First trip of season and excited!

After hibernating at my desk during tax season, I am ready to do my first short trip of 2014 this weekend...We are doing the James River Face hike as outlined on Hikingupward.com. We have modified the camping areas to fit our schedule. Friday we arrive late in the day, so we are only going about 3 miles to Thunder Hill Shelter, then Saturday 7 miles to Marble Springs, and Sunday 7 more miles to the shuttle car parked at the James River.

What's exciting is that I get to try out some new gear: Osprey Talon 44 2013 closeout model, EE 20 degree quilt, and our Stratospire 2 Tarptent. It should be a fun time. The Stratospire is much easier to set up than I had expected from all the posts I have read, but it is much bigger than two nalgene bottles (sorry Franco, it's just not true) when put in its sack. It is much lighter than our other tents, but takes up almost as much volume. But no biggie, it is huge inside and has some extra large vestibules. We love it and can't wait to try it in the field!

Anyway, I heard from HikerMom58 that some WBers may be out our way this weekend, so hopefully we will run into some of you. We are in a 4 person group of 2 men and 2 women, all "maturish" in appearance. lol

Hey Namtrag.. that sounds awesome. Have a wonderful hike!

Just got back from the James River footbridge... dropped off Cedar Tree. :) Keep your eye out for him. Noseeum is starting out further North in the next few days. Daleville is full of hikers. As soon as this weather breaks tomorrow... watch out. The trail will be crowded heading north,coming out of Daleville. Excitinggggg!! :sun

We may have a traffic flow issue on our little section hike! Actually I have never hiked on the AT during Thru Hike season, so I am looking forward to meeting some of them. We should be ok with campsites because we don't hike very many miles, nor very late into the day. Hopefully we will be set up before most people are ready to stop for the day.

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Originally Posted by Namtrag

We may have a traffic flow issue on our little section hike! Actually I have never hiked on the AT during Thru Hike season, so I am looking forward to meeting some of them. We should be ok with campsites because we don't hike very many miles, nor very late into the day. Hopefully we will be set up before most people are ready to stop for the day.

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It's not full blown thru hiker season in VA yet but I am surprised just how busy it is the beginning of May. Y'all should be fine! :)