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Saturday, June 14, 2003
The day started with a nice walk along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were
treated to views off both sides of the ridge - although some were obscured by
fog. We climbed steeply for 3 miles. Then the downpour started again. Ken pumped water and we waited for the rain to stop before setting up camp. The rain stopped, we set up our tent, then the rain started again.
Sunday, June 15, 2003
We hiked to a road, crossed the Foot Bridge (named for the Foot's) got a ride to Glascow in a truck that brought hikers out. The only motel in town was full. The owners offered for us to camp on their grass. We found out that Glascow is in a flood plain and heard about the flash flood watch. We paid for a ride to the next town that has a motel. Now we have to get back to Glascow tomorrow to pick up a package at the PO and to do laundry. Happy Fathers Day!
Monday, June 16, 2003
Our feet are what get us from point to point on our journey but the trek would not happen without other people. We got up in the motel, packed and walked in the rain to breakfast and then to the road. We were not certain where we really were and thought we saw 2 roads to Glascow so we asked a woman which way we should go. She offered to drive us. She stopped at her house to introduce us to her husband and so we met Helen and William. They got us back to the correct town, the PO, laundry, groceries and lunch...and then back to the trail! We started at the very big, full, muddy brown James River. The hiker bridge across was formerly a railroad bridge and was several hundred feet long. It is now a foot bridge and dedicated to Wm. Foot, an AT hiker and volunteer. We reached the trailhead at noon armed with sub sandwiches and cokes. As we started up the hill the rain poured down. Just another rainy day. How long can we tread water? We reached the first shelter in time for a late lunch. It was still raining when we climbed a two thousand foot mountain. We reached the next shelter after 6:30 pm and decided that we should stop before the rain started again. We enjoyed mac & cheese for supper and the rain held off. It is now 8:15. We are in bed in a dry shelter, and a chorus of frogs is singing from "the punchbowl" about 200 feet away. Gotta get some sleep 'cause tomorrow we...
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
We woke up to fog and rain. The fog and rain continued until after noon. It was a long, cold day. At about 4 pm we neared the second shelter of the day. The next shelter was another 10 miles away and the weather was getting worse. We couldn't face walking the ridge in the windy, foggy, rain. There were no campsites and no water listed in the guide. We made a hard decision - to stop early at the shelter. The rain continued on and off thru the evening. We did enjoy the quiet evening with Tipperary, No-hear-um, and Bearable.
A glorious day! We hiked out of the shelter and up to a bald. At 4000 feet the sun was trying to break thru the fog. As we hiked along the ridge the sun alternated with the fog. Eventually the sun won out. The temperature was pleasant for hiking and the sun was drying everything. No rain!
Our big excitement today was ticks. We found 2 on Ken and 1 on Marcia. All operations were successful - ticks are removed. As we set up camp along the river we felt drops from the trees. It is the fog condensing in the trees. Probably a wet night in the tent from condensation, but hopefully no rain.
Thursday, June 19, 2003
I have some explaining to do.
Hiking was interesting today through the three Ridges Wilderness. We climbed over the three ridges in the rain, of course. We went over great rock formations, but mist prevented our seeing the views. We will go back tomorrow and hike the miles into town. Dinner was with Nick & Tipperary at an all you can eat place with good food. Then we hung out with other hikers. We had a great day in spite of the rain and mud.
Friday, June 20, 2003
We are backpackers, not slackpackers so we carried our packs out to the trail and picked up where we left off yesterday. We met several other hikers who were also hiking back into Waynesboro from Dripping Rock. We found a great rock scramble up the trail to what was probably a good view. Alas it was foggy. A few minutes later we were hit with a cold downpour. We splashed thru the muddy water running down the trail several inches deep. We knew that a warm shower and dry room was waiting for us. At noon we stopped at a shelter along with five other hikers. There were great discussions about which thru hiker friends were where. After lunch we all headed into Waynesboro. The trail seemed well graded, wide, and pretty smooth. Great trail for fast hiking. The were several wide creeks crossing the trail and even a few nice waterfalls. Nick, who had dropped us off at Dripping Rock, parked his rental car at the end of today's hike and walked south to meet us and hike back to the car with us. Watching for Nick made us hike fast and trail went by quickly. Nick drove us back to the motel. We were inside for the afternoon deluge...that makes me so happy!
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Last updated: 07/09/08 .
The rain continued. After 24 hours this is what is wet: Tilley hats, Frogg
Toggs rain gear, fleece, ponchos, dragonfly windbreakers, bandanas, shirts,
shorts, socks and shoes. Packs are wet in and out as is the tent, towel and
tyvek ground cloth. Sleeping bags have condensation on the outside. Dry and in bags are sleeping thermals and a spare set of shirt and shorts. The
weather forecast is a flash flood watch with up to 2 inches of rain in an hour.
We decided to try for 24 miles today. At 7 pm we decided 22 was enough. We
could have gone on to 24, but we were hiking with Tipperary and it was already
his longest day. Our main goal is Waynesboro on Friday. We are well within
reach.
Rain fell all night on our campsite plus the area was very humid from the
river. Tipperary camped with us in his tent and woke us for an early start.