Mother Nature doesn't always approve of your plan.

The "PLAN" today was to slack-pack from Hog Camp Gap south to US 60, over Cold and Bald Mountains.  Well, Mother Nature apparently didn't like our plan.  It was raining this morning in Harrisonburg at our Trail Angel's house, but accuweather.com said that the rain near Buena Vista, where we were going to hike today was supposed to end around 10am.  Well, accuweather.com wasn't very accurate today.  As we made our way down to Buena Vista/Hog Camp Gap the rain changed to a rain sleet mix, and then once we got onto the side road heading up to Hog Camp Gap it became full-on snow.  By the time we made it up to the gap there was 2-3 inches of snow on the ground.


We decided to head out and hike the 6 miles from Hog Camp Gap to US 60.  We made it down the trail approximately 1/2 mile when we decided we needed to turn around and head back to the car.  The snow depth had increased to approximately 4 inches and it was still coming down heavy.  Up on top of Cold and Bald Mountains at 4000ft elevation the snow was probably 6 inches.  To continue up and over Cold and Bald Mountains safely we would need our micro-spikes, mine were in the car, Mom's were at the house and our friend/trail angel Deb didn't have any.  I made the call for us to turn around and do the hike tomorrow with proper gear.

We made it safely back to our car and Harrisonburg.  We were able to find one of the last pairs of YakTrax in the surrounding areas here in Harrisonburg tonight, so we are all good to go for tomorrow.

Look who we happened upon while we were out on the trail...FROSTY!!!

So goes life on the trail.  Some days it just isn't meant to be.  Tomorrow we will be back at it, with all the proper gear needed.  Better safe than sorry.