An Adventure with Beauty, Hiking Dog Extraordinaire

About a month ago, I was really struggling. Burnt out and stressed out. Stephanie called me into our kitchen and said, “You need to go disappear into the woods for a few days.” I am so lucky to have a partner that can see what’s going on (even better than I can), understand what will fix it, and is willing to make it happen.

It was short notice, so I went to my “wish list” of adventures and route plans on Strava and picked the AT Roller Coaster. This is a nearby section of the Appalachian Trail that is generally regarded as the 3rd most challenging section of the entire trail due to a series of steep ascents and descents in a relatively short distance. I have hiked and run several parts of the roller coaster, but never completed it in one shot. The actual Roller Coaster section is 13 miles, but with the access points, my trip was 21 miles with 5,570 ft of elevation gain going south.

I decided to take my hiking dog, Beauty Belle, on the trip. She hadn’t been out much and is getting a bit older, but I knew I would not be running much (if any) of these steep hills, so I thought she would be OK. She wore my sweet Levi’s pack which was a little big, but she needed the volume to carry her sleeping bag and food. It’s not heavy at all, but really bulky.

Captain Janeway (pictured) deeply believes that SHE should be the hiking dog!

I used my regular fastpacking kit with 2 important changes.

Cooked Food!

First, I brought a new cook kit consisting of:

• MSR PocketRocket 2 Stove/Fuel Canister

• Toaks Titanium 740ml pot

• Toaks foldable titanium spork

This is a departure from my previous Fastpacking trips where I brought only ready-to-eat food which saves on cook-kit and extra water weight, but no hot meals on the trail. With plentiful water sources and knowing I would not be running, I was excited to try out the new cooking system. I purchased freeze-dried backpacking meals for dinners each night with a combination of bars and trail mix for breakfast and on the trail. With the dehydrated food, you just boil water and pour it directly into the foil pouch and eat out of the pouch as well. So, you can just pack out your garbage and not worry about cleaning your dishes. Also, so nice to have a nice hot meal after a hard day.

New Kicks!

The second big change was my shoes. After fastpacking the Maryland section of the AT last year, I had kicked and tripped over so many rocks that I lost feeling in half of my right big toe from nerve damage. I went to the doctor, and he said, “The feeling will come back…or it won’t”. It has mostly, but I went on a search for some trail running shoes with better toe protection. My research came down to 2 options. There are several models of La Sportiva running shoes with good protection, but I went with one of my favorite brands Keen.

The Keen NXIS EVO Waterproof Boot is built on a sneaker last, but has extra toe protection and ankle support. They are officially hiking boots, but with an insole upgrade, they have been great trail runners on more technical terrain.

The Shuttle and Start

Stephanie helped me drop my car at the endpoint (just north of Route 50) and drove me to the start at Blackburn Trail Center. Again, I cannot thank her enough for sacrificing almost 3 hours to haul my ass around to make this happen. She dropped us at Blackburn at 11am on Friday November 4th. Beauty and I were both beyond excited, as you can see from the picture.

After we said our goodbyes, we started up the steep climb from Blackburn to the AT up on the ridge. By the time we got up, we already had to do some adjustments to packs. The first sign we saw coincidentally showed the distances to the places we planned to camp each night.

We took off running South along the ridge. This section would be the only running I would do for the entire trip. I resigned myself to be OK with that because with the steep rocky climbs and sketchy leaf-strewn descents, I wasn’t looking to get a sprained ankle or total wipe out. After about 3 miles, we came upon the sign for the beginning of the Roller Coaster. It was ON!

Entering the Roller Coaster from the North, you start on a ridge and descend steeply, quickly changing from a deciduous to pine forest.

We soon came to our first opportunity to top off our water supply at the River-to-Ridge trail. This aptly named trail connects the AT to the Shenandoah River nearby. Another hiker approached from the Southbound direction and we searched for the spring together. He was a young man who had hiked the AT from South to North a few months earlier, but had skipped this section because he had gotten sick and had come back to complete this missing part. I went right by the water source, which was poorly marked, and was heading down towards the river when he yelled for me to come back.

We filled up our water and headed up the next climb. This brought us to the Ravens Rocks overlook. I used to rock-climb here in my twenties. There is a sweeping vista to the East of the ridge. Beauty with her pack on was a big hit, and I’m sure she’s Instagram famous from all the photos taken of her. I spoke with a couple who had done a bunch of backpacking out West, and they took our picture.

From here, the terrain got super rocky and steep. Up and down, rinse-repeat, often scrambling over boulders. Beauty was jumping around like a mountain goat, but I could tell that the pads on her feet were getting tender from the rock.

We took several breaks for her to rest, and I carried her pack the rest of the day.

Day 1 – 8.6 miles – 1,942 ft elevation – 3:15moving – 5:04 duration

Bears Den

We rolled into Bears Den around 4pm and had to wait around until the lodge host arrived at 5pm. Bears Den has a hiker hostel (inside) with showers and kitchen for those folks who have been on the trail a long while. There are several different areas to camp, and I didn’t want to have to set up twice. I got Beauty fed and comfy. Stephanie and I agreed that Beauty’s trip was done and that she would come pick her up in the morning. But she would stay with me that night since she earned it.

When the host finally arrived, he basically said to camp anywhere. We set up in a nice private corner, made dinner, and took it to Bears Den overlook to watch the sun set.

We had close to a full moon that night, and it was extremely windy. I had not camped in my Gossamer Gear “The Two” tent in high wind before, and it was pretty wild. I learned to do some adjustments to “batten down the hatches” a bit. The next morning I could see that most of the rest of the leaves had blown down during the windy night. There was some sporadic rain as well. Just enough to make it challenging to repack the tent in the morning.

