Harpers Creek Shelter to The Priest Shelter

August 17, 2014 – Sunday

Welcome back, the handful of visitors that are still here! First, a couple of notes regarding the previous Day 1 post:

1. I can’t believe I fouled this up, but that “Random rock-face” photo from Day 1 is NOT a random rock-face outcrop at all – it is actually the A.T. itself. If you click on that photo for full resolution and look real hard – zoom in, even – you’ll see a white blaze on the rock face. This reminded me; When we arrived at this point, the trail literally dumped us onto this rock-face. We really were not sure where the trail went! As we scanned around, we finally saw that singular white blaze and walked towards it. Once there, it was clear where the trail continued.

2. What was the source of the water droplets on the camera lens? Well, I keep my cool computer phone in my pants pocket, and because the act of hiking produces moisture (ie, sweat), the moisture tends to collect on the lens. So – important safety tip from here on out: Always check the lens before photography or filming!!!

3. Arrival at Harper’s Creek Shelter. The short final paragraph from Day 1 was indicative of the fact that we were both really beat and simply wanted to sleep. (Either that, or I was just being lazy and wanted to get that day’s blog post up!) But in fact, there was a lot of quick activity before we could sleep. We wanted to get our tents set up while we still had decent lighting. Finding a suitable spot proved a challenge. For tenting, you always want as level of a spot as possible. There were very few, so the task morphed into finding the spot with the LEAST amount of slope. Also, before we cooked dinner, we needed to collect water. Collecting water was more challenging than our previous trip. (see later for details)

Notes from the previous night’s sleep…

1. I learned a new technique for dealing with sleeping on a sloped tent site. Recall that we had to find the least sloped area to pitch tents. While pitching tents, the slope really did seem incredibly small. I mean, I didn’t think sleeping on it would be an issue at all. Well, it was. While laying down on my back, the downhill slope direction was to my left and it was very noticeable. It’s an odd sensation that doesn’t seem to have any resolution at all. But then I found one! By scooting my body all the way to the right side of my sleeping pad, I found that my weight pushed the air in the pad towards the left – downhill. In effect, I’d created a localized “low spot” on the sleeping pad – with me right in the center of it. It really felt like I was laying on level ground. Another finely honed tip learned! 🙂

2. Very late, Danny and I were both awakened by the sounds of talking – off in the distance. We observed flashlights, or headlamps, off in the distance. We surmised that a couple of folks from the campground area were off doing some night hiking. Danny had the impression that they’d literally hiked right past our tents. But in reality, they were far away on the trail. In pitch blackness, and utter quiet, both sound and light have a way of sounding and appearing closer than they actually are. (Kind of like the opposite of rear-view mirrors – objects are farther away than they appear) No big deal – but interesting that some people decided to take a stroll down the trail at 2:00am in the freaking morning!!! If I’d not been so wiped out, I might have been crazy enough to head out and join them.

3. The bladder situation… It just really sucks having to get out of your sleeping bag and tent to take care of business. But there is one advantage of tenting and being on your own! And that is – you don’t have to walk very far to answer nature’s call. You just need to ensure you pick a spot that is DOWNHILL from your tent. As long as you meet that criteria, your master bathroom is literally a couple feet from your tent!

So, on to the “real” events of Day 2…

We were both up by 7:30am and were determined to get our tents packed up quickly and head to the shelter’s picnic table for breakfast and coffee. (Remember the coffee?) Before packing our tents though, we had to pack up the contents of the tents. Mostly, this relates to the sleeping system – a sleeping pad and a sleeping bag. I am still amazed by how tightly my bad-ass down sleeping bag compresses – it only takes up about the volume of a 2 liter bottle! My bad-ass sleeping pad also compresses down nicely – it takes up the volume of a 1 liter bottle. After storing those, I tend to pack my backpack with those and everything else. I pay attention to order though; keeping things I will need for breakfast towards the top of the pack.

