Slackpacking Trip - Day 9

Woke up early, raring to go! It was cold (probably the lowest temps of the entire trip) but incredibly clear again. I drove north towards Virginia (TN-91 and TN-133) until I located a gravel Forest Service Road (just south of the border) that crossed the AT. I was NOBO on the trail by 0815, layered up with my warmest long sleeved shirt, winter coat, gloves and earmuffs. The sun was bright and warm but it initially had trouble overcoming the stiff breeze that blew across the ridge. I had views into two valleys (one in Tennessee and one in Virginia) and could see for miles. After several mountains this week, the terrain was almost too easy - gradual downhill on outbound leg made the miles click by quickly. I’m glad I was looking for the turnaround (where I’d stopped on the first day of the trip) because the pedometer didn’t think I’d gone far enough when I located the campsite at “Unnamed Gap.” After double checking my math on the miles south of Damascus, I figured out that I must have overshot the target last time, shorting myself about half a mile in each direction that day but shortening my hike today. This also validated (again) my hard-learned policy of never turning around at anything other than a road, structure or sign... Still, it was nice to earn mileage, without realizing I’d under-counted on another day, for less effort today! Made good time back to my car, arriving at 1200 after about 9.5 miles. Never saw anyone else today (even though the parking area had two other cars) - it was just me and the numerous chipmunks. On the way north, I found a cool landmark called Backbone Rock (the road went right through an old railroad tunnel in the rock face). I’ve seen plenty of amazing sights recently but was surprised to stumble across such a monument to human determination versus geologic history... After I resumed my drive home, I was very happy that I’d finished earlier (and didn’t try to log more miles) because it took over seven hours to get back to Alexandria. Got a gas fillup at Scheetz in Wytheville (1335) and another one at Sheetz in Bristow (1840).  There was BAD traffic on I-81 and I eventually had to use US-460, US-29 and VA-28. Oh well: transit troubles can’t dampen my mood after the trip I had! Still behind target mileage for the year but made up more than 50 new miles (plus almost equivalent backtrack) in just over a week. And I still have a few more weekends in 2017... AT Today = 5.10 miles / Grand Total AT = 1029.87 miles