Stephanie picked Beauty up very early because she had such a busy day with kid taxi activities. It was so sweet. Beauty didn’t want to go. I could tell she was in pain, but I had to lift her into the car and she kept trying to get back out. I’ll have to take her on a more modest adventure soon.

Day 2 – Bears Den to Rod Hollow

I took my time packing up and made good use of the coffee offered in the Bears Den lodge kitchen. They also offered make-your-own pancakes, but I kept with what I brought. I had a couple nice conversations with folks out on weekend or section trips. I got on the trail around quarter to 10.

Within the first mile, I was confirmed in our decision to have Steph pick up Beauty. The wind and rain had taken down most of the remaining leaves and the trail was covered, even hidden in some places. Lots of sliding and heavy use of my hiking poles. As well marked as the AT is, I temporarily lost the trail several times.

While the first day was remarkable for the rocky scrambling, this second day was just relentless climbs followed by sketchy leaf-strewn descents.

Three miles into the hike, I passed the Sam Moore shelter. This is where the kids and I camped on a quick one-nighter in the spring. We had hiked in from the south from Morgan’s Mill Road. So, the next few miles were familiar. I stopped for lunch at Buzzard Hill and another hiker took a picture for me by the tree the kids like to lounge on. Unfortunately, the area was infested with biting ants, so I got bit up pretty bad and decided to take lunch on the move.

This is a pretty popular section of the trail, so I saw lots of families and groups. The hike North from Morgan’s Mill Rd includes a great waterfall that’s very popular. When I got to the road, I could see that upwards of 30 cars were in the parking lot. But apparently everyone was hiking the section to the north of the road. To the south I didn’t see anyone else for hours.

Three Wise Men and Headlamp Lady

The next few hours were very solitary. I felt like I had the entire trail to myself really getting into a rhythm with the relentless ups and downs. It was certainly a physical challenge, but mentally I was able to get into the flow zone. And while I like the feeling of isolation, my mind also wanders into “lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my” territory.

At long last as I was near the top of one of the climbs, I came across a NB hiker. We chatted briefly, and he said that he was hiking with some more folks who were further back and to watch out or his friend would talk my ear off. Apparently, these 3 men were planning to camp together, but had picked out their own pace on the trail.

Sure enough, about 45 minutes later, I came upon the second guy. He was friendly but focused on making up the time with the leader. He too insinuated that the next person I came across would be a chatterbox. This was a big build-up…I was actually getting excited about meeting this guy.

An hour later (these guys were really spread out), I had crossed a hollow, filled up my water, and was about to start up the next climb when he hailed me from above. He was super nice. We talked about our trips and the weather the night before. Tried to figure out how far behind his cohort he had fallen. I told him about having to leave Beauty at Bears Den, and he told me about his dog that had died recently. Then we moved on to old dogs we used to hike with. I enjoyed it…maybe I’m a chatterbox too :). After about 10 minutes, I made motions like I needed to get going, and he actually handed me a card. This guy was prepared! It looked like he had some religious or political opinions to pass along. Unfortunately, I’ve misplaced the card. I’m sure I’ll find it when packing for the next trip.

At the top of the next climb, I met a nice older woman who asked me how far it was to Morgan’s Mill Rd where she had parked her car…wow I had lost track of how many climbs and descents I had done since crossing the road, but it was a lot. And it was getting on past 3:30 in the afternoon with sunset around 5pm. I gave her my best estimate, but when she was about 50 ft past me, I got worried. I called out to her to make sure she had a headlamp. She said thanks, she did, but hoped she wouldn’t have to use it. Soon after I left her, I realized I should have pulled out my app and given her a better answer, but I was still a little out of sorts from the previous climb.

Finally, the End!

One or two big climbs later I was done! Not with the trip, but done with the Roller Coaster. I had done it! And that meant that my 2nd night campsite at Rod Hollow Shelter was near.

Day 2 – 10.8 miles – 2,933 ft elevation – 4:56 moving – 7:04 duration

When I arrived at the shelter, there was a man about my age and his teenage daughter. They had taken one of campsites near the shelter and the others were very close to it without much privacy. I backtracked to another campsite set up between the shelter and the main trail, but they invited me to come back and share their campfire.

I went and set up my tent and came back to the shelter to cook dinner and hang out. Turns out the man is a brewmaster at one of the local breweries in Loudoun County. Around the fire, we talked about beer and travel and solved all the world’s problems. His daughter was very smart, and they were incredibly nice. Great conversations.

The weather that night was super windy, and I kept hearing branches being blown down. I probably should have abandoned my tent and gone to sleep in the shelter, but instead just had a very poor night sleep.

Day 3 – Do I have to go?

I woke up in the morning knowing that I only had a relatively short hike out to the car (3ish miles), and I kind of went into slow motion mode not wanting the adventure to be over. I took my time packing up camp and hiked slowly compared to the previous 2 days stopping often to take in the views and take a few deep breaths. This terrain was very runnable, but I was past running after the last 2 days and wanted to make it last as long as possible. I passed an old Civil War era stone wall just cutting through the forest stretching off as far as I could see in both directions. Stuff like this really recharges my batteries, and it was hard to let it go to step back into reality, as lucky as I am.

With all of the leaves down and a definite winter landscape, I walked through a widespread grove of small spindly trees with big yellow leaves that changed the quality of morning light, so that everything glowed. I went to take another selfie, and thought, “No, I’ll just remember that one,” and I think I will.

Day 3 – 3.41 miles – 873 ft elevation – Moving 1:28 – Duration 1:40