Today was a pretty crazy day… it’ll probably end up being one of the more memorable days on the trail for sure.
The morning began at the brewery, where we got to sleep in a little bit, before packing up, and sitting out on the deck waiting for breakfast. Devil’s Backbone doesn’t usually do breakfast, it’s just for the hikers that spend the night, and only when there’s enough of them. Luckily we had a group of about a dozen, so right around 9 am we were shown to the patio, served up some coffee, then served a delicious, protein packed breakfast of eggs, cheese, sausage, bacon, avocado, banana, pears, and a hot roll… all for just $5.
After breakfast, one of the brewery employees loaded all of the hikers into a pickup truck, and dropped us all back off at Reids Gap. We got started with our hike just after 11 am. The first few miles felt a bit slow, and really weren’t particularly interesting. Actually, there were a few fairly rocky parts that slowed us down. We were trying to keep up a good pace, as we originally wanted to make it to Waynesboro, almost 20 miles away, but we decided to focus on the Paul C. Wolfe Shelter since we got a later start. About 5 miles into our hike, we crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway at Dripping Rock. We got maybe a quarter mile back into the woods when we ran into a couple on a day hike who warned us that there was a bear just up the trail. The four of us went up the trail together, thinking that as a group the bear might be scared off. So we went maybe 200 yards, and there it was, about 15 feet off to the right side of the trail, a black bear just sitting there. He didn’t seem to be bothered by us, nor did he seem to even care. We were able to hike right on past, and he barely paid us any attention, though he knew we were there because we made sure to make some noise.
We were pretty excited about our first confirmed bear sighting, but what came about a mile later was even more exciting. On our way up Humpback mountain, I was walking along fairly briskly, when all of a sudden I hear Bear Bell freaking out behind me. I turn around to see what’s going on, and she says there’s a huge snake, that she came within a foot of, that I apparently walked right by. It took me a moment, but right at the edge of the path was a giant timber rattler, which had just gotten into a defensive coil and locked it’s eyes on Bear Bell. I clicked my poles together, and it finally turned it’s head towards me, then slowly slithered across the path, which I assume is what it wanted to do in the first place until I came along and freaked out. That little encounter kept us a bit more vigilant on the edges of the path for the rest of the hike.
We reached the shelter by about 4:30, and after a snack we decided to go for the last 5 miles and head into Waynesboro. It was really a very nice 5 miles and we did it in about an hour and a half. At one point we came across a fawn and a doe in the path. The fawn could barely walk, and still appeared wet, so we’re thinking it was a newborn. As mama deer wandered away from us, baby deer struggled to keep up. We paused for a bit to let them get a bit of distance before we continued on. As a final wildlife experience for the day, we had a few crazy grey squirrels soar over the path just in front of us, almost like they were set up as traps or something. It was very strange.
We reached Rockfish Gap a bit before 7, and pretty quickly hitched a ride. We had actually met the guy who picked us up back in Glasgow. He’s a former thru-hiker that’s just kind of helping out along the trail this year. He dropped us off at the Quality Inn where we were able to get a room for two nights (we’re zeroing tomorrow). We got a great dinner at a place called the Green Leaf Grill. I had an awesome Reuben, and finished off the meal with a slice of peanut butter pie. Being almost 8pm on a Sunday night, there weren’t too many people in the place, but we chatted with a few locals at the bar, answering their questions about the trail.
It was an eventful day, and we still managed to cover 20 miles even after starting at 11. We’re looking forward to our zero, but we’re even more excited to head into Shenandoah park on Tuesday. The halfway point of this journey is coming up fast!
Yeah…go for the halfway mark.????????
Enjoying the posts while I sit here working at my desk! Keep pushing! How are the new shoes? Tell Casey I hate snakes too! I remember the black racers in Georgia and Tennessee and they would just be sitting in the middle of the trail running themselves. I would always walk around them!
Shoes are working out great, but we’ve been lucky to be dry since I got them, so we’ll see what happens when it rains.