VA Appalachian Trail - Section 2 - Keys Gap to Snickers Gap

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
10/17/2018	14 miles	7 hours 19 minutes	2,382'	31:29
10/17/2018	0.6 miles	29 minutes	55'	33:17

Map: Appalachian Trail Guide Maryland and Northern Virginia
Parking: Hike 1: Snickers Gap, Keys Gap (north parking). Hike 2: Keys Gap (south parking), Keys Gap (north parking)
Directions: Hike 1: Snickers Gap to Keys Gap (north parking). Hike 2: Keys Gap (south parking) to Keys Gap (north parking).

In the morning Glen and I each drive our cars to the end point of our hike. Today, Glen drove to the wrong parking area, delaying our start by 1/2 hour. It's easy to get confused when we bounce around sections so much, as well as the fact that some days we hike northbound and some days we hike southbound. We had considered splitting this into 2 days because its a long hike & my body is tired. But today's elevation gain isn't as bad as the day we did the rollercoaster. Oops - the first 3-4 miles today are still part of the rollercoaster. After that the hike should have more gradual hills.

We had read that crossing route 7 was challenging and dangerous, especially in the morning. So instead of starting at the commuter lot on the south side of route 7 (where we ended before), we parked in the parking lot on the north side of route 7, so we could temporarily skip the road crossing. Despite my legs being shot, I started off feeling reasonably well. I decided to focus on my nutrition - eating and drinking, in order to try to prevent bonking. I forced myself to drink water every hour and eat every 2 hours or less.

The rollercoaster section was still pretty rocky. After it ended, we got mostly better terrain - it reminded me of Harriman State Park, with open woods and some rocks. Trek was off leash most of the day. I stepped on his foot pretty hard in the parking lot. Poor Trek. No wonder he has arthritis in one of his toe joints. My hips and knees hurt by the end of today's hike. Glen was going strong. Glen stayed in front all day, but didn't get too far ahead. I wanted to make sure Trek didn't run a crazy number of miles going between the two of us.

We saw very few hikers today. We did take a few side trails to views - near the Blackburn Trail Center and Buzzard Rock. We passed a sign for the West Virginia/Virginia border, but we wouldn't be done with West Virginia until we finished today's hike. West Virginia is only around 4 miles of the AT, but you have to hike more miles to finish it, because the AT bounces back and forth between Virginia and West Virginia. We had great weather today - sunny, cool, windy, and dry. We saw lots of deer - Trek is a really good dog - never chasing them. Glen was looking out for bears, since we are close to Shenandoah Park, he figured our chances of seeing one is pretty good. But we didn't. After doing hike #1, we parked one car on each side of Route 7, and did that crossing. Glen didn't want to skip even a road crossing :) Luckily there is a median, so you can run halfway across the road and then wait for a break in traffic to get across the other side. Once we did that, we finished West Virginia! Our goal was to finish 1 state on the AT this year, which we've now done. 7 states completed, 7 to go! There was a beautiful sunset today - driving around here its just so pretty. Tomorrow we'll be back to Shenandoah National Park. Tonight - Indian leftovers for dinner for me.

Interesting bark

Finished with the rollercoaster!