After an amazing breakfast with Kim, it was back to the rainy AT again this morning. Nothing quite like wet feet in the first step!
Still too rainy for pictures today, but I caught back up to four of my new friends-Spork, BamBam, Slim, and Ollie. They are all guys around my age and a blast to hang out with…which comes in handy for all of us when the sky continues to bucket and the temps continue to drop.
After fording (yes-fording in VA) several creeks that are crazy high due to rain, we all attacked one of the most daunting southbound climbs together: The Priest.
It’s a far cry from Katahdin, but 3,000 straight feet of vertical climbing certainly gets your blood pumping.
The best part of the climb was reading the shelter log at the campsite on top. Hikers for years have used it as “confessional” for all of their trail sins. The most common ones (that are blog appropriate) are not hanging food and digging cat holes right next to perfectly good tent sites.
I had to come clean to the latter for my entry…but it was an emergency!