travel light, wake early, walk far
Roller Coaster warning. Credit: John Marier Over the three-day Martin Luther King weekend, eight DCUL backpackers (and one slack-packing dog) tackled the infamous Virginia Appalachian Trail (AT) "Roller Coaster" northbound from Manassas Gap to Snickerville Gap. This section of unrelenting climbs and descents is the area that most gives the AT in Virginia its reputation for "PUDS"... Continue Reading →
Saturday morning we met at Vienna and Beks, Chris, Lacey, and Mai headed out to our epic adventure up and over Apple Orchard Mountain. We left our cars at the 501 parking lot near the James River bridge. Our shuttle driver Charlie (from Stanimals) was a former AT thru hiker with a wry sense of... Continue Reading →
On July 23-24, 2002 11 DCUL backpackers hiked part of southern Massanutten Mountain, in the George Washington National Forest, near New Market, Virginia. The original idea was to hike in on Saturday, then swim in and camp beside a man-made, spring-fed, mountain-top pool known as Emerald Pond. Sunday was supposed to feature a long climb... Continue Reading →
DCUL’ers Vera, Dayna, Phil, Sean and Mark met up July 9-10, 2022 for a relaxing weekend of backpacking around the northern area of Massanutten, in the George Washington National Forest, near Fort Valley, Virginia. The wet forecast kept the number of participants low, but the gentle showers were more comfortable than intense July heat would... Continue Reading →
Kudos to the new members on this trip—An, Matthew, Saran, and Tyler—for maintaining high spirits during what turned out to be more of an adventure that we initially planned for a low-mileage trip.