Tents sometimes have a condensation problem, which ours did. In an attempt to dry them, we decided to have breakfast and coffee first. My breakfasts are simple and bland (how does one store BACON & CHEESE BISCUITS for a hike???); I have three different varieties of breakfast bars and that’s it. Danny has a similar breakfast of cereal and breakfast bars. At least he has some variety. For my coffee, water is required. Fortunately, I already had water leftover from the previous evening’s water gathering ritual. But later, we would have to get additional water to support the day’s hike.

Following breakfast, I took a photo of the picnic table…

…followed by a short a morning video of our whereabouts…

After those shenanigans, it was time to take down the tents. This is only the sixth time I’ve setup/taken down my tent. At this point, both setup and take-down are finally starting to feel very natural. At first it was not so – this tent is radically different from any I’ve owned before. All my prior tents were “free-standing” tents. That means you actually erect the tent first (using dedicated poles) and then stake it down. It has the advantage of being movable before staking it down. My new tent, however, is not free-standing. It has to be staked out first, and then erected from the inside. It makes use of my trekking poles, which means I don’t have to carry dedicated (and weighty) poles for it. It’s a great benefit, but takes some getting used to.

With tents down and packed, we were almost ready to go. The final task was to gather water for the day’s hike. To get water, a stream is required. Seeing as how the shelters were built close to streams, that shouldn’t have been a problem at all. My water purification system is the Sawyer Squeeze system. Basically, you collect stream water into a catch bag then attach a filter to the top. You turn it upside down, then squeeze the water through the filter into a collection bottle. It’s a super simple procedure and on our last trip out, we had no issues whatsoever.

However! On this trip, and at this location, the stream was running very low and there were no places in the stream to actually catch water into our catch bags. One item included in my bad-ass Sawyer Squeeze system is a syringe. Its intended purpose is to backwash the water filter from time to time – to keep the filter grids clean and unclogged. For this stream, however, I had to re-purpose the syringe. (Apollo 13 movie fans: “I don’t care about what anything was DESIGNED to do; I care about what it CAN do!”) We used it to draw water and fill the collection bags – a paltry 4 ounces at a time! And the collection bags have a 1 liter volume. I’ll do the math for you – that amounts to 8.5 syringe collection/discharge cycles to fill a 1 liter bag. In total, we had to filter 4 liters of water. It took a while! (Note to self: Now that this syringe is contaminated, I think I should get a second one and designate uses. One for backwashing, and one for drawing water in shallow streams, lakes or ponds.)

With our water collected and filtered, we were ready to head out. Before leaving, however, we wanted to capture some pictures of the shelter’s log book.  Shelters contain log books (also called Journals) where hikers can record their travels and experiences for other hikers to read. I decided it was high time I made an entry into the log book at this shelter. I then photographed the entry for posterity’s sake. It is certainly not an inspiring entry, but it is something. The “no name” refers to the fact that I have no trail name as of yet.

A photograph of a cool entry follows… Some guy writing an A.T. version of “Apocalypse Now…” (Zoom in to read the entry)

This entry was too good to pass up. It’s talking about BEARS!!! It reminds me that a bear encounter is all but guaranteed on my hike next year. It is only a matter of time until an encounter occurs. Guns aren’t the answer – that will only serve to piss off the bear. The key to a successful encounter lies in scaring off the bear. I have procedures in place to accomplish this.

After browsing the log book, it was already beyond time to leave. I took video of our departure…

…and heading onward, we attacked the last 1000 foot down Three Ridges. Ultimately, the descent would end at the Tye River. During the remainder of the descent, we took another video…

Whereas the traffic sounds from Day 1 of this journey indicated we were still close to our starting point, here things were opposite. Traffic sounds grew from non-existent to barely discernible, to very discernible and finally to being loud. Each increase in perceived volume reminded us we were getting closer and closer to our major way point for the day. We finally reached the bottom of the descent and arrived at the Tye River’s footbridge – which I’d photographed on Day 0.

 

Finally at the bottom, a video of the bridge crossing and the surroundings.

And here are some still photos at the Tye River.

