Day 29 - Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Today we are hiking from Hog Camp Gap, USFS 48 (815.4 NoBo) to Reservoir Road, Peddlar River Bridge (802.3 NoBo) equaling 13.1 miles. We will encounter one significant ascent over 4 miles long, with a change of over 3000 ft in elevation.

We began hiking at 9:45 am with overcast skies and the temperature already 55°. It is still expected to reach mid upper 60’s and hopefully see a little sun this afternoon 😉




Peddlar River Bridge.

It got warm very quickly - changing out shirts. 





Entering the Brown Creek Community-a settlement for freed slaves. Remnants of a stone house. 
     https://www.nbatc.org/1992Interview.htm






Filtering and sterilizing water at the Brown Mountain Creek Shelter. I’m filtering water with a micron filter system and Jim is sterilizing water with an ultraviolet light. It is  not required to do both but Jim is getting familiar with the different techniques of processing potable water when on the trail.




On top of Bald Nob. This is the ascent I mentioned was 4 miles long with an elevation difference of over 3000 ft. This was a very challenging climb testing ones physical and mental capabilities. Typically there are switchbacks that help lessen the climbs difficulty but there wasn’t nearly enough to eliminate some rather severe steep vertical scrambles that we encountered. For some reason I counted the number of switchbacks on this particular ascent.  I counted 47 switchbacks. Now the rest of the story.... after we completed this difficult ascent we’re taking a break and I get an email from Legacy.com reminding me that today is the first year anniversary of an old high school friends passing. We also played high school football together. His football jersey number was... used guessed it #47. Thanks for joining me today Jeff, I hope you enjoyed the hike!



And thanks to the Trail Angels that left Gatorade on the trail to quench  our thirst after the climb.

We finished hiking at 4:45 pm The temperature was 62° and the sun did appear about 1:30 pm.

Till next time... Happy Hiking  🥾

😋 




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