Blake got home from work around 7:30 and we started to get ready to head to the mountains. We talked the night before about possibly hiking The Priest, I was very hesitant though given what happened during our last attempt. The weather was horrible, cold, windy, rainy etc. We knew the fall colors are at full peek but also knew we wouldn’t be able to get good pictures. We decided to go anyways and hope for the best.
Normally on the way to the trail, lately we have been stopping at Bojangles for breakfast. We decided we wanted something different and Blake suggested Salt and Forge in Richmond. I gave them a call when we were about 25 minutes out and was told they now do online ordering and to please place the order online. I ordered and we arrived about 15 minutes later. I went inside and was told the order was not printed yet and it would be about 30-45 more minutes. This was disappointing because we wanted to get to the hike but we waited and as always the food was delicious. Taylor finished off about half of my sandwich; the girl can eat!
We arrive to the trailhead around 12:45, a lot later than we wanted to. We got Taylor ready, began recording our hike on AllTrails and headed towards the trailhead. We began our hike at 12:52pm. The weather was terrible, cold, completely in the clouds, wet, raining off and on.
The Priest
- Location: Nelson County, VA (Crabtree Falls Hwy.)
- Distance: 8.66
- Trail Type: Out and Back
- Elevation Gain: 3,117 feet
- Trail: Appalachian Trail
- Moving time: 4:59:21 (UNDER 5 hours!!!!!!!)
- Weather: Base of mountain: 55 degrees, Summit: 47 degrees
- Terrain: Rocks, large rocks, rocks covered with leaves, roots, and wet/slippery
Right away the hike started out steep, not as steep as I remembered from the first time but steep. We made it to the point where we turned around last time and I was feeling good and didn’t want to stop.
We hiked along Cripple Creek for a little bit and it turned into a small waterfall. I say small because I have not been able to find a name. The waterfall is larger than some of the others we have hiked to.
We get to the creek crossing and due to all of the rain it had a very nice flow to it.
We make our way across the creek and continue ascending the mountain. The elevation and terrain are no joke. The terrain is terrible and made the hike even harder. The leaves covered the rocks and we kept tripping on the wet rocks. Large and small rocks and roots everywhere and it was hard to skip any of them. Blake fell once and I slipped a couple of times. I slipped on a root once and almost did the splits.
At 3:03 we made it to the outcropping and had the most spectacular views………
NOT!!!!! No views at all, we were completely in a cloud. We stayed here for a few minutes, had a waffle and some Gatorade. We talked about if we should turn around at this point. Already being after 3:00 pm we knew we had at least another hour and a half to go on our ascent and we forgot our headlamps. It was also raining pretty steadily at this point. We decided to keep on going and see how it goes.
The AllTrails reviews talk about the last push to the summit being a grind. We thought we made it to that “last push” but we were very wrong. The terrain got worse, the elevation and grade got steeper and steeper, still a series a switchbacks but not like the ones on the beginning of the trail. The reviews also talk about the lack of a marker at the summit. This is disappointing, especially since this is a well known hike within the hiking community.
4:39, we made it to the summit!!!! I was happy, proud, emotional because this is one of the hardest hikes we have done, especially since the onset of my medical issues. I was also proud of Blake because he does these hikes with Taylor on his back and that is no joke especially with an elevation gain like The Priest.
We take some pictures at the summit and head back to the base. We knew that we were running out of sunlight. With the calculations we made, if we got to the car by 6:45 we should be okay on light. We were on the backside of the mountain which means it was going to get darker quicker but we would have enough residual light to get back to the car safely. This would be that our entire descent would have to be under 2 hours.
Descending the mounting is a lot easier but harder at the same time. We had to be very careful because of all the momentum gain combined with the slippery rocks and roots.
I paused for a moment to take a couple pictures of the red leaves. About the only fall foliage we could see.
The hike through the forest back to the car was more in the clouds and provided a feeling of being in a horror movie.
We made it back to the creek crossing and this time the cloud coverage made for majestic shots.
I snapped a photo of Blake and Taylor with the AT blaze to add it to our collection.
We had spotty cell coverage along the trail and one of the times we did, Blake snapped a picture of him and Taylor to send to his brother Ty, letting him know that we summited The Priest!
We did it! We made it back to the trailhead at 6:35, 10 minutes earlier that we calculated, another accomplishment.
We got back to the car and loaded everything up and both drank a bunch of Gatorade. We were trying to think of a place for dinner and figured Blue Mountain Brewery would be busy due to the rain and everyone wanting indoor seating. We talked about a restaurant at Zion Crossroads but decided against it because it was about 45 minutes away and we didn’t want Taylor to fall asleep and have to quickly wake her up.
We passed 2 local restaurants that had a lot of cars and figured with the amount of cars they had to be good. One being a Mexican restaurant and one an Italian restaurant. We chose the Italian restaurant – Giuseppes Ristorante Italiano. Blake and I split the pasta trio (lasagna, chicken parm. and fettuccini alfredo) and Taylor had some butter noodles. The food came out and as was delicious. We both had dessert, Blake a chocolate mousse cake and I had limoncello cake. Taylor ate over half of my cake and a lot of Blakes.
After a tasty dinner, we headed home feeling very accomplished!
Nic of Time - Travel 