Middle Creek Campground 1435.8 to Wilson Creek Shelter 1452.8 (17 miles, 1452.8 total miles)
Shrek had been nice enough to let me sprawl out on the queen bed while she took one of the bunks, and the memory foam did my body well. I got up around 7:30, and heard her making coffee for us in the aeropress she’d brought.
It was very good, and she even had a box of breakfast essentials packets that I was able to mix in with the coffee. I’d been very jazzed up for hot breakfast, but to my dismay there wasn’t anyone to cook at the camp store this morning.
The campground was nearing the end of their season with less staff, so I bought cherry pop tarts instead, trying not to think about the biscuits and gravy I’d had my heart set on for a few days now.
I packed up quickly, but Shrek had her whole car to organize and needed to get her pack together and supplied with food from the myriad boxes and bags she’d brought, which I’d also used to supplement my food.
It was getting rather late, but I wasn’t too stressed about it. True, we were planning on trying to hike 17 miles today plus 1.5 down the road back to the trail with a 7:20 sunset time, but I figured we’d do what we or Moose could and it would be fine.
I used to get very anxious about leaving camp late, but after hiking with both Catchup and Iroh it was normal for me now, plus I had recently grown accustomed to regularly doing things with my headlamp at camp.
We started walking down the road at 11AM after parking Shrek’s car in back of the campsites out of the way. Moose, carrying his food in his pack, wanted to stop and sniff just about everything at first, but gained focus after a while.
When we got to Jennings Creek at 11:20, I very nearly brought us to the trailhead that would take us north, before realizing I hadn’t crossed the road yet to the other forest entrance. That would have been a poor start to the trip.
We began with a bit of a steep climb out of the road, me leading the way and trying to get up the incline as quick as possible. We needed to hike 3 mph with minimal breaks to make it to camp before dark.
We stopped just over a mile in to give Moose water because he was panting quite a bit in the humid, buggy air. He had experience hiking with a pack on, but Shrek was carefully monitoring his energy levels.
Moose seemed to want to play fetch and run around, so all seemed well there. I mixed two propel packets into my liter of water from the campground, because the water tasted like it had been pumped from the pool.
Less than a mile later or more incline, we arrived at a flatter section for almost 2 miles, cruising past the first shelter on our way by. Though Shrek hadn’t been on trail in two months and her pack was heavy, she was hiking strong, even as we were both winded from making our way up the mountain.
As we were on our last mile and a half climb up to the ridge, I stopped for a few minutes to use cell service while Shrek hiked on a bit. I met her up on the ridge where she was taking a break with Moose, and we continued on after a short while.
There was another lovely flat section to traverse, though we passed over some rocky spots and a lot of slippery acorns. On the way down to the road, I saw a man going north who looked like a thru hiker.
Thru hikers going north are very rare now, but he said he was completing a “leapfrog” flip flop thru. He’d gone north from Georgia to southern Virginia, then north from Harpers Ferry to Katahdin, now was finishing his last section north to Harpers to complete his hike.
His name was Burning Man, and he’d heard of me from Back to Back and Lost and Found, who I was happy to hear had stayed at Wilson Creek Shelter the night before, so I knew they were exactly one day ahead of me.
After saying bye to him, shrek and I zoomed down to VA 43, where there was a creek we were stopping at to collect water. It had only taken us 31 minutes to hike the last 2 miles, so I was feeling good about our pace.
I drank a Starbucks canned energy drink I’d been carrying since Glasgow, and filtered a very slow liter and a half of water for the next 10 miles. Shrek left a few minutes before I followed up the climb out of the gap.
Fueled by caffeine, I made quick work of the incline, and descended down to two beautiful overlooks off the Blue Ridge Parkway, Mills Gap and Peaks of Otter.
I was of the opinion that the Blue Ridge crossings were much nicer than the Skyline ones in Shenandoah. Primarily, they were actually on the trail itself, and just seemed to be nicer. It helped that the weather was fantastic as opposed to what I’d had in Shenandoah this time around.
Not far from the spur trail to the next shelter just after 3PM, I found Shrek taking a short break with Moose, who still appeared to be very energetic. We’d planned on that shelter being a bailout point, but going to Wilson Creek still seemed to work for everyone.
It was another 8 miles from there, but if we kept up the pace, I thought we could reach camp by 6:00, which was early for me. I was happy with that and continued on just before Shrek and Moose, not wanting to lose my caffeine buzz.
The rest of the day was rather bumpy ridge running, with a few little steep climbs and descents, and several more places where we crossed the parkway past views and overlooks.
I felt myself going into flow state on the last 5 miles or so, while I listened to podcasts on my phone. The last 2 miles before the water source I was absolutely booking after drinking half an electrolyte packet with taurine and putting on some music.
Careful not to fall on the acorns again, I made my way over some more rocky sections, through sunny areas where I was careful to look out for more snakes, and along ridges cut into the side of the mountains.
The bugs had been bad all day, but toward the end there were clouds of gnats and tiny flies hovering in front of my face, no matter how fast I was hiking or waving my hands around my face. My sunglasses and earbuds kept the unpleasantness of it to a minimum, however.
I got to the water source around 5:45, where it took a while to collect two and a half liters from the very low flow with leaves placed strategically to help it along.
As I was heading out I heard Moose running up to me. He was still getting used to me being around, barking when he saw me, but running up with excitement to greet me.
I hung with Shrek while she collected water, and Moose was running around trying to play more fetch, seemingly completely unfazed by the 18 miles we’d just done.
I left after a few minutes for an easy descent .4 to the shelter, which I found deserted, but very buggy. Shrek had brought me a Backpacker’s Pantry curry, which I set to rehydrating while I got my sleeping pad and quilt out and changed into camp clothes.
Shrek and I had dinner together at the picnic table, exchanging more stories about our hikes and life outside the trail. I told her I was glad she was here, since I really enjoyed her company and didn’t love camping alone.
Tomorrow we’d be hitting Daleville midday, and we’d see how her and Moose were feeling after hiking a rather big day out of nowhere. The terrain had been perfect and moderate for the miles, but we both wanted to make sure Moose was adjusting well to it. I, as always, couldn’t wait to get my hands on some more town food.