Day 67: Brewery Camping

Hiked 7.9 miles, tenting at Devil's Backbone Brewery.

Last night was rough.  The gnats came out in force once it got dark.  Sleeping in the shelter we were forced to choose between getting eaten alive on any exposed skin or completely hiding in your sleeping bag and sweating to death.  Not ideal choices.

Looking back at The Priest from the first peak of Three Ridges

Looking back at The Priest from the second (higher) peak of Three Ridges

The morning started by finishing the climb up Three Ridges.  It was a steep few miles, but the early morning miles have a way of passing very quickly and it was not too long before I was at the top.  Just beyond the final peak of Three Ridges there was a fantastic overlook called Hanging Rock Overlook.  It was beautiful and I spent about half an hour there just relaxing and enjoying the vista.  While waiting I also accidentally pinched my water bladder hose between a rock and my pack and managed to dump all two liters of my water onto the ground.  Awesome, now I had to hike the rest of the way with no water.

Hanging Rock Overlook

180 degree panorama from Hanging Rock Overlook

9 AM photo

Luckily it was mostly easy and downhill at this point and I finished the last few miles to Reed's Gap quickly.  At Reed's Gap we met back up with the Blue Ridge Parkway which we haven't seen for a few days now.  At the parking lot there I ran into Nitrousoxide, a past thru hiker doing trail magic.  I scarffed down a cinnamon bun and some raspberries along with a Coke.  I sat there and chilled with all the other hikers for a while until Why Not, Srocket and Dip'n'sip caught up.  Then we hitched down the road to the Devil's Backbone brewery.

Trail Magic!

Vendors setting up for the festival

 We arrived just at the beginning of the festival.  After visiting the various vendors at the festival we set up our tents in the tent city and got some beer and food.  The food at the brew pub was overpriced but delicious.  They had beer flights so Dip'n'sip and I both sampled a number of offerings and were pretty pleased with the results.

That is a solid burger!

View of the festival from tent city

They had a five hole frisbee golf course set up and I played through with Bottlecap, Rickshaw, Kermit, Stilldont and Twosticks.  There was a ton of live music going on outside but it was so hot out, most people congregated in the brew pub.  We got a brewery tour late in the afternoon which was neat.

Most of the day there was a large portion of non hikers at the festival but by the end of the day it was just thru hikers hanging out listening to the music.  The final act consisted of three women with a lot of musical talent and they came and hung out with the thru hikers after and we got an awesome acapella  private concert.  I know Srocket got some video, hopefully she'll post them.

The three ladies in the back gave us an awesome private concert

We saw a lot of hikers today that we haven't seen in a while.  The entire Tribe was here and it was great to catch up with them.  The brewery was cool and the music was great.  Overall a great day of relaxation.  After dark we hung out in tent city for a while and then brought some beers out to one of the huge fields and did some stargazing.  The fireflies were out in huge numbers and gazing at the mountains in the background it was quite the light show.