Date: 2022-05-02
From: The Priest Shelter 

To: ReedÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Gap
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: few clouds

We thought we had heard it rain during the night but the tent rain cover only had a slight morning dew on it.  It was cool and pretty windy. I couldn¢t find the damn cathole I dug last night so I had to cross my legs while I dug a new one! Argh! We decided to just eat a power bar and make breakfast a little later. We left camp before 7am, our earliest departure yet. Are we excited about getting home to sleep in our own bed??!Speaking of sleeping in our own bed. Coffeebean has a long body pillow that he sleeps with at home. We named the pillow ¢Polly¢. The first thing he said this morning when he woke up was ¢I can¢t wait to see Polly.¢ What a goofball!It took several hours to hike down the Priest mountain. We walked across VA 56 and down the path to the Tye River. There is a cool suspension bridge to cross it but instead we took the little side trail down to the river¢s edge. It was sandy with big rocks to sit on and the sound of the river flowing by. It was a beautiful place and we talked about coming back here sometime with a picnic lunch. I had to go to the bathroom again and I was seeing poison ivy everywhere. It would be just my luck to hike all this time and miles to end up with poison ivy all over my butt 15 miles from home!The hike up the first leg of Three Ridges Mountain wasn¢t too bad. We rolled into the Harper¢s Creek Shelter. The river literally flows right in front of it. You cross over the river on some rocks to get to the shelter. A few minutes later the riff-raff came in. Haha! Cool Whip, Tin Man, GGnome, Runaway, and 2 new hikers to us, Pi±ata and Platinum. Cool Whip made Coffeebean a cup of drip coffee. We sat and chilled and laughed till about 1pm and then Coffeebean and I took off.The big climb was up to 4200¢ and it was a BEAST!! The temps were in the high 80¢s and we were dying. About 3/4 of the way up we ran out of water. Coffeebean was on his hands and knees trying to scoop drips of water off this little trickle coming down a rock. He got about 2 mouthfuls to hold him.It was another mile when we finally reached the top. We had to rest! We were exhausted! Tin Man was there too and completely out of water. GGnome had a little. A short walk after that and we came to Hanging Rock. We knew we were near home now. We come up to Hanging Rock often to just sit and read and enjoy the view. Seeing this familiar site energized us enough to hurry down the mountain. We knew there was a good water source not showing on Guthook. And sure enough, there was Tin Man filling up right where we told him it would be. He wondered if his headache was from dehydration. We filled up too and then continued on to Maupin Field Shelter. New Shoes was there waiting for a couple of his buddies. We sat and rested for about 10 minutes but knew our ride home was waiting.I have to say that in our previous trips I was always kicking butt when it came to downhills, ridge, and late day uphills. Coffeebean just couldn¢t keep up with me. At home, when we would walk the neighborhood, he would always walk faster than me. He would say ¢How come I can walk faster than you on a neighborhood walk but put 30 pounds on your back and send you up a mountain and I can¢t keep up.¢ This trip, however, he kicked my butt. I didn¢t mind though because when I looked up and saw him walking with his poles in hand I knew the trail was level. If he was walking holding his poles loosely I knew it wasn¢t a hard ascent. We left Maupin Field Shelter and one more small climb and then a nice level walk to Reed¢s Gap. Jerry was waiting for us and had even talked a bit with Cool Whip before Cool Whip and GGnome and Runaway got a ride to Devil¢s Backbone Brewery (and free camping for thru-hikers!)We got home about 7:30-ish, stripped all stinky stuff off in the garage and hit the showers!We hiked 15.5 miles today. 210 miles in 18-1/2 days. We have now completed from GA to NY, 1400 miles of the AT! Not bad!