Date: 2013-10-29
From: War Spur Shelter

To: Dickenson Gap
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: broken clouds

Again I was thankful to be in a dry shelter, all to myself, as has been the usual situation for most of this trip. Shelter registers show entries about every two or three days, but rarely more than one person per day. Such a different situation from my northbound experience in 2007. Then, even in September there were always many familiar names just ahead of me on the trail, and there was almost always company at a shelter at night. The rain had quit by the time I left the shelter, but the wind made it seem as though it was still raining with showers falling from the canopy overhead. The trail was nice and relatively fast up until just past Wind Rock. Unfortunately there was no view from Wind Rock due to the fog rolling past. I guessed there must have been a Civi War battle near here because a nearby hill is named Minie Ball Hill. It would have been interesting to learn what had happened here. The section from VA 613 at Wind Rock trailhead down to Bailey Gap Shelter was slow going. It was continual rock hopping, made more difficult and slick by last night's rain on top of all the fallen leaves. I was constantly sliding around on some unseen rock hidden under the wet leaves. This four mile section took well over two hours and my ankles were sore by the time I got to the shelter. It also continued to lightly sprinkle on and off most of the morning. There was a massive new bridge over Stony Creek that wasn't there in '07. The bridge was out in '07 and I had had to ford the creek, which was low and no big deal. I stopped at Pine Swamp Shelter to change into dry socks because my feet were pruned from having been wet all day. The dry socks didn't last long. I also decided to take on two more liters of water, on top of the 2.5 liters I already carried. I had been told that what few water sources there were on Peters Mountain were all dry. It is a long 19 mile run from the shelter, up and onto the crest of Peters Mt, then along the mountain ridgeline all the way to Pearisburg. I didn't want to run out of water half way along the ridge and planned to camp tonight somewhere along the ridge crest. I decided not to try to filter the water because my pump has gotten extremely hard to use because the filter was almost entirely clogged with silt. So, at the creek, I put about 3 liters of "dirty" water into my "clean" water platypus and intended to dump in the right amount of Aqua Mira to fix it. However, back at the shelter, I discovered that somehow I had no Part A solution left. It must have all leaked out sometime in the past. So, I had plenty of water for the next 24 hours, I just couldn't drink it. It would be camp cooking water and I would try to filter what was left back into my bladder to replace what I drank on the way up the hill. I arrived at Dickenson Gap at about 6:30, just as it was getting dark, and set up camp quickly. Soon, the lights of houses and nearby towns came on all around in the valley below as I sat in the dark and cooked dinner on the top of this high ridge. Soon, the wind picked up and it quickly got cold, forcing me into my tent and sleeping bag. It had been a tiring day but another good day on the trail. Temp when I got up was 44, with a high of 56. A gusty East wind kicked up in late afternoon. Light rain off and on in the morning, becoming partly cloudy by afternoon.