Date: 2018-06-23
From: The Priest Shelter

To: Reed's Gap
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: light rain

Well, it poured again overnight. That's three nights in a row. The trees drip onto the tent for hours afterward, making it hard to tell if the rain has stopped. Moot point, I suppose, since everything's already wet. Must be splashback coming in under the rainfly or the high humidity, but my shoes are more waterlogged than when I left them in the vestibule last night. My pack, which was fairly dry, is now soaked, probably from wicking runoff from the ground. The tent fly and footprint and bottom of the inner tent are sopping wet. I just shove it all in the sack. It doesn't matter. I'm walking out today.After an oatmeal breakfast which seems to consume the last of my fuel - that, or my microscopic stove is developing a clog - I hike out for The Priest. The Priest is a 4000+ foot promontory, the highest northbounders will see for another thousand miles. It's still shrouded in fog this morning. Ah well! Last year most thruhikers I talked to agreed that The Priest was the toughest climb on the AT (they hadn't yet seen New Hampshire). But I don't think they meant the 2300 foot climb out of Buena Vista to the ridgeline of The Priest. That was time-consuming but not especially difficult or steep. I'm pretty sure they meant instead the climb following The Priest. The AT drops precipitously 3100 feet to the Tye River immediately after The Priest, then climbs right back up 3000 feet or so. But it's not the elevation gain so much (the climb out of NOC is higher I believe) as it is the incline and especially the rocks and bouldering. This is unusual for Virginia and not something northbounders have seen in quantity before. One peak, the Chimney, is a steep boulder scramble, followed by several more bouldery sections both vertical and horizontal leading up to Three Ridges. While it pales in comparison to northern climbs like Moosilauke, Kinsman, Webster Cliffs, Wildcat, Mahoosuc Arm, Baldpate, Saddleback, Crocker, Whitecap, and, of course, Katahdin, it's the last really tough climb for northbounders until then so the memory stands out.I pass a number of dayhikers and weekenders in this section. Most are southbound, which makes for a less daunting ascent to Three Ridges. There's a popular loop with the AT called the Mau-Har trail. In fact Mau-Har is a blue-blaze shortcut that lops about four miles off the AT's climb up Three Ridges by blazing more directly between two shelters. It's also more challenging and rougher terrain, so would-be blue-blazers don't save much effort.Trail maintainers from the Tidewater Appalachian Trail Club are out in force this humid morning. They take care of a 10.7 mile section of trail, but are based 200 miles away in the Virginia tidewater area (Norfolk), the longest commute for any AT club. I meet five volunteers spread along the climb, with others unseen on Mau-Har. Because we're in a designated wilderness area in a national forest, they can't use power tools. They use a swing blade and clippers to cut down the vegetation encroaching on the trail, and two-man saws to remove deadfall. The first volunteer I encounter grimaces because one of the bolts has just flown off his swing blade. He starts trying to jerryrig a fix with a carabiner. The second volunteer I meet, several hundred yards up, immediately heads down with his supply of spares when I mention his companion's predicament. Thank you to the volunteers from Tidewater for keeping this section of trail clear!I have a pickup scheduled at Reed's Gap at 3pm. My pace has been barely over 2 mph all day so for a 15.5 mile day it looks like I'll be there right on time. But after Three Ridges it's "all downhill" and I end up almost 30 minutes early. That's okay, because Katie "No Worries" from Stanimal's is already here. It's like she read my mind! She's got a family headed to Spy Rock to meet a thruhiking relative. Rather than hang out in the car for the hour to drop them off, I'm dropped off down the road at the locally famous Devil's Backbone Brewery. Devil's Backbone is an enormous complex with large outdoor pavilions and bars like a beer garden, with kids running across lawns alongside young men tossing frisbees. A massive lodge houses a restaurant and the brewing operation. On this beautiful warm Saturday afternoon the place is bustling with multi-generational families, couples, and groups of twentysomethings. Hikers love to hitch to Devil's Backbone and tent overnight after a good dinner and a sampling of the craft beers. The brewery often drives them back to the trail in the morning (after offering them breakfast, of course). And in fact as I walk in I immediately bump into two of the thruhikers from the shelter this morning. Weird, thought I left them miles behind! But they've hitched not from Reed's Gap but from Rt 56 at the Tye River, so are still about twelve trail miles behind me. Sometimes coming off trail feels like stepping out of the space-time continuum and meeting people from another era you would never encounter if you kept steadily marching through time.I fill up on a lager and french dip sandwich, watching Germany slowly lose to Sweden in the World Cup. Once Katie returns we share a celebratory drink - me for completing a section, her for moving on from Stanimal's soon to her next adventure, which may eventually include opening a hostel of her own. We head back to Waynesboro where I get a hot shower at the hostel. The hiker guests are hanging out in the living room eating dinner and watching an AT documentary. As I pass through it drones "Then the trail moves into Pennsylvania with her miles of rocks, known as 'the place where boots go to die'..." The hikers chatter and give each other concerned glances. It's like a ghost story for thruhikers. Be good or the Pennsylvania rocks will getcha! Oh well, they'll think it sucks when they're there. Then they'll get to NH and wonder what they were complaining about!The long drive home is fortunately uneventful. My commutes to Virginia will be on hold for awhile. I'll be volunteering at summer scout camps and vacationing with the family. Not sure when my next section will be. Still 250 miles to go in Virginia and over 700 to finish the trail. One step at a time!