New Year's Backpacking: A Windy Hike on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia

December got away from me and we were busy enough that we didn't get out for any hikes. New Years, however, was a three day weekend for us, so we took the opportunity to start the year with a backpacking trip. It was a great hike - 25 miles from Tye River to US 60. This is probably my favorite section of the Virginia Appalachian Trail of those that I've hiked. We had great company, too. We couldn't have asked for a better way to start 2016.

On New Year's Eve, we camped out with another couple on the Tye River, right by one of the access points to the Appalachian Trail in central Virginia. By the time we set up camp, it was pretty late, so we managed to stay up until midnight, just barely. In the morning, while we set up the car shuttle, the fifth member of our party arrived.

New Years Day (Day One):
All we talked about that morning was how difficult it was going to be to hike up the Priest - five miles and 3,000 feet of elevation gain. I've hiked down it twice coming through the area northbound, but I hadn't hiked up it. Once we were underway, however, it turned out to be a pretty reasonable climb. It was just long. We stopped for lunch about halfway up. A large hiking club shared the overlook with us and for a moment, we felt like we were on the summit of Old Rag with people everywhere. The summit of The Priest was cold and windy, so we didn't linger. We took a few photos and continued on our way since we still had six miles to go. We decided to skip Spy Rock because we were concerned (rightly, as it turned out) about the dwindling amount of daylight. We ended up hiking the last mile in the dark. There is something a little demoralizing about having to finish a hike in the dark when you don't plan to do so. It wasn't a crisis, but we all wanted to be done hiking for the day. By the time we arrived at Seeley-Woodworth Shelter, we were all pretty tired, hungry, and cold.

Michael started heating water for hot chocolate right away. Pretty soon, with a little food and hot drinks, all of us felt a lot better. Another party was already at the shelter, but they were staying in tents, so all five of us set up in the shelter. A third part arrived shortly after we did and one of them joined us in the shelter, making six. We tried to build a fire, but wet wood and high winds prevented that from getting very far.

A little stream on the flanks of the Priest.

 The overlook where we had lunch on the Priest.

Lunch crowd.

The trail on the summit of the Priest.

One of our friends on the summit of the Priest.

Day Two:
Our second day on trail started out with a little bit of unplanned excitement. As we were getting packed up, one of the guys who had been camping nearby came over and asked if anyone had any medical experience. His friend was having a medical scare and they needed help. We dropped what we were doing and headed over. His friend turned out to be very seriously cold and pretty dehydrated, so we set about addressing those issues. Since everyone in our party volunteer on Old Rag and have trained together, we all just jumped right into the work that needed to be done without anyone needing to be told what to do. We had the patient's friends get their sleeping pads and sleeping bags. Michael started heating water to make tea and hot water bottles (to warm the patient). One of our friends worked on getting a fire going. Another began taking patient history and I helped with that. With hot water bottles in his jacket, between his legs, and at his feet and hot tea, the patient started to improve. Pretty soon, he was chatting and asking for food. After about an hour, he was on his feet and they were headed for their car. We were all pretty relieved that everything turned out well and he was able to walk out on his own.

After all that, we still had 11 miles to hike, so we quickly packed up and got on our way. The second day's hike was truly spectacular. The first five miles gently wound around the ends of the ridges and past beautiful moss-lined creeks. We had lunch at Wolf Rocks in a sunny nook sheltered from the ever-present cold wind. After Salt Log Gap, the real climbing began, but the reward was worth it. We managed to find a sheltered spot on top of Tar Jacket Ridge for a break in the late afternoon sun where we had a great view of the mountains behind us, including the Priest. We all hiked down Tar Jacket Ridge thinking that it was pretty darn spectacular. The trail off of the ridge wound through old orchards with enormous, overgrown fruit trees. Cold Mountain lived up to its name. It was freezing up there. The wind was probably blowing around 50 mph. In spite of that, it was absolutely beautiful. From the large bald, we had a great view of the mountains all around us. The wind eventually drove us on, though, and after being out in the cold all day, were ready to get to Cow Camp Gap Shelter.

Cow Camp Gap Shelter is a full half mile down a side trail off of the Appalachian Trail. That might explain why we had it completely to ourselves. The wind was even stronger that evening than it was the previous. We were able to get a fire going, though, and we had a pleasant evening.

Packing up at Seeley-Woodworth Shelter

 Frost flowers along the trail. We saw a lot of these along the trail on the second day.

 More frost flowers.

 Looking south, through the woods at Wolf Rocks, towards Tar Jacket Ridge.

More frost flowers on Cold Mountain. I could have taken pictures of these all day because they are so interesting (but we never would have made it to the shelter).

The view to the northeast from Tar Jacket Ridge.

 Just below the summit of Tar Jacket Ridge.

The summit of Cold Mountain

 One of our friends hiking on Cold Mountain.

 Cold Mountain in the late evening light.

 One of the western overlooks below the Cold Mountain Summit at sunset.

