Criss crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway
It seems that it always rains when ever you don't want it, and never rains when you do. I did not feel like walking in the rain otday, and it poured for the vast majority of it. Today it was my turn to walk through el rio de Appalachia.
Today I started the criss cross of the Blue Ridge Parkway(BRP). I will cross this raod many times between now and the northern terminus of Shenendoah National Park. I spent the first ten miles of today either crossing the BRP or being within 100 yards of the road on either side of it.
Of course I could only see ten feet in front of me at any given time due to the cloud I was in, so my sense of distance may have been a tad bit off.
Besides the rain, today was a fairly easy day. There were very few rocks, and the trail spent most of the day weaving around various mountains.
There were no views along the BRP today, although the cloud I was walking in looked awefully nice for about three seconds.
After lunch and a drying out period I began my march to Bryant Ridge Shelter.
My descent into Jennings Creek represented the lowest elevation point of the trail thus far at a mere 951 feet above sea level.
The climb up to Fork Mountain was not noteworthy. I merely mentioned it because it was the final climb before the descent to the shelter.
Brant Ridge Shelter is quite large, its capacity is listed as 20 people, but you could easily fit 30 if you needed to.
I am hoping it dries out a bit tomorrow, some sunshine would be nice. 2008 may very well go down as another rainy year on the Appalachian Trail.
Tomorrow I shall aim for a 22.7 mile day, which would give me a short day in and out of town Wednesday.
I think I shall continue reading "Atlast Shrugged", and then sleep for the night.
Why am I out here? Why would I ever want to walk 2,000 miles through the mountains? Why do I insist on walking on when everything starts looking the same?
Who is John Galt?
Good night, and good luck.
Kirby
Ga>ME 2008.
