Campsite to Damascus - our first 20 mile day!!

Day Six
October 5, 2013
Buzzard Rock to Damascus
20 miles

Another fitful night for us in the hammocks.  We just don’t have it down-pat yet but will keep working on getting it right so that we can enjoy our sleep.  What is nice about the hammocks is that there are no pressure points causing pain like there is on a sleeping pad. 

The hike this morning was through some beautiful country.  Lots of pastureland again, some common cows and bulls, streams and rhodo thickets.  Not hard at all. 

 

The plan was for two more days of hiking, but sometime during the morning I got to thinking about trying to make it out today.  So as we were hunched beside a small stream getting water, I said to Wait-up, “If we could do 20 miles today, would we make it to Damascus?”  Ummm, he looked at me as if I had lost my mind.  But he started figuring and said, “Yes, it will be just about exactly 20 miles.”  I said, “Let’s do it.”  So we did!

Thru-hikers like to talk about their first 20-mile day.   Most of them build up their stamina and can get to the point that most of their days are 20-milers, but not us! We have to start over building up our stamina every time we do a section.  Today seemed like a good day to try it though since we had been doing several 15 miles days and lived through them.  Plus, the terrain is pretty moderate in this area most of it
being in the 2,000 and 3,000 ft range.  My feet had gotten to where they were hurting most of the time now, so I took some Advil and kept on trucking. 

Our highest point today was Straight Mountain at 3500 feet.  One interesting thing there was that there were two entrances to Saunders Shelter which was off the trail about 1/4 of a mile.  You could access it from the north or the south and didn't have to backtrack to get back to the trail.  That is unusual as far as we know.     

One of the Creeper Trail bridges

Ten miles north of Damascus, we joined the Virginia Creeper Trail for a short distance.  This trail stretches 33 miles along an old railroad bed from Abingdon to the Virginia-North Carolina state line.  It began as a native-American footpath.  Later, it was used by pioneers, including Daniel Boone, and beginning in the early 1900s, by a mountain railroad.  It has 100 trestles and bridges.   The AT crosses one trestle with the Creeper Trail, then goes back up the side of the mountain, but parallels the Creeper along the river for a little while.  Then right before Damascus, the two trails merge again and go into town together.  We saw many people on bicycles enjoying the beautiful weather.  It is a popular tourist attraction in Damascus. 

So we reached Damascus right at 5:00 p.m.  Sure was good to see the Dairy King again, which we went into and had a good dinner.  The owner was there and was very friendly and attentive to us, making sure we had enough home fries to share.  And when we finished eating he said he wanted to give each of us a complimentary 16-ounce cup of soft-serve ice cream.  I certainly took him up on that offer, and we walked down the front street of Damascus for the last time to go to our car parked at Mt. Roger’s Outfitters parking lot. 

We completed 75 miles in 5 days of hiking.  Good job!  That will be it for us until the Spring. 

Grayson Highlands State Park to south of Buzzard Rock - Southbound

Day Five

October 4, 2013
Massie Gap to past Buzzard Rock
10.9 miles

After a restful night at Ruby’s Rest, we arose at 6:00 a.m. and soon made our way to the Exxon Station for a sausage and egg biscuit.  At 7:00 we met our shuttle driver at Mt. Roger’s Outfitters and found out  he was the original owner of the Outfitter who has now turned it over to his son.  He was a wealth of information about the AT and surrounding area and we enjoyed chatting with him as we drove up the winding Music Trail road up to Grayson Highlands State Park entrance.   At 8:00 a.m. we started up the AT Spur Trail to join the AT at the top and head south. 

It wasn’t long before we found the ponies enjoying the shade in the bottoms--about 13 of them.  After enjoying  them for a few minutes we continued on our way up the mountain.  When we reached the top, we found that they had beat us there.  We took even more pictures of them. We passed the sign for Wilburn Ridge and read about the feral ponies.  In 1974, when the land changed from private to public ownership and cattle were removed, ponies were introduced to the park to prevent reforestation of the highland balds. The pony herd is managed by the Wilburn Ridge Pony Association. During fall roundups of ponies for an auction held in conjunction with Grayson Highland’s annual Fall Festival, association members check the herd for health problems.

