Miles: 843.9 | A brutal, humid day over The Priest and Three Ridges delivers some of the toughest climbing in Virginia—and a serious adrenaline spike courtesy of a rattlesnake on the trail. After grinding through heat, bugs, chafe, and exhaustion, the reward comes fast: a lucky hitch, cold beer, real food, and familiar trail friends at Devil’s Backbone Brewery. Hard miles, real fear, big views, and an even bigger sense of relief—one of those days where everything hurts, but you end it exactly where you’re supposed to be.
It was a hot and humid morning when we woke up at The Priest. We had a relatively average day as far as miles were concerned: 15.4. But the terrain we were looking at was steep and some of the hardest we’d seen in Virginia. We set out from camp kind of late and headed down The Priest.
When we reached the start of the climb back up to Three Ridges, Miles had caught up to me. He was dehydrated and bonking (a term hikers use to describe the state of fatigue when you haven’t had enough calories).
I gave him some salty snacks and water. He sat and ate and drank. It was going to take him a bit to recover and the climb coming up was challenging. He told me to go ahead. I made sure about 12 times that he didn’t want me to stay. Finally, he told me to go on.
I started up the hill. The humidity, bugs, and heat were getting to me. I was heading up a 2,980 foot elevation gain over six miles. The trail was very wet from the rain and, in some places, a stream. A large amount of terrain today was concentrated in the last 2.2 miles. I kept moving slowly, but surely, up the mountain.
We walked separately for a little bit and I listened to a story on Levar Burton Reads. 5 miles of steep down hill and about 6 waterfalls later and I was drenched in sweat and humid moisture. We crossed the Tye River on a suspension bridge.
Miles caught up to me before Chimney Rock, a look out about halfway up the mountain. We came out to a bald view and two women were sitting chatting. I crept out onto the overlook, so as not to disturb their conversation, but they were actually excited to talk to me.
“Are you a thru-hiker?!” They called to me.
“Yeah!” I told them, enthusiastically.
“Oh my gosh!” One of them replied. “You are the first girl we’ve seen all day!” I laughed. “There aren’t many of us out here,” I said. They asked if we were going to the brewery (Devil’s Backbone) and we told them yes.
They told us about the tough climb (Three Ridges) ahead but that after that it was downhill all the way there! They encouraged me and wished us well. We moved on, drenched in sweat, up the rocky hill.
As we moved up the hill slowly, 1.5 mph for us, the salt stung my back. I smelled like a million dead onions. The sun beat down on us. My shirt started itching my back and causing the chafe on my lower back to burn. Miles suggested I just take it off and hike in my sports bra. Lots of girls do it, besides my fanny pack covered most of my front side anyway. I took it off and immediately felt better. I continued on like that.
We climbed three ridges, our hardest climb in a while. Harder than Dragon’s Tooth. We ‘no stoppy til the toppy’ all the way up the rocky climb. At the top we were rewarded with an incredible verdant view. We saw the ridge we had just climbed off to the left. Rain clouds crowded in on the valley. We took our photos and basked in our accomplishment.
After, we turned and hurried down the mountain, excited for brews and food! As we headed down the mountain we talked. We weren’t totally paying attention to the trail. I lead the way downhill, Miles usually leads uphill and I lead downhill, at a quick clip. Suddenly I heard a hiss and a rattle. I instantly looked down. Not 12 inches from me was a rattle snake! I jumped back and screamed!
I bumped right into Miles behind me. “What is it?!” He asked. I just froze and yelled, “Snake!!” He ran south down the trail away. I stood frozen. “Come on!” He beckoned. I ran toward him, tears welling in my eyes. My body’s natural response was to cry! I had the heebie jeebies! We turned and looked toward the snake. It sat coiled under a tree right on the trail. “What do we do?” I asked him. I’d NEVER seen a snake in real life, aside from a garter snake.
“Do we get it to move?” I asked him.
“Oh noooo,” he told me, “we’re not fucking with that thing. We let it be. That is a deadly animal.” We went off trail around it. Giving it a wide birth. He watched it while I went around the back of the tree. I watched while he did. Once we passed it my heart rate finally went down. It had been pounding the whole time. I forgot all about my chafe and my legs hurting. I just focused on surviving.
It scared the CRAP out of me! As we walked away I said, “Maybe we should call our parents and tell them we love them. That was a lot.” He laughed and agreed. As we approached the gap where we would hitch a ride to the brewery we called our parents. They were happy we were ok and glad to hear the story.
We arrived at the gap just as fat drops of rain began to fall from the sky. We saw some people with big packs getting into their cars. Miles approached them and asked if they were section hikers. They said they were and that they lived nearby. They asked if we were going to the brewery and offered us a ride.
We hopped in the back of one of their vans and they drove us down to the brewery. He was a bit of a crazy driver but it was generous gesture, for sure. We realized it was the first ‘hitch’ that we’d gotten from someone without a southern accent! We were finally making northern progress!
We arrived at the brewery (a hiker OASIS!) and it began to rain harder. We headed over to the main part of the brewery. We spotted two hikers sitting at the outdoor bar. We went over and said hi. They introduced themselves as Moondrop and Bluegrass. We chatted with them for a while and they told us where the campground was. We told them we’d come back and hang out with them after we set up. We set up and I put on a shirt.
We sat and talked with him. I hadn’t seen him since Hot Springs! He told us about the commune and how he got the position through WWOOF. We had beer and food and talked for hours.
At the end of the night we were the last ones on the pavilion. We eventually went to bed and said goodbye to Baloo. It was a GREAT day. Even though it was difficult and uncomfortable at times.
We had told Baloo, a hiker friend I met in Fontana and Miles knew since day 2 who got off trail to work on an commune for a few weeks, that we would be at the brewery that night. The commune he was staying at was supposedly nearby. We weren’t sure he’d gotten our message or if he’d show up. As we left the bathrooms I saw him walking around! “Is that Baloo?!" I yelled. “Hey!!” He yelled with a big smile on his face. I ran over and gave him a hug. He walked with us to get food at the restaurant there.
Eventually we headed outside to the pavilion where Moondrop and Bluegrass were hanging out. We played chess and drank and talked about the trail and our gear. Moondrop’s pack weighed less than 20 pounds! He was doing up to 40 miles in a day, averaging over 25. His pack looked like a school kid’s book bag! He was the definition of Hike Your Own Hike (HYOH). He did what he wanted and he did it well. He hiked in parachord sandals! Incredible!
1. Beer
2. The company of cool hikers
3. Chess!