Date: 2014-05-25
From: Howard Johnson Express, Daleville, VA

To: Bobblets Gap Shelter
Miles today: 18.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was going to be a very, very long day for the three of us. 18.5 miles, our longest day so far this year. So I rose early, trying not to wake Squirrel, showered, dressed, and headed down to breakfast after potting the dogs. I returned with a small snack for each dog, fed them breakfast, put the last of our spare hiking supplies in the van, parked the van in the extended parking area, and we headed out by 7:30 a.m. leaving Squirrel and Zima to enjoy the hotel room.For the first 1.5 miles, the trail remained fairly level and wandered through a more urban environment wrapping up at an underpass that was shared with train tracks. We re-entered the woods and began our day's 1000' climb. It wasn't tough just long extending over 3 miles. At the top, right on the AT was Fullhardt Knob Shelter. We dropped our packs, pulled out second breakfast, and refilled water from the cistern. The cistern was interesting in that it gathered rain water from the roof of the shelter and stored it. There were many day hikers and some short section hikers mixed in with a few thru-hikers at this stop so we had good conversation.My StickPic hadn't arrived prior to our departure for this Section Hike. This is a small device that you can screw to your phone and can use your hiking pole to extend you camera away from you. Once it showed up at my home, my husband had it forwarded to the Howard Johnson. I was so excited that it caught up with me and this morning I was finally getting a chance to take pictures of not just the dogs or the trail but of myself. Discovered quickly that this technique was going to take some practice!The next 8.5 miles were uneventful, just a lot of Virginia boring hiking. We did see a black snake that had crossed the trail and climbed a tree. I tried to explain to Jack that snakes were off limits, but his prey instinct kicked in and he spent a lot of time "looking" for snakes after that. Yikes!As we reached Blackhorse Gap, we started walking through a lot of Rhododendron patches! Oh, I love these tunnels of flowers, and we were extremely lucky to find them in full bloom. Mile after beautiful mile of them!!! But the afternoon was getting late. Squirrel and Zima had met us at Curry Creek for lunch. After that, they went on ahead to the Bobblets Gap Shelter to stake out two tent sites. We needed to pickup the pace if we were going to make that shelter before dark.But in the next 0.5 mile we popped out onto the Blue Ridge Parkway at BRP Mile 97.0. This was Taylors Mountain Overlook and I so wanted to stay and linger there, but we hustled on down the path which now paralleled the BRP for the next 3.5 miles. When we got to the Harvey's Knob Overlook the view was so stunning, I had to stop and take pictures! Wow, this was beautiful country and the Rhododendron's were so gorgeous in bloom.The last 0.7 of a mile was all in dusk. There was a beautiful stone wall from the BRP that the trail skirted along before it dropped back into the wilderness and away from the BRP. I considered getting out my headlamp but figured walking faster would help get us into camp before I couldn't see anymore. Good hiking music spilled from my iPhone to help pickup the pace. With very little light remaining from the day's sun, we turned left off the path and into the shelter, a 0.2 mile hike off the main path. We didn't get more than one bend off the main trail and we ran into Squirrel and Zima coming back out from the shelter with all their gear and a boat load of water in tow. Squirrel quickly noted she'd explain later but we were going to the fire road further down on the main trail. She later explained that a Boy Scout Troup had taken over the shelter so stealth camping was a much better plan. We ended up setting up two tents in the dark, making a quick dinner and crashing hard after 18.5 miles. I was so grateful that Squirrel had gone on ahead and figured all this out before we arrived!!!