I was accompanied by my father and one of his co-workers on this outing. It turned out to be a great trip. We left Friday evening and hiked a little over a mile to Byrd\\\'s Nest Shelter 4. Since this was a day use shelter, we had to set up our tents away from it, but we were still able to use the fireplace and picnic table to eat. The next morning we were up early to watch the sunrise. We then hit the trail. Hogback Mountain was the highlight of the day. There are some great vistas off the trail. It is worth noting that the AT has been rerouted so that it does not pass over the Hogback summit. I wanted to touch the summit, so I went off-trail a short ways to the top of the summit and was greeted by various communication towers and buildings. We finished the day down at the Gravel Springs shelter. Again, we sent up tents, since the shelter is for hikers spending three nights or more on the trail. As the shelter name would indicate, there is a spring, but you need to filter. On Sunday, we were on the trail by 9:00am. We went over South and North Mt. Marshall, which provided some great views of Hogback Mountain. The last mountain of the day was Compton. Before heading up this summit, I found some wild apples, which were quite delicious. Compton proved to be challenging, especially after 18 or so miles under our belt. We pressed out, however, and were successful.