(Harper's Creek Shelter (mile 837.3) - Paul Wolfe Shelter (mile 859.3))

The whole crew left the shelter at 8am. We immediately began an uphill climb which would continue over the first 3 miles as we made our way up towards Chimney Rock and Three Peaks. Essentially, this was the NOBO equivalent of the priest climb. Fortunately, the climb offered many spectacular lookouts where we stopped to rest and soke in the views. An open rocky slab at mile 838.8 offered particularly fine views toward The Priest, which sat stately to our southwest.

During the climb, we noticed several small bushy trees beside the trail with white blossoms and nasty 1-2 inch thorns. Some quick googling revealed that these were invasive Bradford pear hybrids, which were likely dispersed here by birds who had eaten the fruit of landscaped trees. According to a University of Arkansas Extension webpage: “Bradford pear trees do not normally have thorns, however their root stock the true Callery pear does have thorns. The birds are eating the small fruits and sowing them freely. The result is that hybrid Callery seedlings are now blanketing our roadsides, and the resulting trees are loaded with thorns and fruits of various sizes.”

During the climb, we also noticed the sound of a helicopter, which sounded nearby. Usually the sound of a helicopter or small plane does not last long, but this one seemed to stick around, getting louder and quieter at random. As we rested at the rocky slab, we watched as the small helicopter revealed itself from the trees near the base of The Priest. The helicopter was lifting something. I zoomed in with my camera and confirmed that it appeared to be something about the size of a person, maybe a small gurney. Whenever I hear a helicopter in the backcountry, I always wonder if someone is being medevac’d, but I’ve never actually seen it happen. We all hoped that the person would be ok.

Pretty blooms and nasty thorns on this Bradford pear hybrid

A small helicopter lifting what appears to be a gurney from near the base of The Priest

Although the Dino’s were hiking loosely together this morning, most of us had headphones in. Personally, I had was trying out an audiobook for the first time. A while back, Lebowski had recommended Libby, a free app that lets anyone checkout audiobooks as long as you have a library card. Since then, Delta and a number of other hikers had recommended audiobooks while hiking. I took our time at Katie’s house as an opportunity to download a few audiobooks. The first one I was excited to listen to was Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. My thinking was: “what better time than a thru-hike to peel the curtain back on the secrets of our universe.” Instead, I found myself unable to concentrate intently on the theoretical behavior of subatomic particles. It turns out A Brief History of Time is a bit too dense to follow while hiking. I noted this and opted to move on to lighter fare in the future.

The next 5 miles took us over the mostly wooded summits of Chimney Rock and Three Ridges. On the decent from Three ridges, we caught more views from hanging rock overlook, passed antique farm equipment at Reid’s Gap, and then stopped at the Three Peaks Overlook parking area for lunch. Despite it’s name, the parking area, which was situated on the Blue Ridge Parkway, seemed to offer no natural overlook. Instead, the park service had slashed a swathe of trees to the south, creating a pleasant view contaminated by a whole lot of dead trees. We found a nice rock to sit on and tried to ignore the tree massacre. Overall, I’d say it was a nice lunch spot.

For the next 10 miles, we were rewarded with an overlook almost every mile, which made for slow going. Some highlights included Cedar Cliffs at mile 849.5, which was popping with wildflowers and cute little succulent-looking plants. A jagged outcrop at mile 850.9 offered partial views, but I was more intrigued by the rock itself. More specifically, I wondered whether violent or gradual geological forces had spawned such a dramatic rock. Finally, Wintergreen View offered a lovely southern panorama of the budding mountains.

This feisty garter snake tried to bite me as I shoed it off the trail

From Wintergreen View, it was only a mile to the summit of Humpback Mountain, our last climb of the day. From there it was 5 miles of downhill to Paul Wolfe Shelter. The summit of Humpback Mountain failed to deliver any spectacular views, but after about a mile of decent, I encountered a 0.25 mile side trail to Humpback Rocks. As per my personal philosophy, I took the side trail and it was well worth it. The rocks themselves were a behemoth set of jagged cliffs. The views were breathtaking.

Another 4 miles of mostly downhill hiking carried me to Paul Wolfe Shelter. As the afternoon grew late and I neared the shelter, I listened to Cat Stevens - “Tea For The Tillerman.” One of the album’s core themes, seeking meaning in life, felt especially relevant for as I took steps along my admittedly pointless journey from Georgia to Maine. Songs like "Miles from Nowhere" and "On the Road to Find Out" certainly felt appropriate.

I made it to the shelter at 7pm. My feet were very tired and sore after an especially rocky day of hiking. After eating dinner, I soaked feet in the freezing creek for 20 minutes. Delta joined me and we talked about trees. Afterwards, I prepared to retire for the evening. Interestingly, this was the first shelter I had stayed at with bear pole food storage. Basically, there is a giant ~20 foot metal pole erupting from the ground with a handful of hooks near the top. Hikers use a separate handheld pole with a single hook on the end to lift their food bag and hook it onto the main pole. The handheld pole is quite heavy, and it can be a hell of a challenge to actually hook a food bag onto the main pole. Still, it was pretty neat. As I have hiked, it has been fascinating to see how different trail clubs deal with bear safety. From a laissez-faire “figure it out yourself” attitude, to bear boxes, lines, and now; poles. What else might be in store?😂