I will be heading out for a hike starting tomorrow. I’ll be hiking in Shenandoah National Park to make up some of the section of the Appalachian Trail that I missed when hiking in Shenandoah. It is a 13.5 hour drive to Virginia from here. A few years ago I could make that drive straight through. Nowadays, I don’t think it would be safe for me to drive that long in one day. I’ll be driving 7.5 hours tomorrow and doing the remaining six hours the next day. I’m able to get a room for free with my Starwood points so there is no hotel expense to worry about.
Once I arrive at the trail I plan to hike out and back on the trail returning to my car at the end of the day. Then I will sleep in my car or perhaps hike in to a shelter if there is one close to where I’m parked. My daily hiking miles will be determined by the distance between parking areas and how far I feel I can comfortably hike. I’m out of shape right now so the daily hiking miles will be low to start out. Having the car will allow me to go to town if I need more food or just need a night off the trail. I think hiking with the car will allow me to ease back into hiking. Once I’ve returned from the hike I’ll share how it went. I think it will be a fun and frugal trip.
That’s great news – I’m jealous. Any idea how long you plan to hike before you have to return home? Do you keep a trail journal?
Jon – This hike is only going to be for a week. I plan to go on about a two month hike the beginning of May. Hopefully, this hike will help get me ready for that. I have kept a trail journal in the past. I won’t be keeping one for this hike since it is so short. I might just add this hike on to last year’s trail journal. You can find my old trail journals by searching by my name on Trailjournals.com.
Awesome! I’ve always wanted to hike sections of the AT–or maybe even the whole thing. Should be an awesome time of year for it (much prettier than here in Colorado, where spring comes late, the same way I imagine it does in Kansas!) Have a great hike, and thanks for writing such a great blog.