MATIC and ADA made large gains in February finishing around 3x the amount invested at the beginning of the month. ADA’s Mary Hard Fork is debuting March 1st which kept Cardano rising this weekend when most other coins were falling. Sunday saw plenty of rain and an opportunity to do a network equipment upgrade with no one around. It seems like I am always upgrading or expanding the network. Updates this week to EdCarmine.com; added a Projects section to the Blog page and completed the Links section on the Blog page. The ‘View More’ tab below the Gallery images on the homepage now sends users to a new Gallery page with more images. Have the first overnight backpacking trip of 2021 scheduled for next weekend. My section hike of the AT is coming up next month. Will be happy when winter is in the rearview.

I have been trying & replacing gear for months and am finally down to a much more comfortable kit arrangement. You can check out my gear list for 2021 here: Ed’s Lighterpack List

I smoked Marlboro reds for 21 years. I vaped for 5 years. I am officially nicotine free as of today. It’s been a long road to recovery but so totally worth it. The proverbial straw was looking at how much all this vaping stuff weighed while figuring out my kit for section hiking. A vape mod, juice, batteries, spare parts, tools, bigger battery pack to charge the mod pushed over a pound of extra weight. I would rather that pound of weight be my camp shoes or some other luxury item.

I left work early Friday and headed over to Front Royal,VA before making my way down to Waynesboro, VA via I-81 to check in at the hotel. I have become accustomed to a good night’s sleep in a hotel before hitting the trail the next morning. I tried to grab a bite to eat near the hotel but COVID made that difficult. Thankfully the hotel had a convienence center with cold beer and microwavable dinners. Cold beer and shrimp scampi it is! 🙂 After dinner I stepped outside to vape and left my vape sitting on the bench outside. I didn’t realize it for a several minutes then panicked and ran outside to find it sitting where I left it. Thought to myself I need to give vaping up soon, grabbed it and went back inside. To bed early and up early.

Saturday morning was cool and dark as I pulled out of the hotel parking lot and began making my way up the mountain. The sun was just rising as I pulled into Reids Gap. Surprisingly the parking area was nearly full but I was able to grab one of the last two spots. I chatted with a fellow hiker parked next to me while I was getting ready to hike. The AT is up hill from Reids gap heading south but not too bad. There are several tent sites in this area and I passed a lot of occupied ones. Summits are easy, the way back down is the hard bit. The 3.2 miles down to Harpers Creek Shelter destroyed my knees but thankfully I always hike with trekking poles so some damage was mitigated. Once I made it to Harpers Creek I popped some vitamin I and ate lunch. Spoke with a few more hikers in the area and a couple fellows from Richmond that suggested there was a nice area along the creek on Mau-Har that would be a good place to camp. It was too early to stop hiking so I took their advice to continue to that site as I was heading that way anyways. It was tough to get around there but I made it. Those fellows had just gotten their tents up when I arrived. There’s a nice fire pit and places to sit, great place to spend the evening.

In the morning we all had our morning rituals we tended to then we parted ways with them leaving ahead of myself. The hike out was straight up hill. It followed the creek for a while. I fell off trail at one point and had to do some boulder scrambling to find it again. The mountains ate one of my boot soles as well. I was so happy when I saw Maupin Field shelter in the distance. Spoke to a seasoned hiker there until I started getting cold and made my way back down the AT to Reids Gap.

I got myself situated the best I could and headed straight to Blue Mountain Brewing in Afton, VA. for a pulled pork sandwich and a cold glass of Kolsch. I picked up a 12-pk. to take home and did just that. The drive back through central VA. was much more scenic than I-81 on the way in from the north. I’m glad I decided to take some different roads home. All in all Three Ridges Loop with Mau-Har is a solid hike I would rate as difficult. It can be done in a day hike but for me I like it as an overnight while traversing the loop clockwise.