Day 12 of AT in VA NOBO

The Priest Shelter (830.0) to Reid’s Gap on the Blue Ridge Parkway (845.5)
Total miles: 15.5

This was a tremendously difficult day. Started off at 6:40am as a beautiful, relatively warm, morning as I headed out and uphill for a half mile to the top of The Priest Mtn. Then it was up and over and down a steep 3,000ft elevation decent in 4.3 miles. A true quad buster. Once to the valley floor, I had a quick respite at the pretty Tye River and its awesome suspension bridge. I was totally procrastinating as I knew what lay before me. The rest of the day was spent going back up 3,000ft, the last half of it over mostly rock faced cliffs. Steep and jagged to the point of having to pack my trekking poles and hoist myself up and over boulders with my hands. Was the most difficult 4 hour period on the whole AT to date. And I knew I had to get to Reid’s Gap by 5pm to meet my Shuttler Mithril The Guide (a JRR Tolkien reference supposedly). Anyway, my legs were toast but I was happy to get to the meet up spot by 4:50 for our 50 min drive back south to Lexington VA for my zero day on Thursday. The perfect time to plan an off day as the forecast is for rain, and N.C.A.A. tournament basketball begins! Also much needed laundry and food shopping to do.
Note: The first 840 miles of the AT going north from Springer Mountain GA is known as being the 2nd most difficult stretch on the whole trail. 2nd only to the White Mountains in NH/first half of Maine. Mentally (and I guess physically) it’s so nice to look forward to more rolling hills (comparatively) coming up in the Shenendoah Mtns and the relatively flatter terrain of
N VA, WV, MD, PA, NJ & NY. My hope is to increase my average daily mileage from the 15-16 miles over the past 2 weeks, to 20 miles a day in this next 4 weeks. We will see! Czytaj więcej