• Beautiful 360 degree views every day
• Summitting at least one 4,000 footer a day
• Lush forests, beautiful streams, river, campsites and shelters, Cold Mountain and Spy Rock
  
• Refining our lightweight backpacking techniques so our packs stay under 30 lbs

The Appalachian Trail, while often rugged and remote, is designed to accommodate both people who want to hike the entire trail and those who choose to section hike it; that is, hike a new section every year. This year we continue our tradition of offering a new section hike.  We will be backpacking in southern Virginia, beginning on the Blue Ridge and continuing to the edge of the Shenendoahs. The terrain is a wonderful mix of rugged, rocky hiking, climbing summits, beautiful vistas, ridge walking, rolling forest trails and cool, spring fed streams and rivers. Come join us and enjoy another great section of wilderness backpacking on this historic trail.  This trip is currently full. Please contact us if you would like to be on the waiting list or would be interested in a second trip.

women who are in good condition and have wilderness backpacking experience. Our trek involves early mornings, strenuous hiking, and elevation gain and loss - the difficulty of the hiking is greater than the mileage indicates. We emphasize lightweight backpacking and your packs will weigh about 30 pounds. If you have never backpacked or if it has been a long time since you did, please consider our June trip the week before, Intro to Lightweight Backpacking. Rating: 1  2  3  [4]  5

• One night, double occupancy at a small motel in Buena Vista, Va.
  
• One night, double occupancy in Lexington, Va.
• five nights of camping or staying in the shelters; each night we will be at a shelter with fire grates, pit toilets and water nearby. 
  
  

•  experienced guides
•  two nights double occupancy lodging and five nights camping
•  dinners and breakfasts from dinner Sunday to breakfast the following Sunday
•  group camping, cooking, and safety equipment
  
•  transportation to and from the Richmond, VA (RIC) airport is available for $75
  

at 5 p.m. at our motel in Buena Vista, Va. on June 20. If you are flying in, we'll pick you up at the Richmond airport about 2pm

anytime after breakfast in Lancaster, Va. If you are flying, we will have you back to the airport by 11:30am and you can plan to fly out after 1 pm.

you can download the complete trip information here

We've designed the itinerary to take advantage of shelters that are located along the trail. However, since we carry lightweight tents, we have a little flexibility in our actual mileage.  Minor itinerary changes may be made due to weather and/or trail conditions.  Keep in mind that hiking a trail such as the Appalachian Trail is, indeed, not flat and mileage is quite deceiving.  What may look like long mileage can go quite quickly if it is flatter and/or ridge walking while often shorter mileage takes more time because of the elevation gains and losses.

Sunday: Meet at 5 p.m. at our motel in Buena Vista, Va.  If you are flying in, the closest airport is Richmond, Va. and we can pick you up there at 2 pm. We will start with a discussion of what to leave behind and then go into town for dinner and introductions. We spend the rest of our evening getting ready for our wilderness backpacking adventure.

Monday: 3.8 miles.  Our mileage is relatively short today to accommodate our pre-trail activities.  We will continue packing for our trip after an early breakfast and after loading our gear we will be shuttled to our starting point.  Don’t be fooled by the short mileage, this will be an afternoon to remember with almost the entire hike going up with some great glimpses of beautiful vistas and also some spots to walk out to for even better viewing. After making the summit of Bald Knob we will begin descending to our first shelter/campsite, Cow Camp Shelter, where there are no cows but some great history.  In the early 1900s there was actually a hotel in this area and many would ride their horses and mules to spend some time in the Wilderness.

Tuesday: 10.2 miles.  From Cow Camp Shelter we will backpack to Seely-Woodworth Shelter.  Today the mileage is a bit hefty but one of the most beautiful days on the trail.  We spend the day hiking up and down from about 3100 feet to 4000 feet and crossing some of the more beautiful summits this section has to offer.  Our first treat will be the summit of Cold Mountain with its beautiful bald, covered with wild flowers and offering an amazing 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside and mountains.  It will be hard to leave this spot but many other equally beautiful summits await! Even though the entire day is spent ascending and descending the hiking is comfortable and rewarding.  Our shelter will be very welcome at the end of this day.

Wednesday: 6.9 miles.  Today our destination is Priest Shelter.  Our hike will begin with a relatively flat section to get us warmed up for our climb up to 4,000 feet, where we will encounter a beautiful rock formation named Spy Rock.  We will take a break here, drop our packs and scramble up to the top for an amazing view from the top of this huge, bare rock formation, definitely one of those Sound of Music moments.  From Spy Rock we continue toward our shelter, hiking through a section with beautiful Sentinel Pine as well as vistas at every turn.  Priest Shelter, our destination, has one of the most beautiful streams of this trip, a great opportunity to cool off the feet and the body!

Thursday: 7.0 miles. Continuing our journey we leave Priest Shelter, starting off with a climb to the top of Priest Mountain.  Even though your legs may be protesting about climbing that early in the morning, after summitting we will descend from 4,000 feet to 1,000 ft to the Tye River.  You will be very happy to be descending this side of The Priest rather than ascending.  Upon getting to the Tye River we will cross a beautiful suspension walkway bridge.  Below are wonderful places to take a much needed break for lunch and dangle the feet in the Tye River.  If the weather is nice this is a great spot to spend a bit of extra time just relaxing and enjoying the fruits of your efforts thus far. After lunch we will continue to our next shelter/campsite, Harpers Creek Shelter with another really nice spring running right beside of the shelter. 

Friday: 6.2 miles.  Today we will actually be a bit lazy and enjoy our morning at the shelter a bit before leaving for our hike.  We will be spending the rest of our morning and part of our afternoon going up from our shelter at 2,000 feet to the top of Three Ridges at 4,000 feet.  Yes, it is a bit of an up but beautiful.  The Three Ridges winds us around both sides of the mountain so we get great vistas on both sides.  We will see Chimney Rock, hike the Three Ridges and enjoy a great vista from Hanging Rock. After all that climbing we can enjoy the fruits of our labors with wonderful views and nice breezes at the top.  Then we will descend to Maupin Shelter for our last night on trail together.  Our terrain today is definitely rugged with lots of rocks and certainly a lot of up but the return for our effort in views and satisfaction is amazing.  Weather permitting our last night will be spent under a beautiful starry sky and comforting campfire.

Saturday:  6.6 miles  This morning starts out with a wake up call of its own: a quick little up followed by a steep down then pretty mellow for the rest of our time left on the trail before we meet our shuttle.  This will be a welcome and relaxing way to end our trip and give us the opportunity to continue to enjoy the views without having to work quite so hard for them.  We will meet our shuttle at Dipping Rock Parking Area on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  From there we will shuttle back to our vehicles and then caravan into Lexington, Va. for a much anticipated shower.  After enjoying the luxury and comfort of civilization at the hotel we will gather for a farewell dinner and savor our experience.  Returning to the hotel we can continue to marvel at pillows, sheets, mattresses and just general things we tend to take for granted even though part of us may still yearn to be back on trail!

Sunday:  Sadly we say goodbye but hope to see you all on the next section trip of the Appalachian Trail next year.  You are free to leave anytime after breakfast. If you flew in, we will have you back to the Richmond, Va. Airport by 11:30 am and you can plan to fly out after 1 pm.