Day 23

View from Max Patch Bald

Starting mile 240.4

I got going early this morning because it was going to be a long hot day. Now that we are out of the Smokies it is going to be a lot hotter. The morning started with a long 3,000-foot ascent up to the top of Snowbird Mountain. It was a long slog with the temperatures getting into the 80s.

I made it over the mountain and down to Deep Gap for lunch. I ate with someone who was working on the last leg of his second Triple Crown. He works all winter so that he can go hiking all spring and summer. He just has to get up to Harpers Ferry to finish.

After lunch I had another 2,000 feet of elevation gain to get to camp. The first climb was about 750 feet of gain, which wasn’t that bad. After the climb a couple of us were sitting at a fire  road talking about how great some trail magic would be, but unfortunately there wasn’t any.

Had one more 1,100-foot climb to get to the top of Max Patch. This was a brutal climb that never wanted to end. Once I got to the top we had four more little 100-foot climbs that were horrible. All I wanted to do was to get down to the water below Max Patch. I finally started down the mountain, and I couldn’t be more excited. I came around a corner, looked through the woods, gave my eyes a rub to make sure that I’m not hallucinating and what do I see – trail magic

As soon as I got there one of the guys I was with at the last road thanked me for summoning’s up this trail magic. Mike, the ‘grill master’, threw a burger on the grill for me while I downed a Gatorade in like 30 seconds. The burger was great. I sat around for about an hour eating some fruit and having a couple of drinks. Mike thru-hiked in 2016 and has been doing trail magic every year since. We had a great time, but we had to get going, we had 2.5 miles to camp with a stop on top of Max Patch.

We had an easy mile walk up to Max Patch. Max Patch is a big bald with 360-degree views of the mountains around. This is a usually a very popular camping spot but camping has been prohibited for the past few couple of years to allow the vegetation to regrow. We had the bald all to ourselves, so we took our time and enjoyed the views.

It was then a quick downhill walk to the shelter for the night. It was a tiring day with 16.9 miles and over 5,700 feet of elevation gain period tomorrow will be much easier day. Ending mile 257.3