It was still cold this morning, but it definitely felt warmer than yesterday. CareFree and I were able to take advantage of that (and our 6 am alarm) and our need to hike 17 miles today to the Mudhole Gap Campground to get started shortly before 8 am.
It was a short, but steep, climb back up to the ridge of Short Mountain. Once on the ridge, we left behind the shelter of the side of the mountain, and the wind from the west returned. I took a quick look around the area, and it didn’t seem like there were any additional fallen trees, so we probably would have been safe had we camped on the ridge last night, but it definitely would have been cold and windy, and we were quite glad we camped downhill.
Shortly after we returned to the ridge, I found my water bottle was missing. I was tempted to just leave it, but we had only just started and losing that water could be problematic for the day. I went back to look for it, assuming it was somewhere on the steep ascent up from our camp. Fortunately, I didn’t have to go all that far: I found it on the trail only a short walk back.
With it warmer than it had been yesterday, we made reasonably good time heading north along the ridge. The snow that had accumulated yesterday afternoon was all gone, and we continued to have reasonably good views as we made our way north.
Just before beginning our descent to Edinburg Gap, we took a very short detour to a rock outcrop that gave us one of our best views east of the day, with Edinburg Gap, Kennedy Peak, and the ridge of Shenandoah National Park visible in the distance.
Descending off the ridge, we found a nice blue knitted hat, and a biker’s glove. We picked them up and deposited them on the sign for the trailhead, just before we rejoined FR 374. As we were approaching the road, we passed enough flat areas that it looked like we could easily have camped here yesterday, if we’d had time enough to make it there.
A short jaunt down FR 374 brought us to Edinburg Gap Road, and we crossed the road and headed up the trail, briefly stopping for a snack and to retrieve our last water cache. (The other cache we saw when planting ours was still there.) Fortunately, despite the cold weather last night, this cache seemed to be entirely liquid, which boded well for the water still in my car.
Our only steep climb of the day was from Edinburg Gap up to near the summit of Waonaze Peak, on the south end of Powell Mountain. On our way up, the sun came out and the wind, at least for the time being, died down. In the distance, we could hear motorbikes. It was a nice hike up, though the trail unfortunately skipped actually going over the summit, and with still a long day ahead, I wasn’t terribly interested in bushwhacking to the true summit.
A short while later, we reached the ridge along Powell Mountain, which started off with a view to the west, before switching over to the east side of the ridge with not very much of a view. At least, the haze or smoke in the air that we saw when we were dropping off our water caches seemed to be cleared out; the views west were sharp and crisp.
This portion of trail was generally pretty nice to hike, and not very rugged, and we made good time. It was almost like my legs finally remembered what they were supposed to be doing. We still couldn’t see them, but we could hear motorbikes on the trails on the side of Green Mountain, the next ridge to the east.
Later, the trail switched over to the western side of the ridge, and the wind immediately picked up. In exchange, we got occasional views of the incredibly-bendy North Fork Shenandoah River. The best views came from a hang glider launch clearing just below Woodstock Tower, a fire tower with an open viewing platform located atop the ridge.
We could have gone up to the tower and taken in an even better view, but given we were still racing the sun to the Mudhole Gap Campground, still a couple hours away, we opted to instead come back tomorrow, after we finish the trail, on our way to clean up our caches. (There’s a road up both sides of the mountain that provides access to the tower, and the hang glider launch.)
Crossing the road, the ridge became Three Top Mountain, and we continued along the western side of the ridge, which was quite frustrating since we wanted to stop for a break, but not somewhere the wind was going to blow on us and give us a chill. Eventually, we found a place where the trail almost reached the ridge, and just left the trail, climbed over the ridge, and sat down a few feed below the ridge, out of the wind.
Shortly after our break, the trail returned to the eastern side of the ridge, and another hour later, reached a junction with the Tuscarora Trail, which followed the ridge from further north, heading south. At the junction, the Tuscarora heads west, down the mountain, across Shenandoah Valley, and up to Great North Mountain.
From the junction, the Massanutten Trail drops down the east side of the mountain, heading towards a valley between Three Top and Green mountains. The descent was longer than I recalled it being from when departed the Tuscarora for Mudhole Gap, but at least this time, we wouldn’t have to climb back up to the ridge.
The hiking day ended with a brisk walk along a gravel road, past a couple of parking areas (one occupied with a few cars and people camping), a piped spring, and a gate, to the Mudhole Gap Campground, a large open area with a few pine trees. Sunset was just a few minutes after we arrived. We picked a nice site underneath one of the pines, and CareFree set up our tent while I doubled back to get water from the pipe, which was practically gushing.
The bear hang was a fiasco. It didn’t take too many throws, but securing it afterwards was unusually difficult for some reason. And then I found extra food in the tent that didn’t make it into the Ursack, and I had to un-secure it and re-secure it, which felt like it took even longer. (Oh, and my headlamp also ran out of power, but fortunately that happened before I got out of the tent to hang the Ursack, so I was able to borrow CareFree’s without having to wander across a field in the dark.)
A few hours after sunset, rain blew in on a sudden gust of wind, and just as quickly, blew out.
But, at least our longest day on the Massanutten Trail is done, and we’ll be finished tomorrow!