I think the Three Ridges worked me over while heading north.
The bugs were using the mountains for a base camp so it made the hike that much more fun along with unseasonable warm temp. I was one exausted and bit up hiker when I crashed at the end of that long hard day. Life is good on the trail… Swamp Dawg
Swamp Dawg
“My least favorite sections of trail were those I was forced by earlier choices to hurry along to meet someone or some postal deadline.”
Amen to THAT, Jan!
Courtney, as far as the best place to cheer on hikers? Sounds like Three Ridges and The Roller Coaster are the two most-mentioned in this thread. However, to choose between the two, I believe it would be wiser to choose Three Ridges. Reason? By the time you hit the Roller Coaster, you are almost finished with Virginia. And you are excited to be so close to done with that LONG-ass state. That is often enough to keep you going. Three Ridges, on the other hand, is a punch in the face. “Oh sh*t,” you think. “You mean there are still climbs like THAT between here and New Hampshire?!?!” Though it wasn’t so bad for me (probably due to slackpacking and the all the hype about it), it seems to be a tough one for most.
Perhaps the best way to approach it would be to camp somewhere before it, hype it up telling everyone that it’s the hardest part of the trail, and then it won’t seem so bad to them when they actually do it.
Leki-Less
Best place to do magic around three ridges would be at the Tye River crossing, just before. That way you could dispense a few thousand calories and gatorade to power the hikers up and over that beast. The next best place would be, correct me on this if I get it wrong, Maupin Field Shelter, which is after three ridges. Set up in the clearing where the blue blaze splits off to the shelter itself from the AT. That spot is easily hikable with food from the Blue Ridge Parkway.
scabwalker