Zero Day in Damascus

Day Four
October 3, 2013
Zero Day in Damascus

The Comfort Inn had a very nice continental breakfast which we enjoyed very much.  Then we waited outside for our shuttle.  Nigel Collins from Fort Bastian arrived promptly at 10:30 and drove us to our car parked at Grayson Highlands State Park.  He is a “True Brit” and we enjoyed talking with him.

We drove our car to Damascus back down the winding Music Trail road.  On the way, we found a couple of loaded apple trees beside the road and raided them.  We wanted to take a few home to make apple butter (which we did and it turned out very well). 

First stop was Mt. Roger’s Outfitters to line up a shuttle for tomorrow morning back to Grayson Highlands State Park to hike south this time.  We had booked Ruby’s Rest for the night, so we went there to check in.  Jeff and Nicky Buckley were very hospitable hosts.  Their accommodations for hikers were a little cottage in back of their house.  It was nicely furnished and had LOTS of books!  We appreciated the coffee and pot the next morning.    

We enjoyed eating lunch on the porch of In the Country Eatery and Bakery.  There were lots of bicyclers coming and going on the Creeper Trail which ran in front of the restaurant. It was a beautiful day for bike riding.  Damascus is in a great location for The Creeper Trail. 

Dairy King was our choice for dinner.  They have some good home-cooked meals.  Then back to Ruby’s Rest for the night.

 

VA 601 to Rural Retreat, VA

Day Three
October 2, 2013
VA 601 to Rural Retreat, VA
15.6 miles

Partnership Shelter

We left camp at 7:30 a.m.  Although it was a very nice, level walk through a rhododendron alley, I started thinking about how bad my feet hurt and how heavy my pack was.  I was moping along not having a very good time.  Two nights with not much sleep didn't help any.  We hiked for 4 miles before reaching Partnership Shelter.  I told Wait-up I wanted to call our shuttle driver to see if he could come pick us up at Mt. Rogers headquarters so we could quit for the day.  He reluctantly agreed.  We called True Brit (Nigel) from Fort Bastian, but he was unable to come.  I guess it is a good thing because I probably would not have started back.  The heavy load was killing me and my feet had been burning every day. 

We had no choice but to keep going though. 

Partnership Shelter is a popular shelter for thru-hikers because it is one of the few to have a shower.  The water heater is propane-powered and is available during warmer months.   The Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area headquarters is located  just a few hundred yards north of the shelter. We found it closed due to the government shut-down.  Even the restrooms were locked.  We looked through the door and saw a soda machine beckoning to us.  Waah!  Sure would have been nice.    

Partnership Shelter Shower

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Partnership Shelter bathroom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the deer?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chatfield Shelter

Past USFS 86, we started climbing Glade Mountain through a very narrow trail of Mountain Laurel and soon came to Chatfield Shelter where we chatted with a couple of day-hikers who were hiking the Rhododendron Trail. 

We were concerned to see that someone had left a pile of dog food on a stump in front of the shelter.  Probably won't be long before the bears find it and start hanging around this shelter.   

 

 

 

 

Resting in the yard of the Settler's Museum.

 

 
  At Highway 615, the trail comes out along the fenceline of the  Settlers Museum.  I visited the old one-room schoolhouse, which was in operation from 1894 to 1937.  It still had all the furnishings in it.  Outside I stole a few apples off the apple tree in the yard. 

One-room schoolhouse at the Settler's Museum.

As Wait-up was sitting on the grass waiting for me to finish visiting the schoolhouse, he heard a big boom and saw a big ball of smoke down below.  As I walked outside he said, “Something really bad just happened down there.”  We heard several more booms and saw more smoke.  When we got into town later we found out that there was a bad accident on the interstate involving a fuel-tanker and a couple other vehicles.  We saw a life-flight helicopter and ambulances  and all the traffic was diverted off the interstate to go through the little town of Rural Retreat.

One-room schoolhouse at the Setter's Museum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

The privy in back of the schoolhouse
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on the trail, it was downhill from the museum to town.  We walked through old farm land and grassy pastures.  We helped ourselves to a few apples from the old apple trees and kept on walking down.  At 5:00 p.m. we reached the highway  and found ourselves looking right down on the accident site.  Traffic was backed up quite a way trying to get onto the two-lane road.  We walked over to the filling station to try to get a ride into Atkins.  We had been advised not to stay at the hotel in Rural Retreat.  We saw The Barn Restaurant, but didn’t want to walk the short distance to get to it, so we sat on a bench in front of the station and asked folks as they came by if they were going to Atkins.  A gentleman who worked at the station agreed to take us for $20, but he wanted to wait awhile to see if the traffic let up some. We didn’t think it was going to get any better anytime soon, so we continued to ask.   Finally a nice young man agreed to let us ride with him, he was getting off work and he lived in Atkins.  Plus, he knew the back roads and we didn’t have to be detained by the traffic at all.  In a short while we were in Atkins at the Comfort Inn.  This time we used a coupon this time from a coupon book that we had picked up at the gas station.  It was $10 cheaper than our first night here, but we got two double beds so I think it would have been the same as the hiker rate for a king size. 

