Rockfish Gap to Humpback Mt.: Mile 850.5 - 839

It felt really good being back on the trail after 6 months, the temperatures were very nice and there was no rain. The one thing that really jumped out at us was how many creek crossings and how much seasonal water was prevalent. Not surprising considering the very, very, very...did I mention very...wet spring we have had.


Straight Leg decided that it would be nice to take up residence here, a glass house taken to an extreme. At least there is a fire place.


Or here, the Paul Wolfe Shelter, pretty nice as shelters go.



More Creek Crossings.


Finally at camp atop Humpback Mt., we had only seen two hikers all day so I was not too sure about my (more than six) hikers wager. The day was really nice, no rain and wonderful temperatures. We set up camp and settled in for the night.

Back on The Trail

So here we go, after 6 months Straight Leg and I got back on the trail for a few days...man it was really great! The weather forecast was less than stellar but we wanted to be out there so bad that we did not care--and we were hoping that was not a mistake. The forecast was for rain, rain, and more rain.

Our plan was to hike from Rockfish Gap @ Interstate 64 in Virginia to US 60 near Buena Vista, Virginia. We have already hiked a loop that included Three Ridges with Bike and Moses, so we decided that we would take a side trail to cut off the section that we already hiked. It would be a total hike of about 52 miles with 48 on the AT.


We started off from Rockfish Gap in a dense fog...for those of you who are familiar with Afton Mountain you know mornings at Rockfish Gap are almost always in a dense fog...but I digress.

The hike over all was beautiful and surprisingly dry except for the last night and the final day, we planned to hike about 10-12 miles a day starting on Thursday and getting out on Monday.

Before we started out Straight Leg and I discussed how many (or should I say how few) hikers we would meet on the trip, Joe thought we would meet less than 6 and I thought we would meet more than 6. With the forecast I was worried about losing this wager. We were also trying something different, instead of hiking in boots we were hiking in trail running shoes to see what difference it made...

Tomorrrow: Rockfish Gap to Humpback Mountain