AT section hike Daleville to Buena Vista

**eagleJ** · 05-30-2013, 18:14

Well guys what started out as a week long trip turned into a long weekend hike do to a couple gear issues and an light ankle strain.
After a early drive of 3 hrs. I was ready to start out at 8am on the trail. I throw on my ULA Circuit pack click the buckle and pull the lower strap to snug up the waist belt. Gear issue 1 brand new hip belt pulled right apart. I go into panic mode made some calls and was able to salvage my trip, thanks to the local outfitter. They got me in touch with a local pack maker who opened up his shop and patched up the belt and got me going. Thanks Billy!
Two and half hours later I finally start hiking, I end up making up time and hike into Bobblets gap shelter by 6:30 for a total of 18.5 miles. Setup the RR and tarp had dinner and met up with the shelter dwellers.
After a comfortable night in the hammock I had packed and eaten and was hiking at 8:30am. After a day of crisscrossing the Blue Ridge Parkway and enjoying the vistas I made the final 2200ft climb before Cornelius Creek Shelter around 5pm completing 18.3 miles for the day. The long climb at the end of the day had been tiring so after setting up and having dinner it was off to the hammock for the night.
I was up and hiking by 7:45 on day 3 again paralleling the BRP climbing Apple Orchard Mtn. crossing under the Guillotine ( a large rock suspended over the trail) and then the long steep drop down and over the James River. This was when the ankle started feeling a little painful. After crossing the river and a short climb I pulled up at what ended up being the final shelter finishing a 21.5 mile day. After the normal dinner and setup ritual I turned in for the night. Shortly after turning in just about to dose off SNAP! Gear failure 2 the Carbon fiber head end spreader bar gave way. The sound was loud enough to be heard in the shelter where they ran around to check on what had happened. Startled but fine I got up to find out what went wrong. Apparently the connector tube failed. I rigged up the hammock with my hiking poles and turned in for the night.
The next morning I was packed and hiking by 7am the climb out of the valley was steep and long but after topping out the drop was brutal and the ankle started giving me issues. After several more miles I decided it was time to call my shuttler and get picked up at the next road crossing which put me at about 16.5 miles for the day. I made it to the pick up spot about 20 min. before my driver and got shuttle back to my truck to make the drive home.
After a little rest the ankle feels fine now and I have contacted the vendors to line up necessary repairs. I had a great time in the outdoors other than the problems occurred. I hope to post up a few pics shortly.

**UHFox** · 05-30-2013, 20:24

Sounds like a great hike, in spite of everything that was thrown your way. I am planning to do that same section in the near future. It's good to see that a high mileage hike through this section is doable. (You did about the mileage I was hoping for).

Hope your equipment repairs/replacements work out for your, and your ankle is back to normal soon.

**Cranky Bear** · 05-30-2013, 21:16

Some hikes seem to go along without a single issue, some not so much. From the way it sounds that it was sort of in the middle, still had fun, but annoying things kept happening. Glad you were able to get the pack fixed at the beginning, that would have put a pretty big damper on things had it not been for the pack maker. Hope the rest gets fixed, and your ankle is not damaged in any way.

Thanks for posting, looking forward to seeing the pictures.