Day Three:
By now, you've probably guessed that is was windy and cold. The wind did not abate overnight. It had actually gotten stronger. We used a lot of fuel making breakfast. Once we were back on the Appalachian Trail, we had a pretty uneventful hike up and over Bald Knob (it isn't bald). We were busy chatting away as we were walking when I turned my ankle fairly hard. That's what I get for not paying attention. After a few minutes, I was able to put weight on it and hike the last mile or so to the car.

Looking northwest from Bald Knob.

After retrieving all of the cars, we had a great post-hike dinner at Devil's Backbone Brewery, followed by a cider tasting at Bold Rock. Happy New Year!

Spy Rock, The Priest, and Five New Backpackers

One of my cousins and her family visited last week on their vacation. My cousin and I spent a fair amount of time together as kids.  Since we've become adults, though, we haven't seen each other more than a dozen times, mostly because I moved away. The last time I saw her, her kids were little. Now, two of them are teenagers. Time flies by.

Anyway, they hike a lot in Missouri and they've camped, but they had never put the two together, so I offered to introduce them to backpacking. I thought about a lot of different places that we could go in the Mid-Atlantic. Ultimately, I decided there is no better place to start backpacking than on the Appalachian Trail (AT). While I love Shenandoah National Park, the AT through the park is a little bit dull compared to some of the other places the trail passes through. I finally settled on the first place I hiked the AT: the section including Spy Rock and the Priest.

We borrowed gear from a whole bunch of people (thank you!) and, on Memorial Day, set out from the Spy Rock parking area. The first mile was tough and probably the least pleasant of the trip: a mile walk on a gravel road straight up to the top of the ridge. Once on the Appalachian Trail, things improved markedly. We had a nice breeze and as we climbed, we got glimpses of the valley below through the trees. At Spy Rock, we dropped our packs and scrambled up to the top of the outcrop to find a spectacular view of the mountains and of The Priest - our destination for that night.

The sign where we joined the Appalachian Trail.

 The trail through the campsite near Spy Rock.

Minuartia groenlandica (Mountain Sandwort) on top of Spy Rock.

 The view to the north from Spy Rock.

The mountains to the south of Spy Rock.

From Spy Rock, we headed north on the the AT, descending into a valley before the climb up to the top of The Priest. The flowers along the trail were pretty spectacular. I tend to forget how high the mountains are down there (The Priest is over 4,000 feet), so I was pleasantly surprised to see several high-altitude species.

Clintonia umbellata (White Clintonia Lily)

Rhododendron catawbiense (Catawba Rhododendron). One of the biggest, coolest surprises of the trip was that the Rhododendrons were blooming. In places, both the Rhododendrons and the Mountain Laurel were blooming, almost creating tunnels of flowers.

Cypripedium parviflorum (Yellow Lady Slipper). 

We hiked to the The Priest Shelter for a total of 5.5 miles for day 1. Since we were a big group and we were passed by a lot of thru-hikers, we didn't even try to see if we could stay in the shelter. We pitched our tents at the campsite near turnoff to go down to the shelter. It was a spectacularly beautiful campsite. We got to watch the sun set through the trees. There were rocks for the youngest kid to play on and there was plenty of good water down at the shelter. 

Our campsite on The Priest.

It took us a little while to get going in the morning, but once we did, we were rewarded with a beautiful view on top of the Priest. We stopped for a bit and chatted with three thru-hikers who had been on trail for two months already.

My cousin and her husband on top of The Priest.

Cypripedium acaule (Pink Lady Slipper) near the top of The Priest.

The descent down the north side of the Priest is long, almost five miles. By the time we stopped for lunch on the way down, the youngest kid was pretty convinced that backpacking was not a worthwhile enterprise. Everyone else was in pretty good spirits, though.

One of the older kids spotted this yellow phase Timber Rattlesnake a few feet off the trail. If you click to enlarge, you can see its rattle just below its head.

The last overlook on the way down the mountain.

Rhododendron maximum (Great Laurel)

The two older kids hiking through tunnels of Rhododendrons.

Sedum ternatum (Wild Stonecrop). This interesting little succulent was growing all along the trail on this section.

We finally made it to the road. I greatly underestimated how long it would take us to descend the almost five miles to the Tye River. We weren't in a hurry, but it did mean that everyone was on their feet longer than I anticipated.

We crossed the Tye River and took a nice long break in the shade. While we were sitting there, we made the decision that I would go ahead with the two older kids while the rest of the adults hiked with the youngest. We only had a little over 2.5 miles to go to our campsite, but there were two significant climbs and it had gotten hot. The three of us set off and quickly left the rest of the group behind. We passed a thru-hiker who commented that I was hiking them up the mountain and I responded that they were hiking me up the mountain. We made good time. 

