Bailey's Gap Shelter
5.1 miles hiked from 2pm to 5:30pm 4/8/2004
8.8 to Dickinson Gap done the next day 4/9/2004
I started out at about 1:30pm on the War Spur Trail. I left the trail here a while back, and I made it to the shelter by 5pm. I was going to move on after reading the register, but as I was heading away, I ran into a thruhiker, Pachu who I chatted with as we both thought about how to cross a complicated blow-down .1 south from the shelter. Long story short, I backtracked the .1 and stayed at Bailey's.
I saw Tucker today on Lone Pine and Pachu is hiking with Bacchus, who rolled in later. Trashman is a sectioner who is here too. All nice, very friendly.
The weather was decent today, intermittent sun and rain (light) and in the early 60's. Now it's in the 50's which is warm for a springtime night in the mountains.
[early morning note: three planes came overhead that sounded like military traffic. if anyone knows why there would be military traffic there, please let me know.]
The hike out of Bailey's Gap earlier today was uneventful, and my shuttler for the Bland->Atkins ride (Sam Wells) was terrific. I'm parked off US 21/52 in a area you can only generously call a parking lot. There is a very humble looking church across the road (Mountaintop Holiness, I think), some business that looks closed for the day and a house.
[note from home: this now completes the section from Catawba to Pearisburg. I had previously had a small gap here.]
Here I am after entering from the War Spur Trail. It's where I left in this entry.
This is Bailey's Gap Shelter. For those of you unfamiliar with AT Shelters, this is a fairly typical one.
At one point below Bailey's Gap, I was presented with this. The trail is in there somewhere! Just because I find this highly entertaining does not mean I'm slamming maintainers. In my experience, they work hard and do a good job. No. This is a natural feature of hiking on any trail, and it's part of the fun, I think.
Posted by nicole at January 30, 2004 10:00 PM