Day 66: AWOL lies

Hiked 11.5 miles, staying in Harper's Creek shelter.

Cowboy camping last night was fantastic.  It was clear enough that we got a good view of the Milky Way, at least until the moon came up.  The moon was incredibly bright and it was almost as bright as day.  The sunset last night was awesome and we all woke up for the sunrise which was equally great.  Then we went back to bed.

Sunrise on Spy Rock

Everyone went back to sleep after sunrise

Morning view from Spy Rock

The original plan was to hike all the way to Reed's Gap to camp at the Devil's Backbone brewery.  However we found out yesterday that there is actually a festival happening at the brewery on june 1st.  So we decided it was a perfect excuse to slow down by a day.  Thus we only had 12 miles to hike today.  It's interesting though that on a normal day we would finish twelve miles by noon, but today it took us the whole day.  The pace depends on the mileage, not the other way around.

9 AM photo

View while climbing The Priest

Given the low milage today we dilly dallied around camp for a while this morning before heading out.  About three miles in we came out onto VA 826.  Instead of carrying tons of maps most people carry a book by David "AWOL" Miller, which condenses down to a small book all the information you need and is usually very accurate.  Today that streak was broken.  According to our guide from the VA 826 intersection it is a .5 mile hike to a parking lot and then .1 to Crabtree Falls.  They are supposed to be cool and we didn't have far to go so we decided to check it out.  We quickly found out when we got to the parking lot that there was a typo in the guide, 1.0 instead of 0.1.  So we didn't get to see the falls and walked an extra 1.2 miles today.  Curse you AWOL!  Seriously though the book is usually very good and everyone has been really happy with it normally.

Looking down from The Priest

Dip'n'sip making my pictures classy as always

Today we summitted The Priest, our last 4000 footer until Mt. Moosilauke in New Hampshire.  It was a moderate climb going northbound, but I would hate to climb it going southbound.  Instead of a nice 500 foot ascent, going south you have a 3000 foot ascent and it is not super easy.  The shelter right before the summit shares the same name and lots of thru hikers leave "confessions" in the register, it was very entertaining.

Crossing the Tye River

Swimming in the Tye River

Everyone dropped their packs after the bridge to go swimming

At the bottom of the long descent from The Priest is the crossing of the Tye River.  On the far side we found a great place to swim and spent a solid hour splashing around in the river.  We even discovered a set of smooth rocks that could be used as a slide.

Two frogs enjoying the nice spring day

Looking up at the bridge over the Tye River

Apparently people can't use words on this part of the trail...

Of course like any time we cool off with a nice swim you have a steep uphill immediately after to make you sweaty and gross again.  We have the equivalent climb going back up that we had coming down from The Priest.  Luckily we have a good excuse to break up the climb.  There is a shelter about a third of the way up, a perfect place to stop for the day.  We ran into Rosey Eagle, Pigpen, Zip and Dinnerparty as we ate and everyone is headed to the festival tomorrow.  Only eight miles to hike by 10ish, should be cake!