Suggestions for the Appalachian Trail

I am somewhat new to backpacking and decided with some friends to do a portion of the Appalachian Trail this August. We'll be hiking in SW Virginia from Damascus to Marion over a 7 day span. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions about gear including tents, stoves, backpacks, boots, etc. that would be helpful.

Also, if anyone has done this specific portion of the trail and would like to offer any detailed suggestions that would be more than amazing.

Thank you all.

Honestly, the best gear is the gear that gets you out there.

However, a few specific pieces of gear that will help are the National Geographic/Trails Illustrated "Mt Rogers" map . It covers the area well.

I strongly recommend hiking the Virginia Creeper Trail out of Damascus for the first 10 miles because the AT is a massive PUD through that first 14 miles. And the hike through the Mt. Rogers area and Grayson Highlands, with views to forever and wild ponies, is a real gem.

Partnership Shelter is a double decker with a solar shower.

You may also be able to follow some excellent side trails. Personally, I realy enjoy the Iron Mountain Trail and I intend to make a Damascus loop up the AT, hooking over to the IMT and back to Damascus this fall.

I have a trip report of the Grayson Highlands and IMT from last summer. Maybe it will give you some ideas or inspiration for your trip.

I second Bearpaw's praise of Mt. Rogers/Grayson Highlands; I've been there twice, and it's tied with Isle Royale as my favorite place ever to go.

I don't know that you need any special gear in that area; I just take my standard three-season gear and never had a problem. Depending on your exact time frame, check out the ten-day forecast; it is cooler up in the hills than in town, so you might want to take along a fleece jacket even though it's August. (What the heck - it would make a great pillow if nothing else.) I was there in late April and mid September, and was glad I brought a down sweater both times, for evening. I also recall one misty morning on each trip where I wore a long-sleeve synthetic top instead of short-sleeved tee shirt.

Thanks Bearclaw!

I took a look at your trail report link and it really helped. I have an illustrated map of the area and was able to follow your route and document some of the suggestions. I guess the only other question I have would be about food. On a week-long trip, what kind of food did you bring and what did you do for water?

Meals were simple. Energy bars or the like for breakfast. Lunch of tortillas and a packet of chicken or peanut butter or the like. Cashews or some sort of gorp for snacks. Freezer bag or freeze-dried dinners. When I am doing miles, I tend to go with simple boil meals.

I got my water along the way. On the Iron Mountain Trail, water was generally available only around the shelters, but they are every 5-6 miles. They were excellent springs and I never bothered to treat the water I drew. Along the AT, I treated water from creeks and continued on. With minimal planning, water is no problem in the region.

The two bigger considerations are weather and horses. You are at 5000 feet for a good chunk of time in Grayson Highlands so expect the weather to to at least 10-15 degrees cooler than the rest of southern Virginia. The ponies are cute, but watch them. They are habituated from hikers feeding them and they may try to root around in your food bag or walk right up to you while you cook. They can be a nuisance up close. From a distance, they make for great pictures.

My hiking buddy (also thru-hiked the AT after he quit being a SEAL) also does the tortilla and peanut butter lunch. It seems like a great idea, which I might adopt for my weekend trips, but I'm curious: why tortillas rather than something like English muffins or those very similar little sandwich rounds?

It's a personal preference. Of course, you can still mash and crumble an English muffin in a compressed pack. It takes more effort to mash a tortilla.

What's a PUD?

A Pointless Up and Down. A series of hills or even mountains that take you up for no real reason. No views, straight to a summit with no thought of a sidehill around, and usually much easier routing that for some bureaucratic goes straight to the top and straight back down and usually repeats itself shortly after.

Having built quite a bit of trail, there are usually two reasons: restricted access to lower routes (a common issue in Pennsylvania for example) or unwillingness to make a large amount of labor intensive sidehill cuts.

PUDs suck, and they are common along the AT.