AT Thru-Hike Day 57

VA Route 621 (1,538 feet) mile 689.3 to VA Route 624 (1,810 feet) mile 704.5 for a 15.2 mile day! We ascended 3,816 feet and descended 3,517 feet!

Today was a great day, we started into the Virginia Triple Crown!

But first, we climbed, of course, a 1,500 foot climb to the start of the Brush Mountain East Wilderness. We were greeted by the wilderness in the most beautiful way, Mountain Laurel!!!

A few tenths of a mile from the sign marking the Wilderness, we came to another sign, this one marking the Audie Murphy Monument.

Audie Murphy was America’s most decorated WWII veteran who died In a plane crash not far from this memorial site. He was a military hero, a actor, and worked for the Civil Air Patrol. He died here in 1971 and in 1974 they erected this monument along the AT near the crash site.

We headed back down hill to Trout Creek, once we arrived there, we sat and had a quick snack and drank some water. We also found a trash can here that was put out by a local man and emptied by him as well! We finished up our snack and headed across the bridge to start a climb up to Dragons Tooth! Just about the time we got going good up hill, I heard a truck coming, so I stopped to check it out, and wouldn’t you now it, it was exactly who I thought it would be, the Salty Express!!! We dropped our packs and went down to sit with them a bit and eat some of their snacks and donuts they had brought.

After loading up on calories, we climbed the mountain and burned them all immediately! This climb was a beast. Virginia has definitely got its share of climbs, all those that said it was flat and easy to get big miles, well, not for this guy!! We did manage to pass the 700 mile mark today! It’s always exciting to hit these milestones. We have gotten to where we can hit the next 100 mile mark every Monday, which we feel is a great accomplishment.

Finally getting to the top, I doubted myself multiple times climbing this, we enjoyed some views down the blue blaze which lead to the Dragons Tooth, the first of Triple Crown Sites.