Date: 2020-07-14
From: Cove Mountain Shelter

To: Marble Spring campsite
Miles today: 24.3

Out early by 7:15 to tackle a day of big climbs over Apple Orchard Mountain, and to take in the falls below it.Cove Mountain Shelter was dry, so I walked three miles to Jennings Creek before filling up, fortunately downhill. As I filtered on the stony bank under a road bridge, the morning sun illuminated wisps of fog floating above the creek. I grabbed some ripe raspberries as I left for second breakfast.Around 10 I reached the next shelter where two section hikers were just getting up. Guru, a skinny kid from Pittsburgh, is out for a month. Another young guy is out for a couple weeks. Said he needs a trail name, before whipping out a bag of only green gummi bears he bought at a campground store nearby (now how did I miss that opportunity?). Too late, after I'd hiked on, I figured he should go by Green Gummi, maybe Double G for short. People have been named for less!The climbs up Apple Orchard were not bad, even though over 3000 feet combined, and I made it fifteen miles by 1, my best start in awhile. I turned off the AT onto the 1.1 mile side trail down the mountain to Apple Orchard Falls. It was steeper and farther down than I expected, but I was now committed. At the main falls I took a cold and thunderous shower under the 200 foot cascades. It felt invigorating. By the time I'd eaten lunch I and my clothes were mostly dry. A pair of dayhikers traded photos with me, and found out we'd both stayed at Woods Hole, where they'd met Tortoise. The Blue Ridge here is much narrower than in North Carolina. Once I gained the summit of Apple Orchard Mountain, at 4225 feet one of the highest in the region, I could see the broad Virginia Piedmont stretching east towards the sea on one side, and the Great Valley separating me from the ridges that run the length of Virginia and beyond on the other. Took a break at Thunder Hill Shelter late in the afternoon, aiming to tent in a few miles since the shelters were oddly spaced. There I learned by text that Sunshine and Lone Wolf were going all the way to the James River, where a road would take them into Glasgow for the night. That was still fifteen more miles for me and it was far too late to consider covering it even if I felt pretty good. It hadn't been overly hot or humid today, and I was managing to drink and eat enough. Still, after returning from the falls I managed only ten miles over 5 hours before I stopped for the evening at Marble Spring, 25 miles from where I started but seven miles short of town. Marble Spring is a grassy clearing where apparently a shelter once stood. The tent site, however, was stony and the dirt hard as concrete. Only the fourth night I've used the tent. An ex-Army guy from Philly was setting up his tent as I arrived, and his large excited dog came running at me like he wanted to bowl me over. They've been hiking south from Pine Grove Furnace in Pennsylvania for the last five weeks with no deadline or destination. He just received a degree in landscape architecture and is at a crossroads in his life.Saw a number of deer today, as I have every day for the last couple of weeks. They seem to be getting less skittish of me. One actually followed me as I hiked on so it could quickly return to browsing near the trail. At Marble Spring a rabbit was so bold it hopped only a few feet up the water trail at a time, enough to keep out of reach, but never scampering off.When I got back to my tent I heard a whippoorwill again. It feels more like wilderness here.