Wednesday, August 12,2009
We left the house at around 7:45 for the trail head at Waites Run near Wardensville WV. Found the trail head by 10am and then lightened our backpack loads to 10 lb packs which consisted of water, snacks, rain gear, and first aid kit along with faithful GPS trainer. We started hiking at 10:30 with a steady climb with switch backs through the woods that are filled with laurel, azaleas and blueberries. Most of the climb is at the beginning prior to reaching the Paul Gerhardt Memorial shelter and then there is a very steep descent that is on a slippery gravelly trail and things were going well for us up until that point.
We had gone 5 miles and we were using the GPS to confirm the trails we were turning on etc. At that point somehow we made a turn and got onto the wrong path and were continuing down it the required distance before looking for the next trail - which we could not find. We turned back up the trail and walked back to the last "gate" that we had seen to look for the trail again. At this point the sky has gotten very dark and we heard thunder very close, the wind picked up so we put the rain covers on the backpack and start looking around for some shelter. The problem is that it is around 5:30 pm and we don't have too much daylight left. In our dash to unload the backpacks we had both removed our mini flashlights. Our GPS has a tracking map that showed us where the car was and where we were - not near each other unfortunately. So we had to plot the GPS coordinates on the topo map we had brought and then navigate our way from there constantly checking our position. There were very real thoughts of overnighting in the forest or hunting for some cell phone reception and being rescued by a ranger. We did manage to get ourselves back to the car and were very thankful that our hike was only 12.7 miles, 553 meters in elevations, 6 1/2 hrs moving at an avg of 2 miles per hour and 1 1/2 hrs stopped. Overall average was 1.6 miles per hour. Our hiking speed definitely picked up at the end when we were on an old logging road going in the right direction!
We are not a quiet couple of hikers - from the lead male there is "Whoa" "Whooaaah" all referring to spider webs that he has either walked straight into, just avoided, or is facing the spider eyeball to eyeball. From the back you hear ongoing groans and moans along with squeals as the fear of snakes can be hard to subdue at some points along the trail. That, and the "bear watch", that happens after you see fresh bear scat and dug up trees keep the adrenalin flowing at the caboose of the couple. One particular section of the trail - a swampy area that we now realize was not part of our trail caused a not stop chant of "I am not enjoying this".We left the trail head and then drove into Wardensville, WV and along 259 (a very scenic route through the George Washington National Forest) and then turned down route 50 which became a gravel trail pass over the mountains and down past Columbia Furnace, Va into Woodstock VA where we made a reservation at an excellent Holiday Inn Express. We had a big dinner at the Cracker Barrel - David's favorite restaurant while on the road. We were very happy to be spending the night in a hotel instead of the forest!
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