Appalachian Trail - Day 055 - Priest Summit to Wintergreen View

Day: 055

Date: Sunday, 18 June 2023

Start:  Priest Summit (AT Mile 830.1)

Finish:  Wintergreen View (AT Mile 852.0)

Daily Kilometres:  35.6 (Ascent 5620', Descent 6129')

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  1433.0

Weather:  Warm, sunny and humid.

Accommodation:  Tent 

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts 

  Lunch:  Trail mix

  Dinner:  Cheeseburgers, banana pudding 

Aches:  Dave - exhausted and both heels playing up; Julie - nothing to report.

Lowlight:  The climb up to Three Ridges (3965') in the Three Ridges Wilderness was exhausting, particularly for Dave.  It was very technical, crossing multiple talus fields with rocks of all shapes and sizes to be negotiated, as well as incorporating some very steep ascents.  The climb went on and on, in warm humid conditions, and it seemed your foot needed to be carefully placed with every step.

Highlight:  After we had been over the Three Ridges (see above) we descended to Maupin Field Shelter where we stopped for lunch and chatted with two other thru-hikers we knew (Grits and Monkey Man) there, watching day-hikers pass by and speculating on what nice cold drinks and food they might have in their light backpacks.  We had all just completed the hike over Three Ridges and were all feeling depleted, tired and over it.  Grits and Monkey Man left and we followed soon afterwards.  Two miles later, as we entered a car park on the Blue Ridge Parkway, there were our friends seated in camp chairs drinking cold drinks and eating appetizing food.  A young couple, who met while hiking the AT last year, were providing food and drinks to thru-hikers.  Trail Magic!  It could not have come at a better time as we were hungry and dreaming of cold drinks.  We spent about 45 minutes there enjoying the company and food.  Dave downed three Mountain Dews in quick succession, hoping to revive himself for the afternoon's hiking.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We were hiking by soon after 6:00am, hoping to cover as many miles as we could today so that we had less than 10 miles to do tomorrow to get to Waynesboro, our next resupply town.

Although it was a beautiful morning for hiking, the trail was immediately very technical and slow.  Not a good start.  After a few hours we reached the end of the descent from Priest Summit, crossed the Tye River, and began what turned out to be an epic climb up to Three Ridges (see above).  The Appalachian Trail was part of a loop with the Mau-Har trail which is popular with day-hikers and we saw plenty on this sunny Sunday.  The Mau-Har trail actually provides a short-cut for AT hikers, not only being shorter, but missing out on the diabolical climb over the Three Ridges.  Later we met a couple of thru-hikers who had done just that.

After descending from the Three Ridges and having lunch (see above) we were well behind our target mileage and hoped the afternoon's trail would be better, but it was a forlorn hope.  There was barely mile of easy trail today and, despite being revived by the "trail magic" we received mid-afternoon, we still found the trail rocky, technical and slow right to the end.

We walked late, not finding a tent site until 7:30pm, and got our mileage up to nearly 22, so not too far short of our target, but a long and tough day.