Chestnut Ridge
Starting mile 565.6
I woke up this morning in a much better mood than yesterday. I had a great night sleep in my hammock and was able to sleep under the stars. I got moving by 7am with a 2,000 foot climb up to Chestnut Ridge Shelter. About 1,500 feet up the trail opened with views everywhere I looked.
I spent some time enjoying the views before heading back into the woods. It was nice to get out of the wind, but I missed the views. Today several days of long ridge walks. Virginia has a lot of these. They make for some easy walking, but it also means some longer walks between water sources.
Today’s ridge-walk really reminded me of doing the Massanutten loop trail. The trail was rocky with a lot of little ups and downs. After about six miles we came across some Trail Magic. Someone was nice enough to leave gallons of water for us. They knew this was a nine-mile stretch without any water. I drank a liter of water, had some lunch and then took off.
They are calling for rain tonight and tomorrow, so a lot of people decided to stay at the next shelter. I wanted to get some more miles in, so I left everyone I had hiked around today. I’m finding this to be the norm now. I’ll see most of them again tomorrow but after a couple of days of this I will leave them behind me.
I refill my water then prepare for another 4.5 miles. As usual this starts with an 800-foot climb. Other than a couple short steep sections the rest of the climb is fine. Once on top it was a nice couple mile ridge walk. I checked my phone and saw I had signal, so I checked the weather. It looks like it will rain a little overnight and then pick up around 7 in the morning.
I made the climb down and found a nice camp site. I got everything set up in case it starts raining early. Then I made dinner and filtered water. Then it is off to bed by 7 pm. A typical evening at camp.
I made 19.6 miles today with about 4,200 feet of elevation gain. I get to walk in the rain tomorrow; I’m really looking forward to it.
Ending mile 585.2