Chester Gap, VA
3/10/2001 Gravel Springs Gap -> Chester Gap ~ 13.1 miles
My original plan was to stay at Tom Floyd Wayside after about 8 miles and then to hike out in the morning. That plan fell apart for a few reasons, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
When Tino dropped me off at Gravel Springs Gap, we were both shocked at how cold it was at that elevation (2600 ft). He told me to call him any time today and he'd bring me hot chocolate (I'd be crossing Skyline Drive several times). I thought that was really sweet, and the thought of it actually kept me going. I checked my thermometer. It was 38'. I started walking 'south' on the trail (which was really east-west at that point), and Tino corrected me.
The first summit was like the first summit of the day always is: hard. It takes me (I timed it this time) 20 minutes before my body finally gives in and says "ah, shit. She really wants me to do this. Bah." I was also motivated to move quickly because I was cold. I attained the 3200' feet of South Marshall very quickly, but I was still too cold to stop for long at the views.
After that, the trail crossed Skyline Drive and got more rocky and went up more precipitously. There was snow all over it, which made it a bit harder. The trees above me were covered with ice. Once I got up to the 150 ft to North Marshall, there was a spectacular view from there. I thought about getting out my gloves at this point (it was windy up this high...I started with this wind and it continued until I came down the back of Compton Peak), but I decided not to. I had some dried cherries and moved on. When I got onto the back side of North Marshall, there was a lot of what sounded like something crashing around in the bushes. Eventually, I figured out that the noise was chunks of ice falling off the trees as they melted enough to get knocked off in the gusty winds.
The trail was pretty flat for a long time. The spring mentioned in my guide was not flowing, but there were a lot of possible campsites up here. This is a fairly easy hike from the parking lot on Skyline Drive between South and North Marshall. I still hadn't seen anyone else hiking, but I had seen a few ant-like cars on Skyline Drive from North Marshall. From many points on the trail, you can really see how Skyline Drive winds up and down the various ridges. This vantage is available from nowhere *on* Skyline Drive. The trail is pretty close to it, but goes over all the high points.
I crossed Skyline Drive again, I was now back to 2600 ft. This bit of trail was more sheltered and the sun felt warm, so I found a hot flat rock for Jubjub to sit on and have lunch. It was about 1:30pm at this point, so I'd covered about 4 miles since noon. A guy passed me with two dogs. They were, of course, interested in my lunch and the guy seemed pretty annoyed with them. From now until I crossed the Dickey Ridge Trail (the wind completely died about the same time), I saw *a lot* of people out day hiking. It was not particularly warm, mind you, it was just very sunny.
Compton Peak was a short 600 or so feet up, and the spring on the west side of it was running. I skipped the views since they were each .2 away (and back) and I'd already had a great view from North Marshall, so I was satisfied on that count. There were also a lot of day hikers up here, so I didn't want to drop my pack at the blue blazes to make the little scrambles to the view, which is what long distance AT hikers usually do, in my experience, anyway.
Stopped at the top of Compton in a sunny patch to eat the other half of my lunch. At this point, I decided that maybe I should just complete my hike today. I wasn't getting any warmer, and I didn't think my bag could handle temps under 25' that were expected that night. The down slope of Compton was very rocky, and since there was snow here and there, it was slow going, compared to the time I'd been making all day. I reached the parking lot for Compton and called for a ride (it was 3:30).
The trail from this point was very flat until Possum's Rest (at the SNP Boundary), which is a pretty little rock out crop with miniature pine trees all over it (no, I don't know what they are). From here, there was a switch backed, rock stair type descent to Tom Floyd Wayside. It's a very nice shelter. I skipped it and continued. My knee was bugging me and I had a lot of downhill to do (and one more 500 foot up and then down as well).
I ran into an older guy with a sore knee who told me that there was no water at Tom Floyd, so I guess I made the right choice to skip it. If I'd actually gotten there to camp and then found there was no water...I'd have been pretty mad. He'd known beforehand and had decided not to camp there anyway.
Shortly after this, I hit the Zoological Park that's also on the other side of Chester Gap and hiked next to it all the way to 522.