After crossing the bridge, we stopped for lunch down at the river. A short climb off the trail led us to the river bank. A few minutes later, we encountered two groups. The first was a couple with their son and daughter. They played in the river for some time. The second was a group of students and instructors from an Akihito class in Richmond. Their class does these nature trips as part of their training. (I think that’s really cool!) They had just arrived from Priest Mountain – which is where Danny and I were heading today. They told us, “You have one heck of a climb ahead of you!” Because I am still uncomfortable taking unsolicited photos of strangers, (what’s the correct procedure here?) we have no photos of them. They were a great group though, especially considering it was a group of eight thirteen-year-old kids shepherded by 4 adults. One of their leaders informed us that they were at the end of their trip and on their way home, by way of a famous BBQ restaurant. (That sounded SO good.) He also told us that their trip was 95% awesome. I replied that I hoped the remaining 5% wasn’t too bad. He smiled and said that it wasn’t – but his expression indicated that having a bunch of 13-year olds along had it’s moments! We wished them well as they headed out. After they’d gone, I took the following photos of Danny exploring the river bed and doing a little rock-hopping.

So this next photo… It’s a collection of wood – tree roots and limbs. In the middle of it, somewhere, is a snake. I swear that I saw it, and centered it, in this photo. For the life of me, I cannot find it now. Weird.

After our lunch break it was time to continue our hike – a 3,200 foot ascent over 4.3 miles. First we had to climb out of the river back to the trail. Danny took lead. As we arrived at the top where the trail is, Danny stopped dead in his tracks. He looked back at me and said, “We have a visitor.” I couldn’t see anything, so I peered around Danny to see a dog. He was literally blocking us from getting up on the trail. Trying to make use of everything I’ve read about animal encounters, I wore my best “no fear” expression and proceeded towards the dog. His immediate reaction was a slight backing up very quickly followed by an intimidating, but not overly aggressive bark. My reaction was quick and swift. I lunged towards him, and quickly stabbed my trekking poles into the ground just inches in front of him. Simultaneously, I yelled/growled a very loud, “GO HOME!” The dog backed off and began walking away. We were then on the trail, essentially following him all the way to the road crossing. Thank goodness dogs don’t know how to play poker.

With that minor ordeal behind us, we found ourselves at the road crossing where the A.T. crosses Route 56. Dedicated readers may recognize this, since I photographed this area on Day 0 of the trip. Here is a video of the crossing, where I make quick reference to the “puppy dog” we encountered.

And a nice shot of the trail ascending out of the parking area.

One nice feature of this 3000 foot climb up Priest Mountain, according to the guidebook, is that we have 2 major milestones along the way. The first one is exactly one third up the mountain and just so happens to correspond with a stream crossing where we’d planned on replenishing our water supply. The second one is exactly two-thirds up the mountain at a scenic overlook. Those always make great rest stops! (And photo stops)

So, we climbed and climbed a bit. After we did that, we climbed a little more. When that was done, there was some more climbing to do. Would this climb ever end? We hadn’t even reached our first milestone yet and it felt like we should have! I began trying to mentally comprehend a 3000 foot climb. The first analogy I arrived was this. Everyone (in the U.S.) is familiar with a half mile, right? Well, 3000 feet is just a shade over one half mile. So, imagine a half mile drive – but straight up. That analogy might work for you, but it didn’t really work for me at the time. So, I came up with another one: “Kelly Heights.” I am roughly 6 foot tall. Dividing our climb by my height yields approximately 500. That means that 500 of me, stacked on top of each other toe-on-head, equals the height of our climb. Did it help? No. Not really. But it was a humorous visualization. And *that* helped!

We finally arrived at the fabled stream, which we began to believe was a myth. “Does this stream really exist???” We dropped our packs while we gathered additional water. The area was swarming with bees and yellow jackets. Fortunately, neither of us was stung. We had to employee the same technique as back at Harpers Creek Shelter since the water was so low – using the syringe to draw up water and fill the collection bags. Apparently, water was running low throughout the entire region!

