The weather broke my way this past week so I made a dash Tuesday afternoon to spend couple nights and days at Hercules Glades Wilderness.

I got to the Blair Ridge trailhead just before sundown so I made camp on the ridge after just 15 minutes of hiking on the trail. Before the sun had set I had camp set up and a small campfire going. An hour later it was perfectly dark and clear so after dinner I laid back and watched the stars and listened to the forest for a bit before crawling into the hammock.

The next morning I hiked back to the car and dumped some stuff I didn't need and filled a 1 liter container with beer. It was about an even trade off in weight, but my pack was still just over 30lbs. I have some more trimming to do, but I'm getting there...



From there I hiked down into the creek bed in the hollow on the west side of the trail. The hollow is about 2.5 miles long and leads right down to "The Falls" on Long Creek. This time of year there's usually water in the bottoms of a hollow this big and that always makes for an interesting bushwhack.



I wasn't disappointed. The creek had water flowing about half the time with long dry stretches where the water just disappeared under the rock bottoms. There were lots of pools and small falls and several nice sized shelters in the rock ledges above the creek. I took the time to meander and explore around. I found a few good spots to leave a coin under a small stack of rocks and several great places to spend a night or two.










Around 3:00pm I made it to The Falls. I had the entire Wilderness to myself so that's where I decided to spend the night. Had anyone been at The Falls I would have headed back into the hollow from whence I came. I've never spent the night there before. I've always bushwhacked into the forest and slept far from the trails and known campsites. I found my spot on a ledge a little downstream and made camp.



After fiddle-farting all morning, around noon the next day I started up the trail from The Falls back up to the car. I wanted to explore the ridge it follows a bit more so I took it slow and stopped a lot and wondered around where I got the hankering to. Among other spots I found a small grove of Pine and stopped to rest under them for a bit, and a little further on I stopped where there was a unique exposed limestone area on the top of the ridge, just off the trail. It was one of those spots where you can feel something magic. I walked around it looking for the best place to sit, found it, and took my pack off and sat there for awhile to get a feel for the place.



After a bit I saw a day hiker coming down the trail. When I saw him coming I was on my feet getting water and moving around and making noise, the hunter orange blazes on my pack were fluttering in the wind. I waited to make eye contact before saying "Hi" but he had his head down and was steaming towards The Falls. I wasn't more than 20 feet away from him when he zoomed past me. He never even saw me, and he zoomed right by the magic spot and didn't feel a thing.

As I watched him steam on out of sight I knew for sure that it's a magic spot because it made me completely invisible.

From up there Lower Pilot Knob is completely visible to anyone that looks its way. Years ago I stashed an Altoids tin full of coins and other highly valuable stuff way up there. I wondered if it's still there. Probably is, I don't think many people ever get up there and a lot of them might not see it if they did.



By then it was past four o`clock and I remembered I had one icy cold beer left in my car at the trailhead and that provided the inspiration I needed to haul my pack that last half mile back. It was a great couple nights and days, and my timing was perfect too. It's been raining, windy, and cold since I got back.