Day 67, Wednesday May 5, 2021

   

1st John, 2nd John, 3rd John, Jude, Revelation.

Three Ridges stealth campsite to Paul Wolfe shelter campsite - 18.7 miles hiked today - 859.3 total AT miles hiked to date.

I finished listening to the NLT translation of the Bible today, with the final books of the New Testament, closing with Revelation. (Spoiler Alert - it ends very badly for unbelievers who reject Christ).  I’ve really enjoyed the daily Word as I worked through God’s plan for humanity, culminating with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  Seeing how the tapestry is woven together through the Old and New Testaments, while simultaneously experiencing the beauty of God’s creation first hand each day as I hike, has been truly inspirational.  Next week I plan to start over with a new translation.

Today, I woke to rain, so didn’t get my anticipated sunrise, but there will be plenty more opportunities.  The rain soon tapered off, so I packed up and headed out, a little later than usual.  Coming down off of Three Ridges, I stopped at the Hanging Rock overlook fir yet another spectacular view.  I reached the Maupin Field shelter where I filtered some water and continued on.

By lunch time I had passed over Rock Point, Cedar Cliffs, and Dripping Rock, all incredible valley and mountain range views. Also crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway a couple more times. I sat and ate lunch looking down into one of the many valleys surrounding me.

After lunch, I pushed on to climb Humpback mountain, a long tiresome incline that took me most of the afternoon.  I did stop at the Rocks and the Glass Hollow overlooks to admire those views. As I crested Humpback mountain, I heard a sound to my left, and looked to see a deer not 10 feet off the trail, just standing and staring at me. I continued on and it casually sauntered along, paralleling me as I walked.  This went on for about 5 minutes until the deer finally turned away and headed deeper into the woods.  I found out later from a section hiker that he’d seen a bear that day in roughly the same spot.

I headed on to my destination for the night, the Paul Wolfe shelter.  Unfortunately, on a clear section of the trail (no visible rocks or roots), I took my eye off the path just long enough to catch a root and go down face first.  I did a face plant, luckily landing on the most padded part of my face, my chin.  My face survived unscathed, but my hand found the only rock within 10 feet, and I gashed my palm.  I also somehow managed to bang my knee and twist my foot.  The worst part was the young couple (day hikers) coming up the trail from the other direction who saw the whole sorry episode.  They rushed up to me, likely concerned that the old guy had broken a hip or something and one of them would have to go for help.  I reassured them that I was fine, and had them continue on.  I limped the last quarter mile to the shelter, where I cleaned and bandaged my hand and took some ibuprofen for my knee and foot.  No obvious swelling or discoloration, so likely no significant damage done.  Nevertheless, I will take a few days starting tomorrow in Waynesboro to make sure I’m 100% (or at least 90%) before heading into Shenandoah National park.  It’s only 5 miles or so to Waynesboro tomorrow.

Until next time…