Rather than hiking up over Three Ridges, which is one of the tougher climbs on the AT in central Virginia, we took a left on the Mau-Har Trail. We listened to thunder off in the distance and I kept my fingers crossed that everyone would make it to camp before it let loose on us. We were pretty happy to make it to our campsite, which was right on a pretty stream. About an hour after we got in, the rest of the group came around the corner. It sprinkled a little bit that evening, but we got lucky and the storms completely passed us by.

Our last, shortest day on trail started with a scramble down to some very pretty waterfalls.

This was the third time I've been to this area and this was the first time I had hiked far enough downstream to find these falls.

A black snake curled up on a tree stump on the hike out.

After three short miles, we made it back to the car at Reed's Gap on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had a great hike. The trail was spectacular. It really is one of my favorite sections of the Appalachian 

trail in Virginia. My cousin and her family seemed to have a good time (well...the youngest had a good time when he didn't have a pack on his back). Best of all, I got to reconnect with her and I got to know her husband and kids better. 

How to Make a Hike Last All Day: Three Ridges and the Mau-Har Trail

I hiked the Mau-Har Trail in Central Virginia in 2002 as part of a five day backpacking trip.  The friend I was with and I decided to skip what looked like a more difficult section of the Appalachian Trail in favor a pretty waterfalls and a little less climbing.  Since then, I have wanted to go back there and hike the Three Ridges section of the Appalachian Trail, which we missed.  Starting at Reed's Gap, the Appalachian Trail and the Mau-Har Trail make a 14.4 mile loop that is considered to be one of the more difficult dayhikes in Virginia, with nearly 3,900 feet of climbing.

We spent the night before the hike in a condo at Wintergreen Resort thanks to a friend who rented it for the weekend for another event.  The hike had been on her list for a while, too, so it was the perfect opportunity to get it done.  Reed's Gap is just about 15 minutes from Wintergreen.  It felt a bit strange not to drive two hours before a hike, but I think I could adjust to it if I had to.  It was chilly enough for hats and gloves when the four of us started hiking at 8 a.m.  The early morning sunlight streamed through the changing leaves as we began climbing out of the gap.

We made pretty good time, at first.  We quickly reached Maupin Field Shelter and continued up Bee Mountain, the first serious climb of the day.  As we continued walking, however, we kept noticing more and more interesting things to photograph.  All four of us enjoy photography, so the pauses were frequent.  At Hanging Rock, we had a great view of The Priest to the south and all of the fall colors at their peak.  The sun warmed us up after a chilly hike in the shade to get there.  We must have spent 45 minutes taking pictures and enjoying the view. 

From Hanging Rock, the trail crosses the Three Ridges, which give the hike its name.  We reached the top thinking that for a hike that is reputed to be so difficult, the climbing wasn't difficult at all.  We would pay for our smugness later.  The descent off of the ridge was relatively well-switchbacked and the leaves were just amazing colors.  We stopped for lunch on a rock outcrop with a good view.  We also stopped at Chimney Rock and took more pictures.  For a few minutes, we had a good view of two turkey vultures sunning themselves on a rock.  Then they tired of the attention and flew off.  As we descended, the leaves became brighter and late asters bloomed along the trail. 

We took another long break at Harper's Creek Shelter.  At that point, it was 2:30.  We had hiked about 8 miles.  In 6.5 hours.  We still had 6.5 to go and about four hours of daylight.  We resolved to stop only twice more to take pictures.  When we reached the first spot, where the trail crossed the main part of Harper's Creek, it didn't turn out that the waterfall was quickly accessible.

At the next trail junction, we paused a moment before turning onto the much less well-traveled Mau-Har Trail.  I remembered the trail being difficult because I was carrying a heavy pack in 2002 and because I was not in terribly good shape then.  Well, it turned out that the trail was difficult because it is pretty steep, both going up and down. Going down was more challenging this time because fallen leaves covered the trail, hiding rocks and making the trail slippery.  We reached Campbell Creek and spent a little while exploring the waterfalls.  The climb out of Campbell Creek is steep, rocky, and spectacular.  The rhododendron-lined trail follows the creek for about a mile and passes countless cascades.  At this point, though, we were running out of daylight and tired, so we pressed on to the top of the ridge.  We took a break at the Maupin Field Shelter and made it back to the car at 6 p.m., just before sunset.

This is one of the toughest hikes I've done in the Mid-Atlantic (part of it was self-induced with the slow pace).  It is also one of the most spectacular.  Between the fall colors, beautiful waterfalls, and great views, it is in a class by itself.

Pictures (click to enlarge):

 Sunrise from Wintergreen Resort

 A turning maple leaf

 A fern along the trail.

 Bootshot from Hanging Rock with the Priest in the distance.

 Turning leaves from Hanging Rock

 Turning maple leaves

 Lunch.  We do like to "rough" it on trail with good cheese, salami, and chocolate.

 Club moss.

 A small cascade on Campbell Creek.

 Golden leaves.

 A turning sassafras leaf.

 The view from Harper's Creek Shelter

 Campbell Creek Falls

Sunset at Reed's Gap.