First Leg South of the Shenandoah National Park

Last weekend -- Memorial Day weekend -- Rhino and I continued our Southward journey on the AT. We picked up where we left off last September at Rockfish Gap, at the bottom of the Shenandoah National Park.

Our initial plan was to start Friday and finish sometime Monday. I took Friday off, but Rhino had an important meeting at his work that was specifically about Rhino ... so he had to be there. But he was able to take off early, and was on the road, heading West, by 1 pm.

Day 1

We met at Gander Mountain, on the South side of Winchester, and picked up a two-man tent, a nice, light Kelty that would be lighter than our individual tents. We then headed South to drop off one of the cars. After a slight detour (i.e., Bullfrog's failure to exit I-81 at the right place), with excellent input from Bullfrog's wife, we meandered down Route 56 until we got to Fish Hatchery Rd., just past Montebello, VA.

At that point, we stopped and I explained that if we went up Fish Hatchery Rd., we would have to hike about 38 miles, but if we continued down 56, we would have to hike "only" 30 miles. After a brief consultation, we decided to do the 30, and parked on 56, just across the road from Tye River.

We dropped off my car (shall I call it the Gray Goblin?), and I piled into the Gray Ghost. Looking at my trusty map, I directed Rhino to a shortcut (like 10 miles shorter) which took us on a gravel road up several switchbacks up a mountain. We finally made it to Rockfish Gap, where we unpacked the new Kelty tent, and repacked our packs with just the supplies we would need.

We hit the trail around 5 pm, hoping to get five miles to the base of Humpback Mountain before nightfall. We approached the Paul C. Wolfe shelter right around 8:30, found that it was full (not that we were disappointed, since we weren't planning on staying in it) and proceeded to find a site and set up our tent. After a Mountain House meal of beef stroganoff and a brief chat with a through-hiker camping near us, we settled down to a nice night. The ambient sound of the cascading stream near us made it difficult to hear random sounds of the night that make it difficult to focus on sleep.

Day 2

In the morning, we split a Mountain House granola and blueberries as we broke camp. We were on the trail around 8 am, and began to ascend the Humpback. We saw quite a few through-hikers heading North, sometimes stopping a few seconds to chat and sometimes just passing quickly. They started in Georgia in March, and while not all of them are going to make it to the end, they were all trail-experienced by this point.

We got to the top of Humpback and had a lunch of tuna and some trail mix and jerky. We continued and ended up stopping around 6 pm for the night atop a cliff (Ceder Cliff?) overlooking the Shenandoah Valley a couple thousand feet below us. We ate an old Mountain House beef stew. I watched over the last couple of hours of evening as a farmer below was round-baling a hay field. It was beautiful watching the sun set over the mountains to the West as the valley faded into dark and the various lights began to twinkle and take effect. Several bonfires were light around the valley just as it got dark. We didn't use our new tent, instead sleeping about 20 feet back from the cliff, with the AT between us and the edge.

We got 10 miles in that day, and although we had two days available ahead of us, were beginning to think about finishing the final 15 miles the next day.

Day 3

Sunday began for me as the eastern horizon began to show a bit of light (I could see Northeast, up the Valley). I didn't sleep again, and watched as the horizon brightened, the Valley began to awaken, and finally the sun peeked over the hills. I made some Mountain House eggs, into which I put some BBQ pork jerky for flavor/variety. We had Three Ridges to look forward to, only about a 1,500 climb (but over several miles). However, we still weren't sure how far we were going to go that day.

After crossing Bee Mountain, we began the ascent of Three Ridges, sometimes quite steep, some of the steepest climbs we've had the whole time. The actual peak had no views as it was covered with mature trees. Rhino took a quick nap at the top, and I wandered around and did find a rock with some ok views of the valley to the east.

The descent from Three Ridges down to Tye River was 3,000 feet over about 6 miles. As we descended, we were running out of water, and made refilling our main objective. Some of that descent was very steep, with lots of switchbacks. A through-hiker ascending Northward convinced us to go ahead and finish that day. It looked like we were going to have plenty of time, but would make the final decision once we got to Harper's Creek, where we would refill and have a place to camp if we wanted to. However, after refilling at the cold waters of Harpers Creek, we decided to sally forth and finish, pick up the Gray Ghost and head into Waynesboro to the A&W for some burgers.

We did finish and even made it to the Gray Ghost just as it was getting dark. Rhino wanted to get a room at a motel. We drove down into Waynesboro, but when we got to A&W, we found that their root beer tap was out of order ... and they didn't have any hamburger meat! So we ducked out of there, ate across the street, fueled up, and found that the motel was full (probably with through-hikers). We decided to head to our respective homes, and completed the weekend.

And yes, Rhino got poison ivy.