Day 67-A New Map, a New Record, New Shoes, And Some Views From the BRP

May 24-18.5 miles Daleville to Bobblets Gap Shelter-AT mile 748.8

Well, we’ve now switched to the next map on Guthook. Now we are on the Northern Virginia map. I think it is good until West Virginia. 

I also wore my brand new shoes. Nothing like putting them to the test right out of the box with an 18.5 mile hike! Fortunately, the terrain wasn’t bad. It was quite warm and humid though, so my feet were kind of hot. 


Funny thing, this part of the trail was well maintained right out of Daleville. It was very park-like. However, the freeway noise tended to spoil the ambience. 

Dusty going through the pasture 

Some lady slippers. 

Rhodies and a creek. These rhodies were almost done. 

Blooming Mountain Laurel lining the trail. 

A still blooming rhodie. 

After lunch at Wilson Creek Shelter, we came out to the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

Coming to the BRP at Taylor Mountain Overlook. 

Mile 97 of the BRP. 

The view from Taylor Mountain Overlook 



Don’t know if this was on purpose, but see the big AT symbol in the valley?

We were then back on the trail to the next overlook which was Montvale. 
It looks down to the town of Montvale. 

The last overlook was Harveys Knob. This looked down from the other side of the Parkway. 

Hmmm...see those clouds?

We had 2.6 miles to go to Bobblets Gap Shelter. I could hear thunder way off in the distance...lots of thunder. It was really getting dark. We knew rain was imminent. We made it to the shelter sign, but still had .2 to go to the shelter itself. I was practically running down the trail! About 5 minutes after arriving at the shelter (just long enough for me to get water), the skies opened up and it poured rain. No worries for us! We were under cover in the shelter. 

Since there are not really any good tent sites (the only two halfway decent ones have a couple of section hikers on them), Sure Foot has crossed over to the dark side and has joined Dusty and I in the shelter. Luckily, we are the only ones here. 

So, 18.5 miles is now the record to beat. I don’t know if it will be broken anytime soon though. Although, we did it in a reasonable amount of time (started at 7:00, and finished at 4:40), it was still a long long day. 





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