Date: 2010-05-28
From: The Priest Shelter

To: Cedar Cliffs
Miles today: 19.8

Woke up this morning and after I had finished packing up I enjoyed reading the previous entries in the shelter registry. The Priest register is different in that many people "confess" their trail sins to "The Priest" and the register has developed a reputation for entertainment. Climbing down the Priest however was not quite as entertaining. The priest is over three miles long of consistant steep downhill. Fortunately, I am going NOBO because I would much rather hike it going down then up, not to say I wouldn't have any climbing the rest of the day, because I would, plenty!The descent ends at the Tye River, another suspension bridge towering over it and as I crossed over I realized this would be a good spot to stop for lunch. The shelter was only a few more miles down the trail, but a few miles uphill and hungry can be a miserable few miles so I ate and soaked my feet in the cold water. Nannerpuss, Alkaline, and Stretcher all went for a swim, I must admit the water was tempting, but I decided I was happy enough just soaking my feet. I probably lingered a little longer than neccessary, perhaps I was putting off the inevitable climb up Three Ridges, the last of the 3000+ foot climbs. When I say 3000+, thats just the elevation gain, when you count all the times you go down and back up during the climb it easily equals 5000+ feet of ascent.The day was hot and muggy once again so I took my time climbing up the mountain. After a thousand feet of climbing I saw a sign that said "Maupin Shelter 3 miles". Unfortunately I wasn't heading to Maupin shelter just yet, the way the AT took me to Maupin would be approximately another eight miles, and the way I was going made me descend a mile so I could regain that elevation loss once again. I decided not to take the tempting "blue blaze" and headed down the true AT.Took a quick break at the shelter, refilled my water, and started climbing once again. I was perhaps two thirds of the way up the mountain when I start to hear a low, but consistent roll of thunder on the top of Three Ridges. All I could think of climbing the mountain was "I hope this means it's going to rain" because it was hot! I stopped somewhere along the way for a second lunch, and as I packed up I noticed the skies were getting darker and the temperature slightly cooler. A little bit of a breeze had picked up on the open ridgelines which was very refreshing but it dissapeared as I re-entered the green tunnel. What did not dissapear however, was the rolling thunder that was now developing into a full fledged storm. As I continued my climb up to the top of the mountain I couldn't help but think that this is probably the last thing I should be doing in a developing thunderstorm, but I continued all the same despite the ever darkening skies. A couple hundred feet before I reached the top of the summit the sprinkles started to fall around me and as my music was interrupted by the NWS warning for flash floods, I knew at this point I might get my rain, and a little more else that I had bargained for. Hardly any time had passed before the few sprinkles turned into a full fledged rain storm and by this time the thunder had increased and lightning was dancing in every which direction. I was nearly at the top of the summit wishing I hadn't taken that second lunch break. It was only a few seconds after the skies opened up until Kelly and I were completely soaked, she tried to seek shelter at every tree we came to with no luck and we quickened our pace. Perhaps the scariest part was reaching the top of the summit. By this time the lightning was flashing everywhere and the thunder cracking, splitting, and booming around us. This was the worst thunderstorm I had experienced and it just so happened I was soaking wet on top of the mountain on which it sat. Once the thunder was so loud I crouched down and covered my ears, I glanced back at Kelly to notice her jump back, at this point I decided to run down the mountain. The rain had already produced deep puddles on the trails which we splashed through as I ran down, I slid a few times on the slick rocks, but I didn't care. I'm not scared of thunderstorms, but I knew I was in a bad place. Perhaps nothing made me more nervous coming down the mountain than the exposed rock I scurried across. As I made my way lower down the mountain I started to realize at this point I was much more likely to hurt myself falling on a rock then getting hit by lightning, so I walked in the rain the rest of the way to the shelter where the rest of the crew was lucky enough to wait out the storm. It was only a few minutes after I arrived when the storm let up and the sun had started to peak its way through the clouds, what a crazy adventure!Despite being soaking wet, I made my way out of the shelter around six to hike a few more miles. Little did I know that there wasn't much camping for another six miles. Night came on fairly quick and the batteries in my headlamp were very low. The rain began to fall once again and the large rocks I was hiking over were now extremely slick. I felt fortunate that I had night hiked the last few night so I was quite confident in the dark. Skip, Rocket, and Stretcher had also set out for a night hike but I was well ahead of them and wondered if they had found a place to tent at earlier. Finally I reached a sign that I had hoped would refer to a location I might be able to camp at, but as I read the words "No Camping next 1 mile" my heart sank. I was wondering when my next available camping opportunity would occur, but was also curious as to why there was no camping in this area. About a quarter of a mile up the trail I figured it out when I came out on some rock cliffs similar to Tinker Cliffs near Catawba. The city lights shone brightly in the view below and I was very happy to be here at night. Despite the no camping sign I did find a nice place to pitch my tent considering it an emergency camping. I was almost completely set up in my tent when the rest of the crew shows up, in the same situation as I was, we all ended up staying on top of Cedar Cliffs that night in hopes of better weather. Predictably, it stopped raining nearly as soon as my tent was set up for the night.