We hiked this section on May 22, 2011.
Total hike time: 6 hours 37 minutes
We had another wonderful breakfast at the Dutch Haus – scrambled eggs, pancakes, and fruit. We were joined at breakfast by Gipcgirl, Mothership, and a long distance hiker who had completed the trail in 2000 but came back to do the highlights.
Lois advised us against driving up to the parking lot that was called the Crab Tree Falls Trail parking lot. This parking lot is only 0.5 miles from the AT.
So, we started our hike at the base of Crab Tree Falls which meant that we had to hike 3.5 miles to reach the AT. And approximately 3 miles of this is uphill!
Crab Tree Falls Trail
Crab Tree Falls
We reached the Crab Tree Falls Trail parking lot after about 2 hours and saw several cars in the parking lot. Dirigo asked one of the drivers about the road conditions and they said it was no big deal. Boy were we steaming after that! Lois – we need to talk!
Okay, another 1/2 a mile and we finally reached the AT! Knitting Bull was not a happy camper.
Python saw the sign to the Priest Shelter and then saw Gipcgirl coming up from the shelter (she had started at Spy Rock Road). We took a nice long break at the shelter and ate lunch and wrote down our confessions in the shelter log.
Priest Shelter
The descent down the Priest was just painful!
View from the Priest
Lois said there were 36 switchbacks but Dirigo counted 44. You are not suppose to use the Lord’s name in vain, correct? Well, trail Tourette’s kicked in and we were not thinking very nice thoughts. Dirigo has confessed to the priest that she had trail Tourette’s, but it got even worse at this point.
We were so happy to reach the parking lot. The sign said that we had hiked 6.2 miles from the Crab Tree Falls Trail – we thought it was 5.??. WTF??? We put our packs in Knitting Bull’s car and crossed the road to the Tye River. We all soaked our feet and enjoyed a piece of Knitting Bull’s molasses cake. We were beat up but felt great!
