Va. 630 to Brush Mountain

Va. 630 to Brush Mountain

Day Twelve – Friday, April 4, 2014

13.2 miles
7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

We were on the trail by 7:30 a.m. We knew we must be close to Keffer Oak, the largest oak tree on the A.T. in the South, estimated to be 300 years old.  Last measured, the girth was 18 feet, 3 inches.  Sure enough, just over the first knoll we saw it.  It sits right beside the trail after going through a fence gate and is labeled with a small sign.  I couldn’t stop looking back at it as we moved on up the trail away from it. 

Keffer Oak

Brian Turner at the Keffer Oak - I had a pic just like this but lost it.

 On top of Sinking Creek Mountain the rocks are piled up on the sides of the trail.  Someone went to a lot of trouble to do that.  Then the trail turns into a trail of boulders.  We walked a few miles on top of the mountain overlooking a beautiful mountain lake.


Rock Pile beside the trail

The trail goes over these boulders.

























Brian Turner at the Continental Divide

Our Thru-hikers Companion told us that Sinking Creek Mountain is the northernmost spot where the A.T. crosses a notable “continental divide.”  Waters flowing down the western side of the ridge drain into Sinking Creek Valley and the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.  Waters flowing on the eastern side empty into Craig Creek Valley, the James River, and the Atlantic Ocean.


At Niday Shelter we stopped for water since no more water is indicated in the book as we approached Va. 621.  Wait-up slipped and slid down the 75 yard trail to the water source.  We had to take a break at the shelter because my feet were hurting really bad and had been hurting for the last few days.  Especially the downhills made the bottom of my feet almost unbearably painful. 

When we reached Va. 621 we found plenty of water—we crossed about 6 foot bridges.  I don’t know why it’s not indicated in the book. 

Then we started an incline of about 1600 feet toward the Audie Murphy Monument. Before we got there, we stopped somewhere on the side of Brush Mountain and set up camp.  The wind was blowing hard across the mountain so we made sure we tied our tent down good before going to bed. 

(Photos on this page courtesy of Brian Turner.)

Va. 613 to Va. 630

Va. 613 to Va. 630

Day Eleven – Thursday, April 3, 2014

14.9 miles

7:40 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

 

We got started at 7:30 a.m. this morning and quickly reached Va. 613, Salt Sulfur Turnpike.  Down this road 5 miles is the Mountain Lake Lodge and Conservancy, site of one of only two natural lakes in Virginia.  This is one of the locations where the movie “Dirty Dancing” was filmed. 

After the amazing view at Wind Rock Lookout, the trail became VERY nice and even on top of the mountain for about two miles then started a long descent down to War Spur Shelter.
We met two middle-aged men coming toward us –an unusual thing lately—and stopped to talk with them.  They were section hiking southbound. 

As we came out onto Va. 601, we encountered two vehicles parked there with three men—one sitting in the driver’s seat of the car and two others standing outside.  They were drinking their beer and watching a dog walking around.  I couldn’t help but be glad that I was not a woman hiking alone.  We stopped to chat awhile, but couldn’t really get a feel for what their intentions were.  I guess they just wanted to meet up and shoot the breeze awhile.

The ascent up from Rocky Gap is a very steep old forest road.  The mountain was green on top with mountain laurels and rhododendron bushes.  Then we went down again and across Va. 42.  Between Va. 42 and Va. 630 was nearly a mile of a Max Patch-like bald hill.  Nice. 

We stopped beside the bridge at Va. 630 and made our way through the briars down to the side of Sinking Creek to fill our water bottles.  A young man (about 14) came along and I asked him if he lived around here, he said he did.  I asked him if there were any good camping spots going up the next mountain.  He said he didn’t know, he’d only been up there once looking for his dog.  Huh?  What a shame to live so close to that beautiful mountain and not be all over it. 

We made our way on up the mountain with the intentions of stopping making a stealth camp as soon as we found a good spot away from the road.  Shortly we came upon an old deteriorated barn and made our camp in its yard.   It rained all night.

                               

 

Groundhog Trail to Va. 613

Groundhog Trail to Va. 613

Day Ten – Wednesday, April 2, 2014

13.3 miles

7:10 a.m. to 4:50 p.m.

