Friday April 26, 23.9mi/38.4km
Hightop shelter (905.8) to Rock Spring Shelter (929.7) (VA)
I didn’t take many photos today, since it rained most of the afternoon. I got started at 8am, and the day started off in a cool fog.
Then, the sun came out for a couple of hours, and it was an enjoyable morning of hiking.
Around lunchtime, the sky turned cloudy, and 30 minutes later a heavy downpour started. I’m so happy to have my umbrella on days like today. Also, when the rain started, I was only 10 minutes from a campground, which had a store. So I bought a sandwich and ice cream, and sought refuge in there for an hour until the rain passed. Here is a video of the rain:
Since I had sat for an hour, I was quite cold, and my ankle started to hurt again when I resumed hiking. There were a couple more light rain showers, and by 5pm the sky was just cloudy.
I got to the shelter at 6:30pm, a long day. At least the views were great!
The same group from last night is here, except Toast. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice weather!
The trail was easy, and the deer plentiful.
There was a trail junction called Cow Camp Gap, but it was disappointing as there were no cows.
When I got to Cole mountain the views were even better, since it was a Bald mountain. When I was here in 2012, it was a foggy afternoon with no views.
Looking back south, at where I had just come from.
The small descent to the next gap was getting nice and green, and the forest smelled like springtime.
The next gap was called Hog camp Gap, and it was where we camped in 2012 during a thunderstorm. Much different today!
I stopped for lunch a little while later, and then shortly after lunch I caught up to Bob and Cedar. Bob and I walked together for a bit, and stopped for a quick side trip to Spy Rock, which has good views if you scramble to the top. So, we did!
The last 4 miles were uneventful, but we did enter another wilderness.
We got to camp at 5pm, and Early Bird (who I met back on day 12) was already at the shelter. Cedar, Toast, and Lightfoot showed up too.
It’s a fun shelter, it’s called Priest shelter (on Priest mountain), so everyone confesses their trail “sins” in the shelter journal. They were hilarious to read, and it was some good dinnertime entertainment.
Priest Mountain is 4050ft high, and this will be our last time above 4000ft until Killington peak in Vermont, 900 trail miles north of here. Downhill tomorrow! Happy Easter!
Bob and Lightfoot quickly pulled ahead, and I enjoyed a slower hiking morning going up the big hill. The top of the climb had some nice views looking back down at where I had just come from.
The brown river seen in the photo is the very flooded James River, after the 2in/5cm of rain we got yesterday.
The trail stayed on a high ridge to the next peak, Bluff mountain. I made it to Bluff!
At the summit there was also a memorial to a young child, poor kid.
The descent from Bluff mountain was through a bright green forest, coming alive with spring!
And then, as I crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway once again, I got really excited when I saw this.
A rubbish bin! Thru hikers get really stoked on getting rid of any extra weight, and trash is easy weight to lose.
After another hour, I took a late lunch at a swingbridge.
Bob was there taking a break too, and after lunch we hiked the last 5 miles to the shelter together. We arrived by 4pm to find Lightfoot already there, and Cedar arrived a little while later, as did Recall.
