Day 40: Abandon ship!

Hiked 7.9 miles, staying at The Place in Damascus.

We woke up this morning and it was not raining yet.  Granted it was blowing 30 mph at least, but not raining, so we decided to get up and out while the weather was holding.  Knowing that a storm was coming everyone in the shelter was reticent about leaving and it was probably a 50/50 split of people waiting it out and people braving the storm.

One of the false peaks on the way up Whitetop, no rain or major wind yet...

Before going over Rogers we had  to first face Whitetop Mountain.  As we climbed from 3000 feet to just below 5000 feet, the wind continued to build.  Being in the trees and on the west side of the mountain we were pretty protected.  600 yards from the top however we came out on the bald into utter chaos.

The wind was at least 70-80 mph sustained and gusts were much higher than that.  I have never been out in winds that strong and it was fun for about 60 seconds to see how far you could lean into the wind.  With pack on my back I'm probably close to 240 lbs and I could hold a solid 60 degree lean with just the wind supporting me.  The wind was blowing so hard that the grass and mist whipping past us felt like sleet.

To get across we were initially able to move from rock pile to rock pile, using them as cover to gain some protection between gusts.  Srocket and I both took a couple videos while sheltering behind one of these piles and I've added them below.  Once we got further up the bald however these areas disappeared and the winds got stronger.  When gusts kicked up it required sitting or flattening out on the ground to avoid getting blown off the mountain.  This would have been a lot more fun if it hadn't been for the fact that it was close to freezing out...before wind chill.  You could actually feel the heat leaving your body as the cold wind blew across exposed skin.  It was only about 600 yards, but it probably took us at least 20 minutes to cross, then we were mostly back in the trees and somewhat protected.

Newton huddled behind a rock for a little momentary protection

Taking shelter from the wind behind a large rock pile

Why Not fighting the wind while walking up hill

 

Further up the bald, Why Not goes for it while everyone else is hunkered down

We made it a little down hill to a service road and regrouped.  Dip'n'sip had hiked Rogers before and informed us that it was even more exposed, we do a lot of meadow walking.  It is also about 1000 feet higher than Whitetop.  We quickly came to the decision that it would be extremely unwise to continue in the current conditions.  We opted to call the outfitters in Damascus to see if we could get picked up.  They indicated it would be an hour and 75 bucks, but that if we went to the next crossing the fee would drop by 15 dollars.  This worked better for us too as we needed to keep moving at this point and sitting around for an hour waiting would be a bad idea.

Looking down after getting over the top of Whitetop

Looking down after getting over the top of Whitetop

Stopping to regroup with Warcry and Freezepop

Two and a half miles later we got to the road to find Lone Wolf waiting for us and back to Damascus we went, along with two other hikers: Warcry and Freezepop who we had run into while crossing Whitetop.  The latter I actually named from this adventure because he was absolutely frozen by the time he got to the shuttle.  Correction, we all were, he was the only one without a trail name.  It took about 2 minutes just to undo the clips on my pack to take it off because my hands were so cold that squeezing the clips was almost impossible.  It was tough to bail out like that, but it was the right thing to do.  If the rain had started while crossing Whitetop we would have been in serious trouble.

Lone Wolf offered to drop us off anywhere we wanted in town.  Options were limited because of all the hikers in town riding out the storm.  We ended up at a hostel simply called "The Place" which is run by the Methodist church here in Damascus.  It is a cool little house and historically has been a must stay location, but the new caretaker is reputed to be a jerk and a lot of people have become disenfranchised as a result.

Redspecs is checking out the hiker box at The Place

One of the many bunk rooms at The Place

There are a lot of rules here

The living room at The Place

Well it is true, the caretaker is really unpleasant and unreasonable and I probably wouldn't come back if I had the choice, but anything is a good shelter from the storm at this point.  Over the course of the afternoon back in Damascus we ran into a bunch of people that we haven't seen for a while because they have fallen behind us.  It was great to catch up with Red specs, Trenchfoot, Orion, Field Stripper, Slim Jim, World Pease, Oxy, Peaches, Blimey, Chaos, Wolfspider, Kokopelli and many others.


We went to an all you can eat brunch at the Old Mill which was great and then headed over to the Blue Blaze for some pool.  While there we did our round of beer for crossing the Virginia border.  Thanks again David!  We are becoming very popular at border crossings and you wouldn't believe the cheer that went up when the announcement came that all thru hikers currently in the bar got a free drink!

There are a few more thru hikers this time.  Cheers David!

After looking at the radar map tonight it appears that the front is stalling out and sitting on top of us.  Hopefully it moves on tonight so we can take another stab at Mt. Rogers tomorrow.  Unless the weather is still horrible tomorrow morning we will get back on the trail first thing tomorrow morning.

Update: We were vindicated today in our decision to bail on Rogers. Quaker and a few others attempted it and couldn't make it over. They ended up backtracking to where we got off and ended up huddled in a small bathroom for a few hours dealing with frostbite and hypothermia before finally being rescued. Luckily everyone is ok and we feel much more confident that we made a good call.