Mt. Sterling via Mt. Sterling Gap/Trail

Wow! It's been too long between real hikes in the Appalachian Mtns.! Now I have walked around the house which sits on the edge of some of the bigger foothills of the Appalachian range but not really in the big mountains!
Dave, the hiker guy from Nashville, and I set out on this rainy day for a short, intense hike up the Mt. Sterling Trail from Mt. Sterling Gap, a couple of weeks ago. And we maintained the route though we had to extend it by approx. 4.4 mls because the road was closed at the park boundary which was 2.2 mls. from the trailhead.
This route is difficult in the elevation gained over the short distance covered; Dave, the hiker guy from Nashville, can provide the specific numbers, but it's like 800'/mile traveling in from the trailhead at Mt. Sterling Gap, and is
sometimes a rough and rocky trail.

If someone is needing or wanting to access campsite #38, quickly, it's the route.
However this trail should be approached with some degree of cautious awareness in that it is steep, without much let-up once it starts the incline to it's intersection with the Mt. Sterling ridge and the Benton MacKaye trail.
There were a few vistas even in the heavy foliage of the early summer and water was available along the climb up, though from slow running drainages crossing the trail.
And I assume at the watering hole at #38 but as I was working my way towards that water source (.5 from #38) I saw a bear heading that direction and just decided I'd get some on the way down.
A couple of years ago the Mysterious One and I were sitting on some rocks at the watering hole for site #38, and had a bear just come wandering up for water. We made a quick and safe exit.
Back to the present,  great hike, rain stopped shortly after we began the climb up, and Dave, the hiker guy from Nashville, and I completed the day without injury.