 

 



Fatman Squeeze

“Fatman Squeeze” was an interesting feature of the trail going up to Wilburn Ridge.  It is a natural rock formation tunnel and the trail went right through it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wilburn Ridge is a long ridgeline that goes up toward Mt. Rogers.  Due to logging, flooding, and burning in it’s history, it is treeless and quite rocky.  Hence, the panoramic view is unobstructed.  The white blazes of the AT are marked on the rocks.

 

 

 

  

Mt. Rogers is Virginia’s highest peak, at 5,729 feet.  Surprisingly, the trail does not go over the top of this one.  They say the top is viewless because of the trees anyway. 

 

 

 

 

  

One of the rocky areas going up to Wilburn Ridge.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas Knob Shelter

There are many beautiful campsites between Thomas Knob Shelter and Rhododendron Gap—it is easy to see why it is a popular trail for day hikers. In fact, everyone we saw in this area were dayhikers or overnight campers. 

Coming out on the highway at Va. 600 I was looking forward to the bathroom located there but found the door locked with a note saying closed due to government shut-down.  Drat!  I was not the only one though, several others had the same thing in mind while we were there.    

 

There was a nice campsite right before we crossed US Forest Service Road 89 (Whitetop Mountain Road) but we don’t like to camp so close to the road, so we kept going. South of the road though there are no trees big enough to hang from.  Then, surprisingly, we came out of the woods facing a big bald mountain with a big rock formation on the top.  We reckoned this to be Buzzard Rock.  The view from the top of the bald was breathtaking all around.  When we began our journey south again we were very glad that we were headed south.  Going north would have been quite a climb up the mountain. 

It was awhile before we  got far enough into the woods to find trees big enough to hang our hammocks from and by this time we were more than ready to stop for the day.  We had traveled less than 11 miles.  How could that be?  Strange, but we were ready to stop nonetheless.  We were glad when we finally found a place although it was a pretty steep mountainside and not the best, but with a hammock we could do it.  We would have been in bad shape with a tent.    



The buzzard on Buzzard Rock (he he)

View from Buzzard Rock

The bald of Buzzard Rock



Nice memorial bench overlooking a pasture right before V. 600

The trail goes through a treeless pasture before VA 600 

 

Hanging our hammocks for the night.


 

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.  

 

Hurricane Mountain to VA 601

Day Two
October 1, 2013
Campground  to VA 601
 14.3 miles

Daylight came around 7:15.  We arose at daylight and packed up camp.  The hammocks are easy to pack up due to the snakeskins unique to Hennessy Hammocks.  They are left on the ropes so all you have to do is pull them down over the hammock, rainfly and all to make a nice compact package to stuff in the  pouch.  We left camp at 8:00 a.m. and passed Hurricane Road by 9, Comer’s Creek by 9:20 and were at VA 650 highway by 10:00.  

 

 

 

 

 

 We ate lunch and got water at Trimpi Shelter at 12:30.  At the shelter we met a nice young man from Virginia who was nearing the end of his south-bound thru-hike.  His parents had driven him to Maine in June to begin his hike.  He said he would not stop at home while in Virginia because he was afraid he would not get started again.  He was just ready to complete his thru-hike at this point.   

We had met another south-bounder on the trail this morning whose goal was to climb Springer Mountain in costume on Halloween.  He also started in June.  Meeting thru-hikers on the trail at this time of year is few and far between.  It seems that far fewer people hike south on the trail than north; and, of course, the north-bounders have about completed their hike to Maine by now.

It seems we hiked mostly uphill today.  Our packs seemed especially heavy and the weather was warmer than we thought it would be in October.  We were hoping for some cool weather.  I was sweating most of the day today. 

Ladder Style going over a fence.

We crossed several different types of stiles in this area. It seems the trail goes through lots of pasture land and old home places in this part of Virginia. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we reached Va. 670, we were pleasantly surprised to find a Trail Magic box left by the Valley View Baptist Church Youth.  The coolers were out of drinks, but there was a healthy supply of snacks left.  We chose a couple of granola bars and enjoyed them as we continued on our way. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 5:00 we stopped for the night somewhere in the woods between Va 601 and Partnership Shelter.  Again, we hung our hammocks and tried to do a better job of getting it level this time.  Overall, I think we slept better.

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.