We hiked this section on July 5, 2011 during the The Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s 38th Biennial Conference.
It is NOT about the gear stupid!
We have spent the last several years accumulating the latest gear to help with hiking – lightweight, dry wicking, fast boiling. You name it, we’ll try it.
So, these older hikers have taught us a thing or two this week – and we’ve been paying attention. They have been hiking in heavy lug boots with cotton clothes, non-lightweight water bottles, and wooden hiking sticks!
They are still hiking simply because they never stopped hiking.
We knew we were in good hands today because our hike leaders were Trudy (Natural Bridge Appalachian Trail Club president) and her husband John. Trudy and John are 2,000 milers. Wendy told us John gave a wonderful presentation at one of the workshops.
We had a large group today all hiking in the same direction. We took all the cars to Dickey Gap and then left one car there. Then everyone headed to Fox Gap.
We started the hike next to a camping area for horses and their riders. And where was Scout? Not here! Isn’t there some way he could help with shuttle?
We had the pleasure of hiking with Wendy (SIMS), Jay from Ohio, a trio from Baltimore (Dave, Mary, Henry), Cynthia from Texas with her best friends’s 17 year old son, a husband & wife, two friends from North Carolina (Joyce & Aneda), and a 78 year old dynamo named “Nitro.”
We went over a bridge and started up hill right away. We crossed Laurel Creek & Fox Creek and headed up Iron Mountain. As we crested the mountain we all waited for everyone to catch up and took a short break.
We began a quick descent and took the trail to Hurricane Mountain Shelter, which is not in the guide book. This shelter is fairly new and was built in 2008.
We had lunch at the shelter and talk was about the fact that this shelter was wheel chair accessible. No wheel chair could ever get there but if you had one you could get to the privy and sit at the picnic table.
Hurricane Mountain Shelter
We all took another break further up the trail to re-group again and then we started the ascent and the last 2 miles of the hike.
We kept hearing about a waterfall but as we were climbing we could not imagine there was a waterfall at the top, but we descended a bit and heard the rushing water of Comes Creek and went over a bridge and everyone took pictures of the falls.
We ascended through some very pretty rhododendrons that were hanging over the trail and it got a little rocky in some places.
We kept hearing cars above us and finally came to VA 650 where the one car was placed.
The people with keys all bailed into the one car to shuttle around to get the other cars. It was a bit of a scary ride but we all got back safely.
We all stopped at a store on the way back for what was advertised as 24 flavors of soft serve ice cream.