while i'll be heading from dickey gap VA to just north of pearisburg -- ending at the Pine Branch Swamp Shelter -- VA 635 -- next week and am curious as can be about water sources on that section of trail, my guess is lots of people are curious about water almost anywhere south of PA. is it a good suggestion to ask hikers to post water status at each shelter's "shelter thread" that they are familiar with? it seems like some really secure water sources are a bit challanged these days. no rain in pearisburg for 6 weeks???
Probably won't make much difference, but it rained preety much all day around here.
We hiked out of Pearisburg toward Daleville two Saturdays ago--so this is a little out of date now--but there was no water for the first 19 miles.
This is hit and miss, from my journal, but:
Water good at Pine Swamp Branch.
Water at Wind Rock.
No water at the campsite spring following Wind Rock.
Stream at Warpsur looked dry at first glance, but if you walk down stream a bit, water is existent.
Most streams dry between Warspur and next shelter.
Absolutely no water at Sarver's Gap shelter.
Water flowing at VA 621...then I stopped writing (sorry)...but I can tell you that the water wasn't good for the remainder of the trip.
I will tell you that, with temps in 80s and no water, we struggled on this trip and suffered, unfortunately, some dehydration and heat exhaustion. We packed water with us whenever we found it, which wasn't very often.
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