May 24 - Central Virginia

DAY #69
START LOCATION: Harpers Creek Shelter
FINISH LOCATION: Paul C. Wolfe Shelter
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 22.0
TRIP MILEAGE: 848.1
MILES TO GO: 1,331.0

Witnessed something new this morning. The 6 person shelter was full
last night with two sectioners and four thru-hikers. That's not the
new thing. The new thing was the collective motivation exhibited by
the other 5 hikers. I awoke at 5:30 AM to see all 5 others packing
up... All 5. I refused to move. I layed there until 6AM before I did
anything. It was pouring out at the time. I wanted a 22 miler today,
but even at this hour I was in no rush. The bunny rolled at 6AM... As
you might guess, Snack Attack, the April 11 starter was pushing for
Waynesboro today... A 27 mile jaunt. The last of the 5, Pacific,
pushed off at 7:15. Alone in the shelter and watching the Mennonites
across the river break camp, I decided 7:30 was late enough.

The trail went straight up immediately to 2,000' onto Tyree Ridges.
Now I could have skipped this with the former AT and alternate trail,
The Mau-Har. But rumor had it that the Mau-Har was just as challenging
as the regular AT but over a shorter distance. So I decided to stay
true to the white blazes. Three Ridges was tough becuase of the rock
and the steep grade. It's not often i get off my heels and hike on the
balls of my feet with my heavy boots, but Three Ridges forced it. The
rain was on and off and getting to me. I've been perpetually wet since
leaving Buena Vista.

About 6 miles in, I came down Three Rodges and hit the Maupin Shelter
at 10:30AM. I decided that I'd have a full lunch here and get water. I
was there for nearly an hour and thoroughly enjoyed the rest.

From Maupin I had an unusually long 16 miles to Paul Wolfe. Looking
at my guidebook, i wasn't too enthused about my water sources leading
to it. So I did something very rare... I hauled a liter of water in
addition to the 1L bottle I carry. I'm glad I did.

The haul up Humpback Mountain was extremely rocky and had horrible
footing with all the rain. There were lots of false summits of similar
elevation as tye summit so my altimeter wasn't as much help as it
usually is. The rain was tough leading up to Humpback, which was about
15 miles into my day. I had a nice vista near the top and the sun even
came out for the 15 minutes I was there. It felt fantastic. I could
see steam rising off my black shirt as I layed on the rock face.

I was thoroughly exhausted on Humpback Summit. I was so thankful that
the 7 mile push to P-dub was all downhill. I cranked those miles out.
I even passed Red Kelty and Stambler... some older thru-hikers I'd
known were ahead of me. I saw some gorgeous deer along the trail and
got some excellent pictures during this stretch.

I pulled into Paul Wolfe around 5:45PM. I was very glad I had ample
time to cook and eat the rest of my lunches and dinner in my food bag.
After all, I needed only a light breakfast for my 5 mile nero into
Waynesboro, VA the next morning.

I shared one of my Gentleman Jack nips I'd purhased in Daleville with
Spring Kat, a northern Irishman thru-hiker. We thoroughly enjoyed our
celebratory drink for nearly completing our sopping wet stretch into
Waynesboro.

-natedog