Blue Ridge Blues

With Steve on board, we'll finish up hiking the Blue Ridge in the Pedlar Ranger District and finish up crossing into Shenandoah National Park.

5/1 James River to Lynchburg Reservoir - 17 miles

We started this morning back at the James River. This is the lowest point of the AT (659 feet) between Springer Mountain and the Potomac River on the Maryland border. We're heading out with full packs and food for 4 days and 3 nights on the trail before Angelika meets us to resupply at Dripping Rock in about 60 miles.

Right off the bat we're looking at about a 3000 foot 8.5 mile climb up to Bluff Mountain from the James River Valley, and that's just half our mileage for the day. On the way up there's a good view of the James River.  

There's what looks like the remains of a fire tower foundation at the summit of Bluff Mountain. Steve is taking a well deserved break. 

Right around Rice Mountain we pass the 800 mile mark. Once again, someone has memorialized it for us on the trail. It's hard to believe we've come this far already.

The original plan was to stop at Punchbowl Shelter for the night, but we decide to push on a few miles further to make for a shorter day tomorrow. We stop and filter water at a creek and find a good camping spot near the shore of Lynchburg Reservoir. We don't get to camp until around 7:00, so we have barely enough time to set up shelter before losing daylight. We cook a quick dinner by headlamp and head for the sleeping bags. It's been a long day. 

5/2 Lynchburg Reservoir to Piney River - 16.9 miles

We woke up early, made breakfast, and got our gear packed up. Steve is much quicker at getting ready than I am, so we decided he should get a head start on the trail and I'll catch up with him by lunch time. We have another big climb today, about 3000 feet over 4 miles, up Bald Knob and Cole Mountain.

Shortly after leaving camp one of the locals has come out to see me off.

It's a little cooler today and the rain that was forecast seems to be holding off. I catch up to Steve on the way up Bald Knob to reach the summit together. While stepping over a blowdown, I lose my balance and lean backwards on my hiking pole which snaps. It's broken at the joint where it folds up, but it looks like there's enough left that I might be able to mend it with some duct tape to get through the next couple days. When we reach Cow Camp Gap, Steve needs to get water at the shelter which is a half mile off the trail. We drop our packs and I work on mending my broken pole while Steve goes off to fetch water.

While I'm waiting for Steve, three hikers come through who are involved in some ham radio event. They're heading up to Cole Mountain to set up a ham radio broadcast to try and reach others on mountain tops all over the world. When we get to the summit of Cole Mountain they have big antennae set up and they're off doing their thing. Cole Mountain is open on top with nice views in all directions.

The rest of today's hike follows the ridge until we reach the North Fork of Piney River. There's a nice campsite here next to the river where we settle in for the night.

5/3 Piney River to Harpers Creek Shelter - 16.1 miles

Steve is up and ready to go way before me this morning so he gets a head start and we agree to meet up for lunch at the Priest shelter. There's rain in the forecast for the afternoon, so our goal is to make it to the Harpers Creek Shelter before 4:00 when the rain is due to start.

The ridge between Piney River and The Priest has a bunch of small ups and downs to traverse. It's Saturday, so there are a lot of day hikers out today. I pass a bunch on their way up to Spy Rock which is a relatively short hike from the trailhead with nice views.

I meet up with Steve at the shelter shortly after he arrived...good timing. We stop for lunch and top off water. We're joined by Stretch who through hiked the AT southbound a few years ago and was out for a weekend trip. Looking at the shelter log I see that the hikers have decided Priest Shelter is where you leave your confessions in the log. They're pretty funny. 

After lunch we get to the summit of The Priest which is one of the summits in the Religious Range. The others are Little Priest, The Friar, Little Friar, and The Cardinal. We take a short break at the summit before heading down a long steep descent to Tye River 3000 feet over 4 miles. 

There's a suspension bridge over Tye River where there are a lot of people fishing in the river. It's a short climb now to get up to the shelter, but we're behind schedule and I can see the weather starting to move in. About a mile from the shelter, thunder starts so we quickly put on the pack covers and speed up the pace a bit. About a half mile from the shelter it starts to pour and we're drenched. When we get to the shelter, it's full with other hikers out for the weekend. We have to set up our shelters in the rain and try to stay as dry as possible. We hunker down in Steve's tent to cook dinner and then get into bed somewhat damp.

