Anyway, I did this the day after the Wild Oak Trail on the other side of the valley and was looking forward to another day on the trails. As I woke up that morning it was raining hard and I was mentally preparing for a soaking slog. Luckily it tapered off and stopped by the time I reached the trailhead, and the drive from I-81 along the winding Highway 56 to the trailhead was quite lovely. The route largely overlaps with the AT, with Three Ridges as a loop including the Mau-Har Trail, then The Priest as an out and back. The trail starts by crossing the Tye River, swollen from the recently stopped rain. It has a very deluxe bridge, which was much appreciated. At the end of the day I saw a group of kayakers in the parking lot, I guess they wait for these rains then rush out to the river to have fun. By the time I started the skies were nearly clear and it was fantastic hiking weather. After a climb and reaching the junction of the AT and Mau-Har Trail you have a short descent where the trail crosses Harpers Creek. I didn't feel like spending a lot of time looking for a good way to cross and didn't want to risk hopping on slippery rocks and falling on my ass anyway, so I just walked through, which then happened several more times that day at other crossings.
From there it's a steady climb up to the high point of the route. There are several excellent viewpoints and the trail is in good shape, with just enough rocks here and there to keep things interesting. A spot with some big boulders just off the trail required a few minutes to play on. Fall colors in this area weren't quite as intense as on the Wild Oak Trail, but were still very nice and there was probably more vegetation variety. Even outside of the major viewpoints you could often see to one side of the ridge or the other, which was a bonus. I worked to keep a steady pace on the climb, which felt pretty good. The descent is about the same grade as the climb, and while it doesn't have as many standout moments it's still very pleasant and has an excellent viewpoint back towards The Priest. Shortly after this I reached the junction of the AT, Mau-Har Trail, and a fire road, which is an established campsite with a shelter and even a pit toilet (so fancy!). Up to this point I had seen one trio and a two solo hikers, from here it got slightly more crowded with several solo hikers and two groups of 8+ people. Still pretty good for a weekend!
At the junction the Mau-Har trail descends and follows Campbell Creek for the next couple miles. The previous climbs and views were great, but this was one of my favorite sections of the whole route because the nice fall colors combined with the creek swollen from fresh rain. It seems like every few minutes I would stop to appreciate a nice little fall, pool, or ephemeral feeder stream, as they all collected and the creek grew in flow as you descend. It felt almost like a rain forest! In this section I also passed a large group that I would guess were Boy Scouts. I try to keep my snobbish tendencies in check (and /r/ultralight would not be kind to my typical setup), but was somewhat baffled by the giant size of their (matching!) packs, not to mention they were all wearing pretty old school style boots. They were bunched up at a small stream crossing carefully to keep their feet dry and I couldn't help but laugh at the mental image of the "deal with it" glasses sliding into frame on my face as I walked right through the water in front of them without slowing down. The trail here is fairly rocky and requires your attention, but the whole thing was very pleasant. After a bit more of this you sadly have to leave the creek and climb up over a minor ridge in order to rejoin the AT and get back to the parking lot. In this section I saw my first black bear in a while, it was about 50 yards ahead of me and bolted up the slope away from me in typical black bear fashion.
Back at the parking lot I sat down for a few minutes to refill water and have quick snack, then started the climb up The Priest. Not much to say about this part honestly, it was pretty uneventful. The attraction is that it's a sustained 3,000ft climb in 4mi, which is quite rare for the area. Other than that there is one nice view and not much else along the way besides a steady grind. The summit is a small pile of rocks on a flattened hilltop among some trees, so no real views from there. There is a shelter just past the summit, but I made a quick turnaround and started back for the trailhead. Shortly after heading down I saw my first and only person on this section of the trail, another solo hiker I had seen earlier on the Mau-Har Trail. Back at the trailhead I regretted not planning my food better because I didn't have any snacks waiting for me in the car and soon discovered the nearest Wawa on my drive home was over 2 hours away!
Aside from my knee bothering me on the downhills because I hit a deer on my bike at the beginning of the week and it clearly hadn't fully recovered, it was a lovely day. I see why Three Ridges is a popular hike! The Priest was a bit of a dud unless you just want a workout, but Three Ridges quickly became one of my favorite routes so far in VA. I'd love to go back in different seasons and if I'm after vert I'd probably just do it twice and skip The Priest because while it would have more mileage it's much more pleasant and has more varied terrain. On the drive home I saw my second black bear of the day just momentarily on the shoulder of the road as it ducked under the guardrail and ran into the vegetation.
Stats: 22.4mi, 6,900ft gain loss per GaiaGPS, probably more like 7,400ft per everyone else, 8hr50m.
