Trail Magic: Passing it on, 9 years later.

Nine years ago....amazing how time passes....Susan and I went on an adventure of a lifetime. We quit our jobs, put all our belongings in a storage space, parked our vehicles at my parents lake house in Michigan, and set off on a 2,168 mile thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. We started on Springer Mountain Georgia. Six months and 14 states later we completed our thru-hike on Mount Katahdin Maine.

Along the way we met up with many Trail Angels. People who help hikers by giving them rides into towns, giving them food, or help in anyway are called Trail Angels. As a hiker, any help you receive from a Trail Angel is called Trail Magic. Here's another definition from Wikipedia: " In the areas of the trail closer to trail towns, many hikers have experienced what is sometimes called "trail magic," or assistance from strangers through kind actions, gifts, and other forms of encouragement. Trail magic is sometimes done anonymously. In other instances, persons have provided food and cooked for hikers at a campsite."

Before our thru-hike one thing we were told by more experienced thru-hikers was that once you receive Trail Magic, you cannot hold onto it. You have to pass it on. We always meant to pass it on, but we live so far from the trail, we never got around to it. Until now, 9 years later. We spent the first week of this month passing on all the Trail Magic we had received during our thru-hike. We decided to drive to West-Central Virginia, the location of the trail where we would have been 9 years ago this month, and try to find some thru-hikers. In preparation Susan had baked dozens and dozens of Chocolate Chip cookies and Blueberry muffins. Our first morning in Virginia we got up at five in the morning to drive to a trailhead along the trail north of Bland, VA and leave a stocked cooler in the woods for any passing thru-hikers.
We left it most of the day. We had no idea if or how many thru-hikers would pass by. We were surprised and thrilled to find 7 thru-hikers signed our notebook in the cooler. This is what they wrote:

"Awesome thanks" Miker

"Homemade muffins?! Yes, Please! Such a well stocked cooler, and great timing- I'm all out of food. Thanks, guys!" -Saint

"This absolutely brilliant trail magic, and for me as well, the timing was perfect! I was having a tough morning, and this put a big smile on my face. Thanks"! -On the Loose

Thak you ever so much especially for the blueberry muffins awesome! Just what I needed to get to the next shelter. Thanks again" -NATURE

This is the best cooler on the trail. This is better than my refridgertor at home" -Hobbes

"AWESOME!! Thanks!" -Dosmoose + Dirt Stew

We were feeling pretty successful already. But we had more planned. We wanted to get out for a few nights on the trail and do some backpacking. We moved up the trail to Daleville, VA, a suburb of Roanoke through which the trail passes. We had arranged a shuttle up to Apple Orchard Mountain off the Blue Ridge Parkway. That would allow us to hike southbound about 40 miles of trail back to Daleville. Since thru-hikers are Northbound, it would guarantee we'd run into any thru-hikers on this section. We had brought our huge backpacks and were packing at least 10 lbs of cookies and muffins each.
This is where we accessed the AT just below the summit of Apple Orchard Mountain.
We had a relaxing stop at Black Rock overlook. Very likely we passed right by this short side trail during our thru-hike.
It was incredible to be out on the trail backpacking again after 9 years away. We were a bit nervous of the distance we were planning and the forecast for temps in the upper 80's. Very, very hot for us northern Minnesotans.
The first day was mostly downhill 7.6 miles to Bryant Ridge Shelter. We stayed at this shelter during our hike in 2001. I have fond memories of it being one of the nicest shelters on the whole trail and the most relaxing shelter stays we had.
It is also one of the largest, and not very typical of the shelters on the trail. We had expected a crowd of thru-hikers coming in for the evening. No one showed, and we had the shelter to ourselves. Very odd. In six months of thru-hiking back in 2001, we had a shelter to ourselves only twice that I can remember.
We ran into several thru-hikers and were able to make their days with our Trail Magic. We also started to realize how difficult this trail is. The next morning we were both so stiff and sore, we started to question our choice of distances we needed to cover. The next two days would be over 13 miles, and the fourth day another 5. With the heat and elevation changes each day, we were a bit concerned. We also experienced something we didn't have the pleasure to experience the first time on this trail....we were in the middle of black fly season. After day one, I had more than 20 bites on my legs alone.

Day two and we were struggling up the first 1500 ft climb right away in the morning. We were lucky enough to run into a half dozen more thru-hikers. Total, we handed out goodies to 18 thru-hikers those first two days. Not a quarter mile after handing out our last Trail Magic, the Appalachian Trail proceeded to buck us right off. At a junction of two trails, we both missed a white blaze, took a wrong turn, and were too stubborn to turn back for a distance of at least 2 miles. By time we decided we had somehow missed a turn and turned around, our day was turning into a 17 mile day if we had proceeded on. The next water was not until the shelter. We discussed it for some time, and decided our best option would be to back track to a road crossing and end our hike. Once we had descended a 1,000 ft climb we had walked up earlier in the day, we decided our best option would be to walk or hitch 2 miles to a campground. Things got rapidly better once we got to the campground. It was run by a couple. The woman just so happened to be running her two kids into Daleville for soccer games 15 minutes after we arrived. She gave us half off her normal shuttle fee and got us back to our car in Daleville by five o'clock. We got a room at the Super 8, showered and drove into downtown Roanoke for dinner at a fabulous Indian restaurant. A great ending to a challenging day. We were both so sore, that every time we sat down, we could barely get up. We gained a lot of respect for people that thru-hike this trail. It is HARD. Nine years later all you remember is the great times. The reality of the trail is it hurt everyday.

All of a sudden we had a couple of unplanned days to spend however we wanted. We both agreed we wanted to try and do some more Trail Magic. We left Daleville and drove 90 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway to Waynesboro. We then entered Shenandoah Nat'l Park and drove another 57 miles of Skyline Drive. The western Virginia mountains are incredibly lush, green, and stunningly beautiful. We ended up car camping at Lewis Mountain Campground for three nights.
The next day we returned to the Blue Ridge Parkway south of the park and set up near a road crossing. We sat for several hours without any thru hikers passing through. We decided to leave the cooler overnight and come back the next day for it. In the cooler we had:

PB&J
apples/oranges
potato chips, Cheetos, Doritos, Pringles, etc
choco chip cookies
muffins
Coke/Mountain Dew

We had four thru-hikers sign our book this time and at least one, Snowman, who helped himself,but didn't sign:

"Awesome- Your generosity is much appreciated. Great stock job." -Strider

"A GOD SEND!"

"Thank you so much! on a quick push for town with low food. You saved the day" -picker

"Yay! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" -Floweasy

All in all, we believe we fed at least 35 thru-hikers (and three section hikers) and feel we successfully passed on all the Trail Magic we've been carrying around since 2001.