Date: 2015-05-25
From: Niday Shelter

To: Lost Spectacles Campsite
Miles today: 15.1

Today was mostly delightful. With one or two notable exceptions. My cold kept me from having a good night sleep so I wasn't exactly up and at 'm at my usual time. Everybody in camp was late as well, which did not help getting me going. Yoda even had to get the food bags! Once I started hiking though, the congestion cleared for the most part and it was fine. We had a few flattish miles before a fairly big climb but early morning climbs don't usually faze me too much. The legs are fresh, the temperatures are pleasant, it's really the best time for climbing as far as I can tell.This particular climb started nice and well behaved. I was chatting with Logman and noticed how well graded the trail was. A bit later, after Logman stayed behind, it got steeper and now I was working pretty hard . But I could see sky through the trees at eye level, which is typically a tell-tale sign you're near the top. There was a bench listed at the top, so I kept seeing benches in branches and twigs that turned out to be just branches and twigs when I got closer. Now I was getting mad. I had held off getting water and a candy bar until I got to to the top, but now it seemed the top was moving 100 yards down the line every 100 yards. Just then Yoda caught me and let out her customary Seinfeld-esque 'hellooooooooo'. In response she may have gotten the teensiest tantrum about this particular mountain and how the summit kept moving. There may have been unladylike words in there. Yoda took this in stride, said something to the effect of 'I couldn't agree more' and kept hiking to get away from the crazy lady on the mountain. When we did finally got to the bench (almost a half mile later. A half mile is about an eternity in this context!) we were lamenting the lack of trail magic on this holiday weekend when two guys came up carrying a sign and sodas! Trail Magic, woohoo! Was it ever timely.They had planned to quit at 10 am today, but someone had told them about the big crowd at Niday shelter so they kept going. A bunch of people had stayed there overnight but we were the first to hike in this morning. In short order I had a Coke, a slice of watermelon, a hot dog, two donuts, some chips and another Coke for the road. And I got to leave my trash too. Thank you Briar Patch and John, you totally saved the day.We left about an hour later, around ten, and the next stop was the Aldie Murphy monument just a short way down the trail. He was the most decorated WW II soldier and died in a small plane crash on the site of the monument. It was particularly appropriate that we were there on Memorial Day, we couldn't have planned that if we'd tried.Next up was a long downhill to a creek and road. The creek was to be our water source for our camp this evening because the only other source in between was at a shelter .3 miles off the trail. So we carried water for seven miles today. Crazy. On the PCT I'm sure that's par for the course but it really surprises me on the AT.However the creek was very nice, had easy access and lots of options to soak the feet. So we took another break here. It was lunch time but nobody ate! The main trail feature today was to be Dragon's Tooth, a stone formation with great views. Virginia likes to make you work for your views, so it was a long 4 mile ridge walk to get there, but it was actually really nice. Lots of shade, a breeze most of the time and oodles of blooming mountain laurel. I felt like I was in some superbly designed English garden. Yoda was still there when I got to Dragon's Tooth so we climbed up together (she'd already been) and took pictures. It was not unlike the rock scramble on Old Rag, except with a much higher drop off...The way down was a little hairy. Also very rock scrambly which is hard to do with a pack on, especially going down, even more so when you're already tired. We made it without incident though and decided to camp at the first option at Lost Spectacles Gap. That was our original plan, but when we were on top of Dragon's Tooth we thought we might go a tiny bit further. After the rocks going down we changed our minds again and here we are.Tomorrow we hit a store within a couple of miles. We'll resupply for one more day (this will get us into Daleville) and eat a hardy breakfast as well, as they have a grill. Then it is McAfee Knob and hopefully Tinker Cliffs, two famous and iconic AT locations (especially McAfee Knob). Here's to hoping the weather holds until we're through there!Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?