We had a great hamburger at Atkins Tank restaurant located inside the Exxon Station and then retired for the night at the Comfort Inn.  

 

Grayson Highlands State Park to Hurricane Mountain

 

Day One
September 30, 2013
Grayson Highlands State Park (Massie Gap) to Stealth Camp near Hurricane Campground Trail
14.5 miles

 

Last night we stayed at the Comfort Inn in Atkins, Virginia.  We asked for the hiker rate and got a king size bed for a good price.  They have a wonderful breakfast which got us off to a good start this morning. 

We drove down to Grayson Highlands State Park and left our car in the overnight parking area.  At 8:10 a.m., we took the AT access trail a half mile up to join the AT, then headed north.
 Soon we began to see signs saying that Wise Shelter was closed due to aggressive bear activity.  We had heard this before we came on the trail and this was one reason we decided to split our section up the way we are doing—going north from Grayson, then south from Grayson, so we won’t have to camp in the area where the aggressive bear is.  We heard stories that the bear had stolen one guys backpack while he was in the privy and he didn’t get it back.  So we were happy to keep on going when we got to Wise Shelter.  We would be far out of the area before we need to camp for the night. 

It was a wide, rocky trail for a good long distance.  It was hard walking on a trail completely covered with rocks.  We didn’t make real good time. 

We were quite surprised when we came across some long-horn cattle grazing on the trail at the intersection with Scales Trail.  We learned later that the cattle belong to private farmers who lease grazing rights in the state park.  Evidently, we were so enthralled with the cattle, taking pictures and all that we took the wrong trail because soon we saw a sign that said AT “that-a-way, 1 mile”.  Oops.  It was a little unnerving walking through the woods without a white blaze to guide us until we reached the AT again.  We were on the Bearpen Trail.  Soon we were back on the AT.  Luckily it had a sign with north and south indicated, or we might have turned the wrong way again.

 

 

We were fortunate though to see our first feral ponies on the Bearpen Trail.  They were beautiful.  One of them followed us along the trail for a little while, wanting some food I’m sure.  Grayson Highlands is famous for the feral ponies and we have been looking forward to seeing them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Scales Pasture

Before long we could see below us a big pasture with a fence around it and a camper and some out buildings.  The trail ran right through the fenced-in pasture.  As we headed toward the stile to enter the pasture, there was a big bull between us and  it and a man on the inside of the pasture waiting to come out.  He said, “I sure am glad to see you folks come up right now, I don’t want to go out with that bull out there.”  We just walked right on by the bull and went through the stile.  Then the gentleman went out because by this time the bull had moved away.  I guess he had not encountered any steer on the north side of the Scales, but we had seen plenty of them already. 

Going into the Scales Pasture.  See the White Blaze?

The sign inside the pasture informed us that the Scales is a place where in the 1900s ranchers brought their cattle to weigh them before taking them down the mountain to sell.  They weighed more at the top of the mountain than they did at the bottom—seriously!  That way, they got more money for their cattle.  Today the area is used for camping and horseback riding. 

 

Inside the Scales pasture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall colors, beautiful scenery.







 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Our high point today was Pine Mountain at 5,000 feet, but the climb started at 4300 feet at Big Wilson Creek so it wasn’t too bad a climb. 

 

We walked until 6:30.  I was thoroughly exhausted, my pack was heavy and my feet hurt.  Somewhere around Hurricane Campground Trail we found some trees to hang our new hammocks for the first time on the trail.  Luckily, it didn’t have to be level ground, because it was not level.  We hung the head of our hammocks from the same tree so I would feel more secure (close to someone).  It was dark by the time we got set up and ate so we climbed in and tried to go to sleep.  It was a fitful sleep for both of us—I don’t think we have the hang just right.  But—no bears!  Yay!

We made it through our first night hammock camping.   

One of my favorite pictures of the trail.



Can't count the number of wildernesses we have been through!

Break on top of Pine Mountain.



First hammock hang on the trail.