Day 1: Reeds Gap to Harpers Creek Shelter

August 16, 2014 – Saturday

Ah, morning time in the tent… *Yaaaaaaawn* After waking, I turned on my computer phone, now freshly and fully charged thanks to my bad-ass portable recharger. I found the time to be 6:00am. This wasn’t actually my first wake up, however. One’s bladder has a way of notifying the brain it needs servicing. Usually the brain abides and awakes the individual. This actually was the case, several times. 2:00 AM, 4:00 AM, 5:00 AM… In each case I chose to ignore my brain’s signals because the comfort of my cozy sleeping bag overrode my bladder’s need for servicing. Finally at 6:00 AM, the scales tipped in favor of the bladder. A quick exit from my bag and tent, a short walk some distance from my tent, was followed by an incredible sense of relief. (Whew!!!!) I was then faced with a choice: Option A was to stay awake and get ready to go. Option B consisted of getting back in my sleeping gear for some more zzzzzz’s. I quickly scanned Danny and Jim’s tents, detecting no sign of movement or even life. This seemed to suggest Option B was the wisest course. (Or at least it was the option of least resistance – fine by me!)

So a couple more hours sleep brings us to 8:00 AM-ish. All, including myself, are now awake and getting prepared for their day. Jim would be remaining at Crabtree Falls Campground for the remainder of the weekend, while Danny and I would be following the itinerary previously posted in the Coming Soon post for this trip.

As I made my coffee for the morning, which I consider to be an absolutely essential item, Jim asked, “Where’s my coffee?” I replied, “What? You have no coffee solution for this camping trip?!?!? Amateur hour!” Honestly, I would gladly have made him some coffee if it weren’t for one fact: When you are backpacking, you bring exactly what you need; nothing more. My provisions did not afford an “extra” cup of coffee. Fortunately for Jim though, the campground’s store offers free complimentary coffee to its guests.

Seriously though, on the subject of coffee – I really do consider it essential on these trips. Just as in normal life, it has a way of providing a transition from “asleep” to “awake.” There’s just no other way to say it. Many thru-hikers make the decision to jettison their camp stoves after a few weeks to save weight. At this point in my preparation, I really do not see that happening with me. My coffee is what it is – essential to the day.

The first task of the day was to transport mine and Danny’s cars to the end point of our hike – at the parking area at the Montebello Fish Hatchery/Spy Rock area. Danny and I were nearly ready to head out, but Jim was beyond ready. He left quite abruptly and said, “I’ll meet you guys at the parking area.” Sheesh! In our defense, we were preparing for a hiking trip, not a car camping trip. The final delay was imposed by myself, go figure, as I wanted to enjoy the comforts of a flush-able toilet for one final time. (Oh! And also to obtain some of the campground’s free coffee!)

All buttoned up, gear and otherwise, we headed 3 miles up Route 56 and on a short series of side roads to the aforementioned parking area. Jim was present, as expected. Danny and I transferred our “kits” over to Jim’s auto and then headed off to Reeds Gap, via the Blue Ridge Parkway. Just getting to the BRP was a relatively long drive. Once on the parkway, Reeds Gap was still some distance. We finally arrived and unloaded our packs and hiking poles, to see Jim drive off into the distance.

We were now on our own, at Reeds Gap. It’s a really cool feeling to transition from a state of reliance to a state of being self sufficient – totally reliant on one’s self and gear. Seeing Jim drive off was confirmation of this idea. We were on our own until Monday afternoon. I made a remark, “Here we are. Off the grid and ready to go.”

Before hiking, we both had the need to jettison some liquid waste – which we did. Finally ready to start hiking, at 12:20pm, here are a few photos of ourselves.

 

The day would involve approximately 8 miles in total. First up would be Maupin Field Shelter, a short 1.7 miles into the hike. It felt great to start walking. It was a slow transition from being near the Blue Ridge Parkway to being “in the woods.” (The A.T. and BRP roughly parallel each other near Reeds Gap – so you continue to hear traffic for a while) Some 20 or 30 minutes after starting, the sound of cars on the parkway finally faded – due to our distance. It finally felt like we were really on the A.T.

A modest climb and descent followed by a short side trail led us to Maupin Field Shelter. We’d previously decided this would be a great lunch spot considering our late start. We arrived nearly simultaneously with 4 other persons – a 40ish year old guy and three teenage girls. Turns out one of them was the guy’s daughter, and the other 2 were her friends. They’d come out on a circular hike of the Three Ridges Loop – a loop formed by the A.T. and a side trail called the Mar Har Trail.

