Sarver Hollow Shelter, we still had to detour .5 mile downhill to get to it. Despite that, it was a wonderful new shelter with a covered porch, and we had it to ourselves.
Day 5 / April 6 / Hiked 12.2 Miles — Despite the lower mileage, this day felt very long. We did cross a lot of crazy rivers. I just felt bad for Alfie, as it was obvious by now that he didn't need to be walking. At War Spur Shelter that night I met my first female hiker other than myself. All the people coming NOBO told us the first part of our day (Day 6) would be brutally uphill. Something to look forward to...at least uphill hurt less for Alfie than downhill.
Day 6 / April 7 / Hiked 12.7 Miles — The 2000ft. uphill in the morning wasn't actually that bad, and I wonder if it was because I had been warned and anticipated the worst. At this point we were both just focused on getting to Pearisburg, still two days away. When we were close to our shelter for the night I noticed we were really close to a road that seemed to get a good bit of traffic. I knew the route went to Pearisburg...when we got to Pine Swamp Branch Shelter we were excited to see it was made of stone and had an "indoor" fireplace. I ran up to the top of a nearby hill and got enough reception on my phone to call my dad and get the weather report for the next day...which was not good. With another day to Pearisburg and Alfie's knee messed up, we did not need bad weather. That night by the fire we decided to hike back down to the road and get a ride into town.
Day 7 / April 8 / Hiked 1 Mile — We backtracked down to the road and after a mile or so got picked up by the Captain, whose place we'd passed the day before. We were in a motel room in Pearisburg by 9:30am. The hope was that the next morning, after staying off it the whole day and night, his knee might be improved and we could either wait another day or continue on. It definitely just continued to get worse so our friend Kaili drove from Roanoke to pick us up.
We will definitely be continuing to section hike the AT, hopefully starting where we left off some time this July.
April 2 – April 8, 2011
AT / Troutville to Thunder Hill Overlook
44 miles of hiking • 4250' elevation gain • 2 nights
Our first hike on the Appalachian Trail! We started at Rt. 11 with the hopes of getting picked up at the James River Foot Bridge (around 55 miles)....
Day 1 / March 3 / Hiked 10 miles — Stayed at Wilson Creek Shelter
Day 2 / March 4 / Hiked 24 miles — Our water was frozen in the morning. That day we covered an obscene number of miles for how inexperienced we were, but we knew we had to do a lot each day to make our goal. When we stopped for dinner by a river, it was dusk and we still had three miles to the next shelter. There was a campground nearby, but we decided to keep going in the dark to make our goal for the day. We were both freaked out about hiking in the dark, but we REALLY wanted to get to the shelter. It was uphill the whole way, but I think that helped us focus and the time really went by fast. I usually have an overactive imagination and was worried that my biggest obstacle would be getting scared at night, but I noticed that it wasn't happening. I even tried purposefully thinking of scary stuff but it wouldn't work—I think I was in survival mode and couldn't be bothered to lose focus on getting to the shelter.
We eventually came to a stream where we stopped before crossing, trying to spot the trail on the other side with the headlamp. We weren't having any luck seeing it, which was a very lucky because when I turned back to look at Alfie, we found the stairs leading up to the Bryant Ridge Shelter directly behind us. I still shudder to think about how easily we could have missed it and continued walking for who knows how long. We made it, but I've decided that I do not like to hike in the dark and will probably do my best to avoid it from here on.
The place was huge, being one of the biggest along the AT, two stories high and a porch. Because it was our first trip, bears were still a mystery to us and we actually took the time to haul all of our stuff up to the second floor to feel better about it. It was much warmer up there, too...We were asleep by 9:30 and got some good sleep, but around 5 or 6am I awoke to the sound of feet on the porch below us, accompanied by snorting and heavy breathing. Of course my first thought was Bear! and I froze in my sleeping bag for a few minutes, until finally whispering to Alfie that I heard something beneath us. After having woken him up, we didn't hear a thing and eventually fell back asleep. In the morning I realized that all of the sounds I heard described our visitor as being a deer. Then we saw the fresh hoof tracks all around the porch to verify it...I really wish I had thought of a deer when I heard it.
Day 3 / March 5 / Hiked 10 Miles — We were hoping to hike another 20 miles this day, but the first 10 miles were all uphill and felt endless, taking us to the top of Apple Orchard Mountain, climbing 3000 ft. in elevation. Alfie was doing quite well, but the mountain had been very tiring for me, both physically and emotionally. It was rainy and very, very foggy the entire time which, for lack of better explanation, really creeped me out. There was a magical moment at one point when we smelled a very strong, very fresh scent of licorice that lasted for about 5 minutes. When we finally arrived at the Thunder Hill Overlook around 4pm, I was feeling miserable about the thought of doing 10 more miles, most all of which were going to be downhill. I knew it meant that we would be hiking at night again. My feet were hurting BAD and downhill = pain. The weather was getting worse, I was exhausted and worried, and the thought of going downhill 2000 ft., 10 miles, in mud, in the dark, convinced me to call my parents to pick us up. They were spending the weekend with my grandmother, who lived merely 20 minutes from that overlook, which was part of the Blue Ridge Parkway (I'm sure that knowing they were so close didn't help me resist the urge to call them). My cell phone just barely got through...but it did and I was very relieved, but definitely spent the next 20 minutes crying for being such a quitter. In hindsight, I know it was the right choice, but of course it is frustrating knowing that the feeling of accomplishment would have been great had we met my parents the following day, at our original goal.
March 3 – March 5, 2011