5/4 Minus Day - -2.8 miles

Last night it rained buckets. I didn't sleep well getting woken up by the sound of heavy rain on the hammock tarp. Thankfully, I stayed pretty dry in the hammock, but our clothes and gear were pretty soaked from getting rained on the day before.

On the trail a zero day is a day you don't walk and a nero day is a day you walk just a short distance, but as far as I know, there is no lingo to describe going backwards. In the morning, we decided a tactical retreat was the best option. The trail was wet and our gear needed to dry out, so we decided to hike 2.8 miles back to Tye River and have Angelika take us back to the campground to regroup.

Back at the campground we got showered and changed, hung all our stuff out to dry, did laundry, and got reorganized to head out again tomorrow. We went to a German restaurant in town for dinner and basically recovered for a fresh start tomorrow.

5/5 Tye River to Humpback Picnic Area - 16.8 miles

Back at the campground we replan a bit. Steve is nursing some blisters and wants to have a short day. I'll do a day hike today and he'll join me for the beginning part then pick me up at the end. I'll plan on doing shorter days for our next overnights so Steve has some time to recover.

We start back at Tye River again and get to the shelter where we camped the night before. Steve turns back now and I keep going to finish out the day. After the shelter is a long, steep, rocky climb up Three Ridges Mountain. I'm glad we didn't attempt to do this yesterday in slick rainy conditions.

On the way up I spotted this tree with interesting looking and fragrant blossoms on it. It's a White Fringetree. I came across some more of these later as well.

Just past the summit is a rocky outcrop called Hanging Rock with a nice view to the west.

I met through hiker Night Owl here. I met her before at a shelter a week or so ago. She told me she had gotten Norovirus in the Triple Crown area and had to spend three days off the trail. Luckily she was taking a zero day at a hotel when it hit, so she was able to hunker down there until she got over it. Apparently it ripped through the hiker community in that area. Some folks were stuck in their tents in the rain with everything coming out both ends. It's a nasty virus...a bullet I've managed to dodge.

The rest of this section was rather uneventful with a lot of small ups and downs over rough and rocky terrain. I met Steve at the Humpback Picnic Area a little behind schedule. From here we headed back to camp stopping for some BBQ to take back for dinner.

5/6 Humpback Picnic Area to Mill Creek - 8.2 miles

We're heading out for another overnight planning a short day today while Steve gets back into the swing of things. We're going to stay at Paul C. Wolfe Shelter at Mill Creek tonight. On the way, we climb over Humpback Mountain with some nice views.

We get to the shelter by mid-afternoon, so use the spare time to rest up and catch up on hiking plans and the blog. The shelter is really nice and in a great location next to the creek. Since we have good weather we choose to set up our own shelters for the night. The hammock is so much more comfortable to sleep in than the shelter floor. We enjoy an early dinner and bed.

5/7 Mill Creek to Beagle Gap - 10.3 miles

We woke up at our usual 5:00 this morning with temperatures not nearly as cool as we expected. I actually had to take some layers off during the night because I was feeling too warm. We made breakfast and packed up. It's going to be a short day today, only 10.3 miles. Steve had about an hour headstart on me as usual, so we planned to sync up again around 10:00. 

Just past the shelter is the small Lowe family cemetery and the remains of a cabin belonging to the Mayo family. Both early settlers in this area who still have descendants living nearby.

We've been seeing these blossoms on the ground along the trail for a while now. They're very attractive and belong to the Tulip Poplar. I tried to pick one up to bring back for Angelika, but they're very fragile and wouldn't survive. A picture will have to suffice as a poor substitute.

Just before the road crossing at McCormick Gap is another example of a stile. This one is a ladder that you climb to go over the livestock fence. 

I caught up with Steve just before McCormick Gap with just over two miles left before Beagle Gap where we're meeting Angelika. She hikes a mile or so up the trail to meet us and we finish hiking out past some communication towers just before descending down to the van at Beagle Gap.

We're in the mood for pizza for lunch, so stop in Waynesboro before heading back to the campground. This is Steve's last day hiking this month, so I'm back to slackpacking tomorrow.