We traded some stories and words. The guy gave me an overview of a military M.R.E. (Meal Ready to Eat) which I had heard about before. The cooking preparation was amazingly simply – the main course is warmed via an exothermic (gives off heat) chemical reaction. The process is somewhat similar to hand warmers, but much more pronounced. That was cool but, in my opinion, the weight of the MRE’s were prohibitive. It felt like 2 to 3 pounds per meal, and that’s just for a dinner! I generally aim for 2 pounds of food per day – including breakfast, lunch and dinner. MRE’s are out for me!

We also discussed some gear items – hiking poles, hiking shoes and gaiters. He’d never heard of gaiters before. They are things that you wrap around the tiny gap between your socks and shoes. The purpose is to keep dirt, pebbles and rocks OUT of the bottom of your shoes. I actually forgot to wear mine when we left Reeds Gap and put them on at the shelter, which had led to the conversation about them, and the subsequent gear discussion. The group headed on and we wished each other well.

Here’s a photo of the shelter and myself before heading back to the trail.

Before starting this trip, I decided to try something new for my blog. I decided to shoot VIDEO. So the first one was after leaving the shelter.

Wait!!! Don’t leave! Don’t run away! At least, don’t leave before giving it a chance!

The truth is, and you’ve dreadfully seen this by my attempt at selfie photos, I am totally new to this sort of stuff. Photoing myself, filming myself, commenting while filming, all of it just feels WEIRD and STRANGE. But I am trying!

This is the first video, taken right before we left Maupin Field Shelter. Note that, if you have only been reading my blog posts via the emails you recieve, the videos might not work. You may have to actually go to my blog site to view them. Every email you get has a link to the blog site.

With that video taken, we were back on the A.T.  The next three miles would involve a 1000 foot gain in elevation to the 4000 foot summit of Three Ridges Mountain. No big deal – we’ve done thousand foot climbs before. In fact, we eat them for breakfast.

So 40 minutes later, here’s another video showing the nature of the trail. I was attempting to show various stuff and to get a decent view of a ridge line we kept seeing through the trees. We finally caught that view towards the end of the video.

A couple minutes later, we passed this really cool looking rock formation. Danny decided to “lay” on it – when I snapped a photo.

We still work on ascending that previously mentioned 1000 foot breakfast meal, leading us to the following video. We were in a very rocky section of the trail. Planting one’s foot properly is essential. It is a very technical process of analyzing the layout of the rocks and ensuring one’s footing doesn’t lead to an ankle roll or worse, tripping. That would be bad. (Ghostbuster’s fans: “I’m fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, “bad?”)

Right before Three Ridges Overlook, we passed and took a photo of this rock formation because we thought it looked cool. Especially cool, with the tree shadows cast on it! But, we had no idea that this was a part of the Three Ridges Overlook rock outcrop, whose view was just a couple minutes away.

A few minutes later, we arrived at Three Ridges Overlook – a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains which I tried to capture in this video:

Still at Three Ridges Overlook, here are some still photos from the same vantage point. First up in a view towards Priest Mountain, our next day’s destination. Also, a bird of prey decided to pose for us!

Here is looking down Three Ridges and into the valley below.

And looking over to the top of Three Ridges – still a 500 foot climb away from our present position.

And then some photos of the hikers who are bringing you this recollection!

And then a final look into the Tye River Valley. The tallest point in the distance is the Priest Mountain Summit which we visit tomorrow.

And oh, by the way, I solved a mystery from the previous trip. On Shakedown Trip #2 when I tried to take photos of the James River Valley, they came out looking hazy. Well, when I proceeded to take the photos (and video) above, I noticed there was a hazy appearance on my phone’s screen. A short investigation revealed the existence of water droplets on the camera lens. A quick cleaning of those droplets seemed to eliminate the problem.

So, with that problem solved and those pictures taken, we continued on the day’s hike. The finale was a 2000 foot descent over 3 miles to Harper’s Creek Shelter – our camp for the night.

During that descent, we had a rare photo of me that is somewhat decent.

Still descending along Three Ridges Mountain, we arrived at an overlook where I shot another video. Although the video says we had 1 mile to go, we actually had about 2 miles to go. This would make for a very late arrival at our shelter for the evening.

As we descended into the shelter area, we heard copious amounts of activity from other campers. Beforehand, we knew that there was the shelter area, and a separate camping area. As we approached the area, it was clear that the activity was not happening at the shelter site. Finally, at 6:50pm, we elected to stay there – at the shelter. After unloading our gear, here’s a couple photos.

After setting up our tents, we were beat. The only tasks remaining were to cook dinner and then go to sleep. Kelly had Spaghetti with Meat Sauce and Danny had Sweet and Sour Pork. Having eaten by headlamp confirmed the situation – it was time to sleep.

 

Wandering On…

Kelly