We got up at 7 AM, determined to start the day early and get some good mileage. We packed up quickly and started our hike at 7:45. We had a 1 mile easy down to US 58, but after that is when the climb started. It was a whopping 4 miles up to Buzzard Rock, and it wasn’t gonna be easy.

The climb started off alright. and we were able to make good time to VA 601, but from there it got really steep. We were getting really exhausted as we went up, but luckily for me it wasn’t a downhill, because steep downhill’s really killed my feet. On the way up we went through a few cow pastures and there was dung everywhere. I had to really watch my step because a lot of it was somewhat fresh. We had finally reached mile 491.2 (0.3 miles from the top) at around 10:30 AM, but thats when things got bad. We only had around a quarter of a mile left, but it was a really steep up. And to add on to that, there were steps, each about a foot higher than the last one. We reached Buzzard Rock at 11, and we met two day hikers there. We sat at the top for a while and ate some trail mix and took rest.

After the Buzzard Rock it was a pretty easy hike to VA 600, where we stopped and had some tuna and naan for lunch. It was a pretty busy road, but we were surprised to see that there was no service. We couldn’t check the weather, but we were pretty sure it was going to rain, so we had to move fast to make it to a shelter. After a couple miles of hiking we got to a spot where there was some signal, so we checked the weather and saw it was going to rain. In a few miles, we reached Mount Rogers side trail, which takes us up to the summit, but we decided to skip it. At Mount Rogers shelter we stopped and took rest and had a Snicker Bar. Our goal was to make it to Old Orchard Shelter which was about 11 miles ahead.

The hike was pretty easy from there and I for one enjoyed it since it was a break from all the steep ups and downs. We reached the shelter at about 7 PM and had lentil rice for dinner. There were a few others at the shelter, but they had all put up hammocks, so we had it all to ourselves. We set up our mats after dinner, and went to sleep at about 8:30.