Now armed with 2 liters of fresh water each, we continued on towards the 2nd milestone – the fabled overlook. Before we even got near that though, I told Danny that we needed to take a proper break. Stopping at the stream, I said, just felt too much like *work* and not like a *real* rest stop. So we stopped about 45 minutes later. There were these great logs the provided suitable sitting spots. Also, Danny had decided to loose the shirt! Here are some stills taken during the break.

And I try a new selfie technique. At least I don’t have my mouth open like an idiot, I just have it closed like an idiot!!!

During this stop, we were beginning to express weather concerns. (But still had not donned our pack covers) The skies were growing darker and the clouds more substantial. There was also that tell-tale sign of wind and temperature shifts. In short, rain could occur at any time. We decided to high-tail it up this mountain and try to make camp before getting thoroughly soaked. Here’s a short video at this stop before we headed out.

Not far after leaving the overlook, the weather turned. We were being showered from above – with rain. We made a quick stop to don our pack covers and quickly continued on. The rain was actually not that disagreeable – it was refreshing. The rain was somewhat between a “light rain” and a “heavy sprinkle” – if you can imagine that. It was enough to be refreshing, but not enough to get totally soaked.

We finally arrived at the fabled overlook, representing 2/3 of our climb, and took a short video which appears here:

We then had a few snacks and some water to replenish ourselves. Then we took some awesome photos of each other and looking out over the overlook to the valley below.

 

The following photos show the rain cloud layer which is just barely above our present altitude.

 

In the following photo, I’m trying to capture Three Ridges from our present location. It is just barely visible, in center of frame but behind the trees. You may need to bring up the high-res version (just click on it!) and zoom in. For us, seeing it from this vantage point was incredible. We’d hiked all the way off that ridge, down to the valley, and then up this monstrous climb! And we still weren’t done with the climb!

Feeling somewhat rested, it was time to press on. We had *only* 1000 feet remaining to climb. On this trip, I’d made a previous remark that we ate 1000 foot climbs for breakfast. Not this one. This final ascent represented the classic phrase, “Are we there YET???” Each time we thought we’d reached the top, we were greeted with yet another vista showing that the trail continued to climb. The final bit of the climb is along a ridge that affords occasional views (to the left and right) of the valleys and adjacent ridges. None were worthy of photos and, even had they been, we likely wouldn’t have stopped for photography. (Unless the view was totally spectacular) We were ready to be done with today’s hike. That meant pressing on.

Finally… An hour and a half after leaving the last overlook, we arrived at the summit of Priest Mountain. The view is a little anti-climatic because the summit is encased in trees! (This is actually common on the A.T.) You can tell from the video below that I am totally exhausted by this point and *beyond ready* to arrive at our shelter site for the evening. I speak of a half mile remaining to the shelter. It would be the longest half mile I’d hiked in this entire endeavor. Here is the video from the summit of Priest Mountain.

However, a little ways further on the trail promised an absolutely spectacular view. Here, upon these rock outcroppings, are some beautiful photos. Trust me – click the photos to appreciate the full resolution they afford.  In all of these photos below, the clouds you see below us are the same cloud layer that was above us at the previous overlook. We had literally ascended through a cloud layer. How awesome is that?!?!

Before leaving the outcrop/overlook we shot a video. As with the photos above, make use of the full-screen icon and lower right. If your bandwidth sucks, click the HD icon to revert to standard definition.

Video followed by a parting shot of myself with the view in the background.

After leaving the overlook, we were only a short distance from the evening’s shelter – Priest Mountain Shelter. Well, that short distance seemed like it would never pass. Finally it did, and we arrived. A short video which “simulates” our arrival. (The video explains the “simulate” part)

Following the video, a few stills seemed to be in order…

 

 

Just like the end of Day 1, the end of Day 2 was similar. We cooked our dinner and ate by headlamps. We briefly discussed some stargazing – since my bad-ass computer phone has an awesome SkyMap program! however, the many trees obscuring the sky and our tired selves dictated that sleep was the wisest course of action. For the following day, Day 3, would see a “short” 6 mile hike which would culminate with a rock scramble offering one hell of a view.

 

Wandering On…

Kelly