Miles: 496.3 | A calm, easy morning along the Creeper Trail gives way to fierce winds on open balds — strong enough to knock me over. After lunch calls, gusty ridges, and the looming chill of Grayson Highlands, I choose the smarter option: dropping into a sheltered gap instead of pushing on. The day ends early, warm, well-fed, and finally sleeping comfortably on my new pad, with good company and zero regrets.
I ran into Grandma Shorty and Plod Along again. We walked together for a little bit. Further up the hill I ran into Duck. I had met him not long ago at Boots Off. We walked together for a while, we met up with Snow Plow later, too. We walked over a couple balds in the wind. It was chilly! The wind blew me over on one bald! We stopped for lunch next to a large rock, trying to hide from the wind.
I finally had service at lunch and called Big Agnes back. Snow Plow and Duck moved on and Fog Horn passed me. I caught up to Fog Horn after my phone call (I got a replacement pad! My old one was defective!). The wind was howling on the open balds.
I woke up early. Clouds still hung in the sky and there was a chill in the air. I was out of camp before 9am, foghorn and Chippendale were just waking up. The trail followed the Creeper Trail for a while on an easy uphill grade.
The trail ducked into some trees and it was suddenly warmer. Once the wind wasn’t a factor, the temperature wasn’t so bad. We came to Low Gap, a small dip that leads up to the knob that starts the Grayson Highlands. We could hear the wind whistling on the knob above us.
I decided it was warmer in the gap and I wanted to camp there. Fog Horn asked if I was comfortable camping there by myself. I told him it honestly felt a little bit nervous but I thought I’d be ok. We were only two miles from the Thomas Knob Shelter where we had both originally planned to camp. He offered to stay down there, too. It was only 5pm but I didn’t want to get stuck up on that cold ridge. We set up our camps and went and got water at the spring nearby.
We ate our dinners together and huddled in my tent listening to music and reading for a while. We went to bed early and I slept the night warm on my Therm-A-Rest!
1. SLEEPING PAD!!
2. Easy morning hike
3. New friends