Tag Archives: Blue Ridge Mountain Sports

Backpacking, July '13

Summer backpacking adventure

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Catawba

A couple weeks ago I visited Blacksburg, Virginia for a couple days to clean up where I had been living. I had stayed at my parents’ place for the last three and a half years and it showed. Some of their friends were going to be using the place so I had to touch it up before they got there. But I didn’t want to just drive there and back, I wanted an adventure, I wanted an escape. So I shoved some gear into my backpack and planned for a trip in the woods.

I made it to Blacksburg around two in the morning and crashed. The next day I quickly cleaned and called a couple of my friends who were still there. I told them what I wanted to do. I had ants in my pants and there was only one sure fix. My friend Daniel and I went over to our friend Scott’s place to talk plans. Daniel had no intentions of coming with us but after hours of discussion, we convinced him to meet us out there after buying some gear from Blue Ridge Mountain Sports. Scott and I made it to hiking just before seven pm. It’s not unusual for us to get a late start but this was a little crazy even for us considering we had sixteen miles to our destination. We headed towards Dragon’s tooth in Catawaba, Virginia, a beautiful mountaintop rock formation with incredible views, possible star-gazing, and good enough shelter from the wind. Continue reading Summer backpacking adventure →

June '09

At peace

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I got to go surfing on Friday. The waves were pathetic but I managed to have a great time. I looked at my roasted back in the mirror, questioning how my eight layers of sunscreen did not protect me, and decided it was so worth it. During the great morning set of waves, my rusty ability led me to nose dives and wipe outs. But I had one great ride and that was enough to get me excited.

I’m taking the weekend off from racing and returning to the beach for the whole weekend.

sunset over 64

I went to go hang out with my coach Michael tonight. On the way I shared viewing of an absolutely beautiful sunset with other commuters. The song “Your Woman” by White Town came on as I drove. I thought it was a pretty cool song.

sunset over 64

I learned a lot about tents and stoves at blue ridge outfitters today. It looks like I am actually going to do this. Only around 500 people have thru hiked the Appalachian trail North to South and if all goes well I will be one of only a handful to complete the trail during the winter. I don’t have a death wish but I do want to be humbled. It’ll be such an awesome adventure. I want to be as prepared as possible which will still leave me with a lot of learning and adventure. It should be exciting. I’ve got three books to read right now though.