Got to the Overnight backpacker’s lot around 10AM. I grabbed my poles and left the pack and decided to stretch my legs on Cabin Ridge Trail. The water falls on this trail are pretty impressive and I was glad I didn’t miss it. I also noticed wild ramps growing everywhere. I don’t want to dig up plants in a park but it was temping especially considering these things were everywhere.
I got back to the car, grabbed my pack and took the AT spur trail this time.
This takes you to one of the major rock outcrops on Wilburn Ridge but I specifically wanted to then take the AT south towards where the spur trail from Massie Gap comes in.
The stretch between the two spurs is about a half mile on the AT with some interesting rock formations. If you’re coming from the parking lot and not hiking up or down the AT, you probably miss the stuff in between.
I then headed north up the AT to and then took the Wilburn Ridge trail over its first half till it comes to the Rodo gap trail. At this point I’ve now done almost every route up the ridge. My map is starting to tear at the folds. I think I’ll save it and highlight all the trails I’ve done on it like a checklist.
When I got to Crest I noticed some kids in the trees and figured the AT is closer to me than the map suggests. I hadn’t yet been on the last little bit of Crest to the top of the ridge where Pine Mountain starts so I went that way and then turned back onto the AT.
It wasn’t long before I saw the same kids from the other side. The camp sites in this area are nice a grassy and almost look groomed. I stopped in the shade under a tree and took a break for a few minutes.
I then continued south stopping at Thomas Knob to get water for the evening. I continued south until I came to the spur trail out to Brier Ridge. I walked out into the bald and down hill till I came to the VA Highlands horse trail and then followed it into the woods a little ways to a camp site I used last fall. I hung my new DIY 13ft hammock and immediately had the whipping on one end slip off and send me crashing to the ground. I spent some time re-working the whipping and re-tested. I had a snack and some water and realized while I was pretty tired, it was only 3:30 PM and after a break that lasted about an hour I was ready to do something. So I packed my hammock up and walked back up the bald to the AT and continued south towards Deep Gap.
Just after 4 I made it to the gap. While it’s not listed on the Nat Gep map, there is a sign for a spring here so I didn’t need all the water I had carried from Thomas Knob. The spring is a surprising distance down a very well maintained and blazed spur and appears to be a black 3-4” pipe coming out the side of the ridge with a ton of water pouring out of it.
A small section of the gap is off limits to camping which is too bad because it’s almost perfectly flat in the saddle. Just as your leave that section heading south there’s evidence of a trail leading off and up to the left. I ignored this at first but just a minute later I saw what looked to be the same trail coming back into the AT. So I climbed up the trail to find a great camp site with grass and a fire ring. In the woods behind this the ground was pretty flat and there were many more fire rings though these sites all had a lot of leaf litter while the main site appeared to be almost groomed.
I spent the night there getting up early to make breakfast and break camp. I was on the trail again by 8AM heading towards Elk Garden. I made the Garden by 9AM and the spring on Whitetop around 10:30. The water from this pipe is very cold and quite good. I topped up my main bladder and hiked another 15 minutes to so to Buzzard Rock where I took my shoes and socks off, had some lunch, and enjoyed my water.
At this point I headed back north stopping at the spring to flill a few bladders. I made good time down the mountain and stopped at the information board at Elk Garden to take my pack off. I was starting to get pretty tired and really wishing for some coffee or something. At this point a hiker walked up and pointed out a bottle of Dr. Pepper on the ground I had been jealously eyeing (thinking it was his.) He informed me there were a bunch of them left by some trail angel and said I was welcome to it. It was just what I needed.
I decided to take the Highlands horse trail up Elk Garden Ridge. This section of the trail is very well maintained with a nice gentle slop the entire way, very few rocks to step around and only a couple small muddy spots. This is quite possibly the easiest section of trail in the area even with the climb. Eventually it turns up and you climb a very steep and rocky section up to Briar ridge taking me back to where I was the day before. It was now around 2PM
I was packed for another night but it sounded like I’d be packing up and hiking out in the rain the next morning which didn’t sound like much fun. Since it was early, I decided to push all the way back to the car but I should have used the AT.
Instead I walked north past the camp site I rested at the day before and into a section of the horse trail I hadn’t been on before. This section between Brier Ridge, around below Thomas Knob and onto Cabin Ridge is horrible. There are tons of big rocks to step over and lots of mud. I’ll happily avoid ever doing this section again.
Up on Cabin Ridge I confirmed I’d be able to make it back to the car and dumped all but one bladder of water. I then apparently got turned around. I was split between taking Crest over to Rodo (which is also rocky and muddy in that stretch but not very long) or taking the VA highlands horse trail down to the Highlands connector which I had only done part of and while its much more flat, it looked a bit longer.
So I headed towards Crest but somehow completely missed it and ended up in the forest on Cabin ridge. I walked down to the intersection with Cabin Ridge (not to be confused with Cabin Creek trail) and headed east. This section of the horse trail is pretty well maintained and almost flat. Although there are quite a few streams running over the trail, it wasn’t hard to keep my feet dry which some careful rock hopping.
By the time I got to the connector trail, my feet were really starting to ache and the last mile or so to the car felt like I was walking through snow. All in all my second day came in around 16 miles and it felt like it, but I really enjoyed myself.
While the ground had become a sea of green everywhere, the trees were almost all still leafless which is too bad as I wanted this to be a spring hike. Much as the leaves change color first at higher elevations, they apparently don’t come out till later in the spring. As I drove down Roaring Gap there was a huge difference over just a mile or so and all the sudden virtually all the trees were bursting with new leaves.
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