Date: 2017-08-19
To: Thomas Knob Shelter
Miles today: 12.3
Weather: few clouds

It¢s easier to think of a 12+ mile hike in terms of three 4-mile sections, and it is helpful when there is variation in scenery and terrain. This stretch brought a little bit of everything. Including landmarks to help me gauge my progress. The first of the two climbs looked worse on paper than in reality. It seemed I was hiking at a faster pace than usual, which was good, since I left camp late¢again. I summited White Top Mountain, about 5 miles into the hike, before taking my first break. I munch on snacks while hiking, but actually sitting down, taking off the backpack, and stretching my back are activities I reserve for the perfect location¢like a flat rock in the shade by a water source. I found just a spot and took advantage of it, but couldn¢t enjoy it for long, as it was already after 1, and I still had about 7 miles to go. I don¢t recall whether it was before or after my lunch break, but the hike took me over some open fields with pretty incredible views. I saw a landscape photographer taking advantage of the sunny day.  We talked about the views and the trail, and he took my picture before heading off in a different direction. The scenery changed soon after, as the trail took me back to the cover of the forest, where the sun only peeked through the trees every now and then, casting shadows that played tricks on the eyes. To some, the shadows were probably just a lighting effect, but to me, they were an adversary. I had obviously dealt with shadows on the trail before, especially when the day wears on and the sun shifts, but for whatever reason, today¢s shadows were more bothersome. I danced around what I thought might be obstacles, I tight-roped where I thought the trail might drop off on the side. But, unfortunately, the shadows camouflaged wet roots and I managed to slip on one that jarred and re-injured my knee when it came to an abrupt stop at the bottom of the small descent. I was almost 8 miles into the hike at this point. I stopped to lean against a huge boulder and took some Ibuprofen, when three ladies who were geocaching passed and checked on my welfare. I assured them that I would be ok, and I returned to hiking. It was only a couple hundred yards to the parking area, and I thought if I still had problems at that point, I could hitch a ride into town from there. It was Saturday, and there were a lot of people out enjoying the weather. By the time I reached the parking area, I felt confident I could continue. I only had 4 more miles, but I was running out of day. It was already 3:30.The next two miles were typical trail miles¢ups, downs, rocks, obstacles and, finally, I reached the sign that indicated the shelter was 2 miles ahead. I was on track to reach the shelter by 7 pm, which hopefully will still give me enough daylight to go through the evening routine of settling in for the night. However, the trail became increasingly more difficult¢rocks, steep climbs, switchbacks¢not one section that could be considered ¢easy.¢  Adding to the difficulty was the pure volume of people. Yielding to faster hikers meant stepping aside, sometimes on precarious rocks. When I reached a clearing, which I took to be the Briar Ridge, I knew I still had a mile to go before reaching shelter, but by now I realized there would not be room in the shelter for me, so I was keeping my fingers crossed for a decent campsite and enough daylight to set up my tent. There were neat little cut outs for tent sites on the sides of the trail, and I was ecstatic to see that Gram and Gramps were setting up camp in one of them!! Gramps confirmed my thoughts that the shelter was full, but by the looks of it, I wasn¢t so sure I¢d find a tent site either. I pressed on and came upon a small area that would work for my small tent. The sun was setting, so I hurried to set up camp. I had to re-position the tent several times before settling on one that seemed most level. I hung my bear bag¢it was hanging so low, though, it was laughable¢pretty much eye height for the average person. Oh well, it was off the ground. My knee was feeling the rigors of the last few miles, so I took more Ibuprofen before calling it a night, feeling good that I tackled VA¢s highest peak.