Date: 2017-02-27
To: I just had it loaded wrong
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

I went out with DeLee to hike Keys Gap to Snickers Gap this weekend. That contains a dry section and a bit of the Roller Coaster.We spent Friday night at Bear's Den Hostel so we wouldn't have a long drive in the morning. Then we had a short but confusing diversion as we tried to find the unmarked Main Street in Round Hill. (NB: It's at the corner with Tammy's Diner.) The drive up to Keys Gap from there was super pretty. Lots of rolling Virginia countryside, horse farms, and pretty barns.Wet and stormy weather was predicted for mid-afternoon.   We both kept an eye on the sky, and when it started turning black in the west, I said "This would be a really good time for the side trail to Blackburn Trail Center to show up." Several seconds later, it did! That side trail has seriously good timing. We headed down hill as sprinkles fell. We were almost there, on the stone sidewalk to the building, when the skies started really opening up. Somebody on the porch opened the door and we dashed inside. As we lowered our packs and took off our raincoats, the storm intensified. Buckets of water started flinging themselves off of the roof of the porch, and hail started falling outside. It was pretty exciting. As this was going on, the caretaker walked up and asked if we wanted some coffee or hot chocolate. Yes. Yes we did! Stepping out of a storm to a safe place with hot drinks is pretty much the best thing that can happen in that situation.We waited about an hour and a half for the storm to pass over, got water, and headed out. We had intended to stop there for water or to stay the night, due to the lack of water in the area. There were a pack of Boy Scouts raising a ruckus, and it was only 1:30 when we arrived. So I got 3 liters of water for myself, DeLee filled up too, and we stepped out into the afternoon.I had remembered a good campsite up against a rock wall just south of there. Unfortunately, there is a large dead tree looming over it now. As much as I wanted the wind protection, we couldn't chance the tree falling, so we continued on.About half an hour later we found a nice flat spot overlooking the countryside to the east. It had a hill diverting some of the wind, but not all. It was the best we could do so we set up our tents, I hung a food bag, and we made dinner. As darkness fell and it got colder, we both got in our tents. There were some pretty intense gusts.I fell asleep around 8. At 9 I woke up with the sensation of being hit in the back repeatedly. My tent had collapsed and every time the wind billowed it would smack me. I got up and reset the stake that had pulled loose, but my pole extender had cracked due to the force of the event. I gave it the hairy eyeball, but I didn't have any other options than to use it like that and hope for the best.Remarkably, everything was fine the rest of the night. It dropped down about 10 degrees below the prediction, but we were both in warm sleeping bags. My feet stayed cold until morning, as per usual. Our water was fine in our tents, those the drops of water in DeLee's cooking pot froze when she left it outside of her tent in the morning.We coordinated our packing up so that neither of us packed our sleeping bag until we were otherwise ready to jam everything in the pack and go. It was too cold for one to stand around if the other wasn't ready. The very last thing was taking down the tents. As I was trying (unsuccessfully) to wrestle my cold tent into its sack, a man walked by on the trail. He stopped to helpfully inform us that we could have spent the night in a warm cabin if we had gone another couple of miles. I told him that we had come through there last night and continued working on my tent. After a bit I heard him say goodbye and move on.. which means he was standing there silently watching us for a while. Creepy. Also, thanks for implying we're idiots, jerk.The rest of the day was up and down on the Roller Coaster, which is just a chunk of trail with good press, and enjoying a cheeseburger at the Horseshoe Curve Restaurant. It was a pretty great weekend.Oh, and my pack felt great. I think I might have had it loaded wrong last week. Even with three extra liters of water, it felt better over the weekend than it did on my training hikes last week.