We hiked this section on February 20, 2011.
Today, we took care of some unfinished business. About a month ago, we attempted to hike from Blue Mountain Lakes Road to Culvers Gap. But the deep snow on the mountain caused us to bail early at Brink Road.
We met George, our shuttle, at the parking lot at Culvers Gap. He gave us both hiking beads to bring us good luck. He dropped us off at Brink Road just before 9 AM. The wind chill factor was in the single digits but the sun was shining.
We hiked up to the AT and we were glad that we brought our spikes. The snow was about 4 inches deep but since it had gone through several cycles of melting and freezing, it was firm but very slippery.
Dirigo
Once we reached the AT, we decided to hike down to the Brink Road Shelter. This shelter was very small and sits low to the ground. We saw a bear box in front of the shelter. We saw a sign to the privy but didn’t see it from the shelter.
Brink Road Shelter
After hiking in deep snow the last two times out, we really enjoyed the trail conditions today! It felt like hiking instead of snow shoeing.
We had several steep descents which were really icy even with spikes. So, we decided to just sit on our butts and slide down the hill.
Python taking the easy way down the hill
Sometimes it is just easier to bow to mother nature instead of trying to fight against her.
We lost the trail somewhere up on the ridge. The white blazes were occasionally on rocks and if the rocks were covered with snow, we would have missed them.
Trying to find the trail on the ridge line
Dirigo remembered passing a triangle of branches with a pile of rocks in the middle. We reached a small station house for the powerline and still didn’t see any white blazes. We turned on both the GPS and the iPhone app AccuTerra to find the trail again. We backtracked until we found a white blaze and then Dirigo saw the triangle of branches again. We looked to the right and saw a big rock with a white blaze further down the mountain. Yeah, we found the trail again! I guess someone constructed the triangle of branches to help hikers find the next white blaze?
This was an important landmark
From this point on, we descended into Culvers Gap. The trail was partly covered in snow and some of it was real dirt and rocks. Rocks! Rocks? Rocks bad – stay away from rocks (a rafting guide told us this when we were rafting the Gauley River).