Day 34: This is a Lot Harder Than We Expected

• Pine Swamp Branch Shelter (657) to Wind Rock Trailhead (664.8)
• 2293 feet ascent, 719 feet descent 

We did 13 miles on wet rocks yesterday. While neither of us got hurt, we both fell. The Historian accquired a bruised hip and my wet raw feet provided wince-level pain with every step of the last two miles.

Last night, we tried our hardest to reserve judgment on how bad today would be. We decided to sleep before we panicked. We were pleased to awake surprisingly restored.

It Is Really Hard

The creeks are swollen from the rain. You can hear the water rushing from miles away. Before the rain, hearing water was a good sound. Now, it is a threatening sound. Water is still good, but finding a way across some of the swollen streams is challenging. Thankfully, Pine Swamp Branch had a bridge, although the water was lapping at its underpinning.

About about a mile after leaving Pine Swamp Branch Shelter today, we both pulled up short on a steep climb.

Breathing heavily, I turned to The Historian and said, “I am thinking all sorts of evil thoughts. Like do I really need to do this?”

He nodded.

I continued, “I am not saying I want to quit, but this is really harder than I expected.”

He concurred, “I guess I have to whine and complain to validate it.”

I nodded.

We started trudging uphill again.

The Excitement of a Trash Can

After a couple of miles, we came to Big Stoney Creek Road, VA 635. It was paved but clearly a remote road crossing. Befuddled, we missed the trail crossing and popped out at a parking area.

There was a National Forest sign with historical information and a bear proof trash can. The Historian made his way to the sign and started reading. I made my way to the trash can, extatic because we could offload a few ounces of trash.

I insisted on a pack-off, sit-down break. We sat on the concrete apron of the trash can and drank freshly gathered, filtered water. Our weary mood improved.

The Climb to Bailey Gap Shelter

After leaving the trash, we encountered a sign that informed us Bailey Gap Shelter was 1.1 miles ahead. We agreed we hoped the sign was wrong. There were 1440 feet to climb.

As it turned out, the first 7 tenths of a mile included 400 feet of climb. It was actually 1.6 miles total, leaving 1000 feet of climb in the last 9 tenths of a mile. Some of it was considerably steeper than 1000 feet a mile.

The trail was unsettled by days of rain.  A lot of the steep steps were like walking in sticky taffy. Rather than taffy, the surface was actually expansive clay soil, also known as shrink-swell clay.  With very small, plate-like particles, moisture causes it to expand and become plastic and sticky.

The trail tread looked as if a herd of long-toed hiker-sloths had passed before us in trail runners, leaving great elongated footprints as they sloshed by just fast enough to stay upright.

Lunch at Bailey Gap Shelter

When we arrived at the shelter, we encountered two other hikers who were laid out napping, as we had hoped to do. In the end, we all had a nice visit but no sleep. 

We left Bailey Gap Shelter and headed north again. Warspur Shelter was 8.8 miles away. Even though it was early afternoon, I had my doubts as to whether we could make it. I wanted to cry every time  thought about how far it was. 

The trail was really beautiful, walking the crest of a ridge. There were fewer tipper and ankle-biter rock, allowing us to move along more naturally.  The rain remitted, so we brought out the cameras for a few beauty shots.

Wind Rock Campsite

Although the harsh hiking was done for the day, our energy waned with the afternoon sun. Worn down by rain and the long day before, we were footsore and the rocks piled on.

Farout offered a campsite option at mile 666. I read the info and it sounded OK, but something was odd. Why would there be a sulpher smell? Would we care? Overly tired, we failed to get the jokes referencing the Biblical number of 666. Finally, it dawned on us they were jokes.

Ugh. We are usually the ones cracking dumb jokes like that. No real sulpher. We would camped at 666. We could still make our resupply at the Newport post office by Saturday morning.

When we came to Wind Rock at the edge of the Mountain Lake Wilderness at mile 664, we decided to pack it in. It was relatively close to a road crossing but we were done for.

As we finished putting up our tent as far from the road as we could, some young adults came over. They respectfully asked if we were using the fire ring on Wnd Rock.

We said no. They were Virginia Tech students up to enjoy the view one more time before graduation the next day.

I gently suggested they mix fire and alcohol respectfully. To our surprise, they said they had no alcohol and 8 gallons of water. They had even checked the fire risks, which were low after all the rain.  They gifted us each with a liter of ice water.

We fell asleep to the sound of happy voices. It was reassuring that these fine young people are part of our collective future.