June 25, 2016 Day 59 Thunder Ridge Overlook to Saltlog Gap
48,329 steps Total Steps 1,928,787
21.1 miles Mile 792.2
Today, I had the biggest scare I think I’ve had in my adult life. I was shaking for minutes afterward and still feel the nerves jolting through me when I think about it. There I was making good time walking at a decent pace, looking around and enjoying the scenery. I would look down on occasion to make sure I wasn’t stepping on any rocks or anything. Well, at one point, I look down, really pushing hard and I notice something very large on the trail and then I hear it – the sound of a rattlesnake rattling, warning me not to get any closer. By the time I realized it was there to when I yelled and ran backward was a split second, but it seemed too long to me. I was about 18” in front of this giant snake’s head. One more step and it would have struck. This thing was massive! It had the length of an adult Black Rat snake and the girth of a Python. I was estimating 5 feel long and 3” in diameter. I’ve seen 3 rattlesnakes out in the wild, but the size of this one trumps them all. The sound of the rattle was quieter than expected. Ziploc heard it from about 20 feet behind me, but didn’t know what it was until I screamed and ran towards him. It honestly sounded like a mild locust, so any sort of stream or breeze might prevent you from hearing it. I already saw a 5 foot black snake earlier in the day. I didn’t need to see that! Anyway, after gathering myself, Ziploc and I went high up in the weeds a far from this thing as we could in order to pass it. It had moved into the shrubs next to the trail, but was waiting in strike position. This will probably haunt my dreams for a while. The rest of the day I made Ziploc lead and at camp I was scared about going off the trail to our hammock trees. I may never trust the woods again.
Anyway, shortly after this terrible encounter, we crossed the James River on the longest foot – only bridge on the AT. The James River was clearly flooded from all the rain the past 2 days. On the other side, we began our 3 mile steep uphill climb to nearly end our day. This mountain was a beast that took away nearly all my energy. The best views were from a small plateau 2 miles up that overlooked the James River Valley. Gemini and Flow were at the viewpoint as well. We haven’t seen them in over a month, so it’s cool passing people we already know. The last mile was even more difficult than the two before. The elevation profile of this mountain is like the Superman roller coaster, where the higher you get, the steeper it gets. But we made it up and hiked a few more miles to our camp. We were amazed that we were still able to maintain a 3 mph pace at the end despite being drained by Mt. Everest. Oh, by the way, we nicknamed this giant that because it seemed appropriate.
