A huge trip is what I planned. What I got was a long climb. And that’s okay.

We drove hundreds of miles and for hours. We left Shutter’s car in small parking lot by the side of the road outside of some small Virginia town. He threw his gear in my truck and we continued to head southwest.

We drove up a mountain on winding back roads. We reached the top, there waiting for us was our ’shuttle.’ We had arranged, via email, for him to meet us here and take to the beginning of our hike. We put our packs in the trunk of his car and headed out, leaving my truck on top of the mountain.

We drove for miles, over a hundred. We finally reached the James River Foot Bridge. We retrieved our packs and paid him for his trouble. He drove off, leaving us ready to hit the trail. Or you could say, he took all of our money and left us in the middle of nowhere.
I guess it all depends how you look at it. Watching that distance pass had made me start to doubt whether I could really go that far. I was really questioning if I could walk the last 5 days by myself, it seemed to be just too much.

We hit the trail and headed south. It was hotter than we expected, in 90’s, but we only had 2 miles to walk. Before very long we had reached the Matt’s Creek Shelter.

We set up our tents, but left the rain flies packed. We cooked dinner and relaxed, enjoying the beautiful weather and the quiet of the woods. After a while we retreated to our tents and slept, knowing that we had a very big climb the next day.

A big climb isn’t really accurate. We had to climb from an elevation of 700 feet above sea level to over 4000 feet over the course of 12.5 miles. It is not a simple ascent up a single mountain, but a series of climbs of several mountains resulting in a total of more than 6000 feet of climbing.

Shutter was up early and already eating his breakfast before I crawled out of my tent. I felt good. It was a beautiful morning and I was on the trail! I cooked myself a breakfast of scrambled eggs and grits with a large cup of coffee. By the time I was done eating Shutter was packed up and ready to go. He headed off up the side of the mountain.

My feelings of apprehension from the day before had evaporated. I felt great and it felt good being in the woods again, and I was looking forward to the trip.

I packed up my gear, finished my coffee and headed out on the Trail.