Day 1: Arrived at Wolf Pit and commenced hiking up wolf pit trail by about 12:00 on Friday. Encountered a 5 ft long black snake on the way up who didn't mind being picked up. Ate lunch (subway bmt) overlooking the gorge about an hour later... Great views! Continued hiking and we were shortly pelted by rain strong winds and what seemed like hail for about 30 minutes. Made a very rapid pace along this stretch. Hiked and hiked and hiked and hiked and made it to the top of Spence ridge trail. Sorry about the lack of detail but the pace was too much for my 54 year old self. I should be in better shape and my focus was on moving forward instead of enjoying the scenery. Camped at a decent site just past a nice stream. We found out the next day there were a few better campsites down the trail just a fraction of a mile but we were all ready to stop when we did and I for one was happy enough with the site we used. This was the first opportunity to field test a bunch of new hammock gear ... Clark tx-250, ahe 15 ft tree straps, Dutch buckles, underground top quilt and ahe jarbidge underquilt. Overnight temp was probably in the mid to high forties and I was very comfortable.
Day 2: spence ridge trail down to spence bridge and full length of linville gorge trail. At spence ridge trail our group of three got broken up for about an hour. I was on the trail, one partner intentionally bushwacked and one partner unintentionally bushwacked down a little draw. After a bit of me blowing a whistle and waving my spare orange tee shirt I got everyone back together. It was embarrassing but necessary. We made it down to the bridge which is mostly washed away in a recent flood. The river was passable so we crossed it. Some makeshift logs, etc have been put across to make it easier, but I would call them very temporary. LGT is much harder than the profile makes it seem. It's hard to describe but it's the hardest easy trail I've done in a long time. I fell down twice. One fall was a spectacular end over when I stepped too close to a loose edge. I ended up balanced and about to go over again. My hiking buddy had to help me get loose from my pack. We saw a few more snakes...another 5 ft black snake and a brown water snake. I hate snakes. We also encountered a few small lizards. We hiked and hiked and hiked and hike and made it to our destination around the foot of the lead mine trail and camped at a nice broad section of the river. I brought a trap I made to try to catch some crawdads with no luck. Apparently crawdads don't like spam. Next time we will try pickled pork product or some other more delicious bait. It was colder on night 2 ... Maybe low 40s......?
Day 3: lead mine trail to mst to a connector and back to wolf pit. Lead mine trail is just purely insane (straight up 45 degree grade in spots) I am glad to have survived it. We saw bear during the end of our ascent. The river crossing was passable and about knee high. We made it back to the car and we were rolling by around 3:00.
Overall: an intense experience for the short time we spent there. I would recommend at least 4 full days of hiking. The wild dwarf iris and wild azaleas were still blooming .... Beautiful. Oh and one other thought .... when hiking in the Linville Gorge: when you think you are finally there.... you're not.
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