Adventures in Stupidity: Humpback Rocks to AT 7/13/13

We headed up to I64 exit 99 today and onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. Destination: Humpback Rocks.

We pulled into the Humpback Rocks Visitor's Center, looked around in the shop for a few minutes, and then started down the farm path to see the old farm buildings.

All of these buildings were brought here in the 1950's and rebuilt to show the way farms in this area were run in the 1800's.

There is a quaint rock wall between the trail and one of the buildings, and in it was this sign. Needless to say I stuck to the far side of the trail.

After the end of the farm buildings, the trail continues through a fence, across the Blue Ridge Parkway, and into a parking lot at milepost 6. The trail heads right straight up from the parking area. And I do mean up.

It's only a mile from the parking lot to the top, but the elevation gain is @800 feet in that mile. Parts of it are incredibly steep. It's also a very busy trail.

People. There were a lot of them in this part.

There were lots of interesting rocks, rills, etc. Dave decided to stand on this rock for a photo, and by the time I walked ahead, turned the camera on, and turned around, he had fallen on his butt and hopped quickly back up.

Oh goody, more up. Wooden steps for this part.

When I got to the top I turned and looked back down. I was dreading going back down those puppies.

Oh goody, more up. This time on rocks. Well, we're pretty good at that after Mt. Rogers last weekend.

There is a cave, but the trail didn't go through it.

It was fairly cool today (70's on the mountain) but the humidity was high, and we sweated like we were in a sauna.

More rocks.

Hey look! We're near the top, and there's the marker for the turn to the AT--but first we're going out to the rocks themselves.

Looks like we're about there.

Oh boy! What a pretty view.

Then you walk out and see that they're really just two sheer, huge rocks. And there are people...climbing up and sitting and standing on top of these rocks. Which are 3000 feet above the valley floor below.

These people are crazy.

Oh look. My husband is also crazy.

I like it here. I think I'll stay right here and take his picture.

Fine, he talked me into coming up. Here's a close up of him over the valley.

And since I'm here, may as well climb a little farther and get one of me. Better believe I was watching my feet when I got out there, not looking out at the view.

I love the clouds coming over the mountains.

He convinced me to stand up. I'm only marginally terrified.

More clouds.

Then he climbed up the other rock.

After he was done climbing around, we stopped for a few minutes and ate our lunches, then headed back up to the trail junction.

We headed up the AT north toward Waynesboro. In 2.7 miles, the blue blazed trail for the Humpback Rocks parking area splits off.

This spring had a sign reminding people that all kinds of animals contaminate the water and it always needs to be purified. Right before this, we saw one of those animals--a black bear that moved too fast for me to get to my camera.

Going this way, we only saw two people the whole time.

2.7 miles down this way was MUCH easier and less steep. It was a much better trail.

Right around this point, though, I was starting to worry that we were doing something terribly wong/the trail directions I'd read were wrong/something horrible was going to happen. I felt like we'd gone farther than we should have without meeting the branch trail. I was expecting to end up in New Hampshire.