Some scenes from a delightful night in the woods, searching for a comet called, Neowise.
Three Ridges Wilderness
Like a fine wine, a recent jaunt on the Appalachian Trail through the Three Ridges Wilderness continues to get better with age. It was such a fun trip over 16 miles with enough vertical feet to satisfy a month’s worth of leg days at the gym. And two days of catching up with old friends on the trail made the first backpacking trip of the year all the more memorable.
The week leading up to the trip, the forecast was beyond perfect and I was holding my breath it would stay that way. Seems like every adventure recently included a solid soaking from Mother Nature and just once I was hoping for sunny skies and moderate temps and it looked like we were going to get it. Friday rolled around and of course the rain rolled in but the weather window for Saturday and Sunday was still drool inducing.
The alarm went off early Saturday morning and the dog and I loaded up the car and set a southern bearing to Charlottesville to meet up with my friends Rachel and Ross. We pulled into the Bodos parking lot right on time. Of course we had to grab a bagel before entering the wilderness. We’d be foolish not to.
About an hour later we arrived at the trail head on the Blue Ridge Parkway and… oh. my. god. Everyone and their mother, father, siblings, aunts and uncles were there. We’re talking Old Rag full. We made our way to the end of the line along the parkway and snagged a parking spot. As we exited the car we were mentally preparing ourselves to jump into the conga line up the mountain. Much to our surprise this happened not to be the case. We did encounter and pass numerous hiking parties but traffic was otherwise pretty light. Starting a bit later was actually in our favor as we guess most of the cars were day hikers who got early starts and were way ahead of us on the trail.
We pushed along the ridge under a cloudless blue sky, soaking in the sun. Spring was only beginning to show itself on the ridge and the contrast between a leafless canopy up high and vibrant green carpet below was beautiful. In nearly nine years living along the Blue Ridge, I had never seen the demarcation between winter and spring.
As afternoon turned to evening we setup camp on the ridge below Chimney Rock. It was a cozy campsite, barely big enough for two tents. We greeted hiking parties as they passed on their way to the trail hut about two miles yonder.
Dinner was served atop flat rock with unobstructed views to the west. As clouds rolled in, it was surprisingly chilly with a breeze and I was thankful at the last minute I threw my light puffy into my pack. As dusk turned to dark, we hiked back up the trail to camp and quickly called it a night knowing Sunday was going to be almost entirely up hill for six miles or so.
Of course this wouldn’t be a proper adventure if we stayed dry so lo-and-behold a front moved through in the middle of the night bringing rain showers. If you haven’t been jolted awake by raindrops hitting you in the face inside your tent, have you really lived? I hadn’t put my rainfly up and suddenly found myself in fire drill mode trying to get out of my tent and get the rainfly on before everything became soaked. Some curse words were thrown around as I tried to untangle the rainfly but eventually I decided it was good enough to keep me dry until morning.
Sunday’s sunrise was a classic Blue Ridge Mountain sunrise with pastel greens, blues, yellows and oranges with a haziness in the valleys. I grabbed the camera and quickly made my way up to Chimney Rock to shoot the scene. It was one of those dreamy sunrises in the Blue Ridge that I hadn’t seen in a good long while.
After packing up camp we made our way down to the shelter to refill our water for the day’s climb back out to the parkway. We were greeted by a full creek and beautiful waterfalls for the majority of the climb out. We passed by multiple backcountry swimming holes and I cannot wait to return later in the summer to escape the stifling heat of DC.
Six hours later we exited the wilderness on the Blue Ridge Parkway and quickly made our way to cold beer and a delicious food truck lunch in Nelson County Virginia.
Third Time's A Charm
Almost a year after the idea was conceived, I finally bagged Apple Orchard Mountain on the AT off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Sitting at a modest 4,225 feet, Apple Orchard Mountain is the…a hell, nobody has calculated a complete list of peaks on the AT based on elevation. It ain’t the tallest and it ain’t the shortest. The summit exceeded all expectations and has easily moved into my top 10 favorite spots in the Appalachian Mountains.
Summit Attempt #1
I never made it out of the neighborhood. A last minute, hastily thrown together plan (actually, a pretty standard plan) to meet a friend at the campground below Apple Orchard Falls on a Friday night after work meant leaving the office early to race home, pack up the car and attempt to get ahead of the evening rat race home. As I put the car into gear and pulled away from the curb I heard what sounded like my drivers side brake falling off the car. A quick inspection under the car revealed no metal dangling from the undercarriage—that’s a great sign—carry on.
A few minutes of ear-piercing metal-on-metal scrapping sounds and I had visions of the Green Hornet catching fire on I-81 south in the Shenandoah Valley and made the decision to bail on the trip. I called my friend up, let her listen to the awful noise screaming from my tire. Fortunately she was still in her driveway and not already out of cell service. I returned to the house, dejectedly parked on the street, popped the back hatch pulled out a beer and sat with the dog bummed out about the whole thing. Not only did we bail on the weekend but we were making an appointment to take the car into the shop. A double bummer.
Summit Attempt #2
Fortunately it turned out to be a big ass rock stuck between my brake and tire that was the source of our troubles in our first summit attempt. No charge to remove the rock and no major damage to the car—whew! But seriously! A rock! What the hell.
Anyway, we rescheduled the trip a few weeks later and this time we made it out of the neighborhood without any trouble. Pulled into the campsite late just as my friends were turning in for the evening. A quick beer and a little chit chat and it was time to get some shut eye. The plan was to catch sunrise at the summit which meant a 4am wake-up call.
We misjudged our timing in the morning and despite our best attempts to hustle up the mountain, we didn’t quite make it to the summit in time for first light. The steep ascent really kicked our butts and the last mile of trail seemed to go on forever. We were never quite sure what the view at the top would be anyway and so we made the decision to stop short of the summit and catch sunrise through the trees. Not ideal but…coffee and breakfast. After sipping down a hot cup of instant Starbucks we made our way back down to camp to pack-up and head our separate ways for the weekend. We fell short of our goal but any time spent with friends in the woods is worth it. I vowed to be back soon.
Summit Attempt #3
Almost a full year since the first summit attempt, I was back for another go. This time for sunset. This time we reached our goal. About 9 miles total with more than 3,000 feet elevation gain. The views from up top where stunning. We made our way back to the upper waterfalls to hangout for sunset. The view across the valley wasn’t perfect but had some fun shooting the waterfalls at dusk. After eating dinner and drinking a mountain-stream-chilled beer (is there anything better?) we headed down the last 2 miles to the car. On the way down we witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen in Blue Ridge. It was surreal. Like viewing a painting. I snapped a few pics with my phone as I had already packed my camera for the dark walk out. I sat on the trail and take this one in for myself. As the last of the light faded, I stood up, turned on my headlamp and we walked into the dark. Mission accomplished.
