Late winter/early spring often makes for some great backpacking in the Blue Ridge. Mild temperatures, warming sunshine, cool nights free of buzzing bugs; it lacks only the fall foliage that makes for the pinnacle of scenery in this region. As this time of year coincides with fellow forum member Hang em’ High’s birthday, it makes for a good excuse to get out with some friends on what is usually the first trip of the year. The trip was pushed a bit later than usual this year but considering we had snow on Friday the 20th, it paid off. With high temperatures in the mid 60’s and low 40’s at night, conditions were perfect. The foliage free canopy of the tall hardwoods down in Campbell creek made for great viewing of the bright stars in the cloud free sky.
Typically we will start an e-mail chain with a few friends from all around VA and will end up with a group of 5-7 who can make it based on their schedule. This trip ended up with more and more people responding they were on board and we ended up with a group of 12.
We set off to do the ~14.4 miles of the Appalachian Trail – Mau-Har loop. Starting from the trailhead at the intersection of Skyline Drive and VA RT664, very shortly thereafter you start a steep ascent which is quickly rewarded as you hike along a relatively narrow ridge with great views on either side. We then proceeded down to the intersection of the AT and Mau-Har trail at the Maupin shelter.
This area has tons of camp sites and a virtually infinite number of places to hang a hammock.
Continuing down (Or should I say up!) the AT we made a few stops at some of the great vistas. Here is a great spot where we took a moment to enjoy the view and decide where we were going to stop for lunch.
From this point we decided to push on to the highest point in the hike to stop for lunch, that turned out to be a good decision because here to the peak was a fairly strenuous climb that would not have been fun on a full stomach.
Many of the views are obscured by forest growth; while they don’t make for great photos they are certainly beautiful and impressive in person.
We then pressed on downhill to the Harpers Creek Shelter. This is a great area with numerous campsites however it was early in the day, already well occupied and we wanted to continue on so we would have less mileage out on day 2. We pushed on to Campbell creek and at this point even the most seasoned hikers of the group were ready to call it quits. The rocks and elevation changes made for a challenging ~10 miles with full packs.
I was the first to arrive at camp and there was already one person setup in the area. He had generously strewn his gear all about the largest camp site occupying an area that could easily accommodate 4 good size tents. He was personable enough and I’m sure we could have imposed on him to consolidate his area, but we prefer not to do that. Had we all been in tents it would have been an issue. Since we had 7 folks in hammocks and only two couples and one solo among three tents, we could make do with other spaces in the area.
The ground dwellers found a few flat spots in the area:
We then filled in with the hammocks, and they were well represented!:
Hang em’ High’s Clark NX250 w/HG Incubator 20:
A Hennessy Exped Asym Zip w/HG Incubator 20:
A Clark Flex180 W/Clark Vertex tarp:
A Eno doublenest w/Eno Vulcan UQ:
A Yukon w/hobo tarp (and a SRL that looks a bit short IMO):
And last but not least my WBBB XLC w/HG Incubator 20 and superfly:
(And the shelf in full use!)
Overall it was a good area to camp with plenty of running water, which also drowns out the sound of those who may be stumbling around in the middle of the night to answer the call of nature.
We woke up in the morning and took our time. Two of the group from VA beach decided to head out ahead of the rest as they had the longest drive home, so they missed the group photo:
We packed up and set off heading up Campbell Creek on what is fair to say is a strenuous section of the Mau-Har trail. While it is not the easiest section of trail, the waterfalls and rock formations on the way up help distract you from the virtual non-stop climb back to the junction with the AT.
This sign would be more beneficial on the southern end of the Mau-Har in the uphill direction of travel…
Overall it was a great trip, with a great group and some sore feet to prove it!
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Originally Posted by Ashe
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