Day 56 - Thursday, May 6, 2021

We woke up to a chilly 39° but the skies are clear and sunny! So far the weatherman is 2-2 but it’s early 🙄.

Today we  continued hiking in the Thomas Jefferson National Forest from Massie Gap (502.8 NoBo) to  VA 601 Beech Mountain Road (489.1 NoBo) for a total of 13.7 miles. We began hiking at 9:15 am. 



In case you have not noticed Turtle Power has a new hiking hat; it has an UV rating of 50 and has a neck cover to protect his neck from sunburn.  Funny thing is, he has been approached by two different couples asking him to marry them... ole Padre Turtle Power 🙏🏻.



Mountain flowers are beginning to bloom. 











Views from Buzzard Rock. 

We are seeing a lot more NoBO hikers everyday as the bubble of thru-hikers is making their way north, ultimately to Katahdin. The main bubble or “herd” will be coming thru in the next couple weeks. We are also seeing a lot of local day hikers as many spring flowers in the mountains are blooming. 



The person in the middle is “Singer”. He completed his thru-hike in 2007. 





Making our way to Elk Garden.

The trail today changed from mountain forest switchbacks to mountain pastures to difficult rock terrain. 











Stopped for lunch at the Deep Gap cutoff. 

This is the second day I’m wearing my new Salomon Ultra 4 with GoreTex hiking shoe that Salomon gave me to replace my Ultra 3’s at no cost. I had an issue with the Ultra 3’s not keep my feet dry and Salomon determined it was a manufacturer defect and they 100% backed their product. The new Ultra 4’s perform great and the toe box is a little bigger in which I also like. These will be my go to everyday shoe; only to swap them out if needed after a wet hiking day. Like tomorrow for example; forecast is for rain all day but we have decided to hike as we are in the Airbnb and can dry everything out when we get back. 




Approaching Brier Ridge. 







Traversing our way through the “Fatman Squeeze”. I’m surprised it’s still called that 😒. Anyways, we actually had to backtrack to go through it as we went by it on the left by mistake, not knowing that it was the trail until we saw the blaze behind us when we we were looking for the trail ahead. 


Just perfecting my cairn building.  With the right amount of rain and appropriate sunlight this will grow into a beautiful healthy cairn in no time 😉.

We finished hiking at 6:15 pm. The temperature was 52° with bright sunny skies. It never made it to the 60’s as forecasted but regardless it was a near perfect day to hike. 

Till next time... Happy Hiking  🥾 

😋

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