It was 77 degrees this morning.  After breaking camp and getting on the trail, we had a steep little blip up to the junction of the Allegheny Trail.  This is the southern end of the trail, which extends about 300 miles across West Virginia to Pennsylvania.     

We passed the stone Pine Swamp Branch Shelter, and then had a longer one-hour uphill to Bailey Gap Shelter where we got water.  After a brief rest, we continued on.  The path became more level but was very rocky and therefore, hard to maneuver.

After a pleasant day, we stopped to stealth camp again at about mile 657.5 before Va. 613. It was nice to be back to normal hiking. It rained a little off and on during the night, but we were nice and cozy inside our tent.

 

                                

Pearisburg to Groundhog Trail

Pearisburg to Groundhog Trail

Day Nine – Tuesday, April 1, 2014

12.9 miles

9:00 a.m. to 6:10 p.m.

At 7:30 we were waiting on Don Raines to pick us up for a shuttle down to Pearisburg to hike north to our vehicle left at 4 Pines.  He showed up at 8:00, apologizing for being late and later gave us a $10 discount on the ride because of it. 

The temperature this morning was a mild and beautiful 66 degrees.  What a change!  We reached Lane Street in Pearisburg at 9:00 and began hiking north. 

Overlooking West Virginia from Rice Field Shelter

It was an uneventful day, very nice compared to the recent days of hiking in the cold and snow.  We took a break at Rice Field Shelter, another one where the privy had no wall.  Strange!  I don’t mind doing that so much when no one else is around, but what if there were other people at the shelter with you?  I wouldn’t like that at all.

The view in front of the shelter and along the path for awhile was awesome—looking  down into West Virginia.  We were on top of Peters Mountain on the Virginia-West Virginia state line.  It was, at times, hard to follow the trail—it did not look well traveled like the trail usually does so we had to search for the white blazes as we walked through the woods. 

We stopped for a break and water supply at Sims Gap Meadow before continuing on to stealth camp at Groundhog Trail. We enjoyed the day. 

 

           

Zero Day in Wytheville

Zero Day in Wytheville

Day Eight – Monday, March 31, 2014

We slept late at the Best Western in Wytheville, enjoying the warmth of the comfortable bed.  The complimentary breakfast was a treat.

We spent the rest of the day doing laundry at a Laundromat, buying some resupply things at Walmart, and trying to find the leak in my air mattress to see if it could be patched.   After determining that the split was in the seam, we then started looking for a sporting goods store to buy a new one.  Alas, Blytheville does not have such a place.  So we headed up the interstate to Roanoke and Gander Mountain where I settled on a Thermarest sleeping pad.

After a filling lunch at Cracker Barrel, we drove to 4 Pines Hostel close to Catawba, Virginia to get ready for our next leg of the journey.  Joe Mitchell has created a hiker hostel in his garage.  It is a large room filled with two beds, numerous couches, a kitchen area, a wood-burning stove and a bathroom/shower in the corner.  Other than it being cluttered and having an odor, it was okay. 

The two beds were already claimed by Chainsaw, a thru-hiker, and Hutch, who was hiking a section from Damascus north.   We each chose a couch and set up our bedding area.  Mine unfortunately was the one where the cat wanted to sleep; I repeatedly had to push him off of me throughout the night. 

 

                                

                                

 

Woodshole Hostel to Pearisburg

Woods Hole Hostel to Pearisburg

Day Seven – Sunday, March 30, 2014
10.4 miles
9:40 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The Barn Bunkhouse at Woodshole Hostel

We quickly got dressed and packed up and made our way up to the big house. All the folks were up and preparing for breakfast.  There was much talk about the weather.  The young lady employee of the hostel who was in the tent had been driven inside the house during the night because of the vicious wind blowing her tent around.  The trio of hikers, who had planned to leave out today to go to Pearisburg to hike back to the hostel, had called their shuttle driver to cancel their trip. We, however, decided to go ahead with our plans of hiking north. 

The front of the Barn Bunkhouse at Woodshole Hostel

After a scrumptious breakfast and many cups of hot coffee, we settled our bill ($15 each of our bed, $13 each for dinner, $8 each for breakfast) and prepared to launch out. Out on the porch I set my backpack on a table in order to lace up my boots.  When I turned back around, my pack cover was gone.  The wind had blown it off my pack. We searched for it all over the surrounding yard, but it was nowhere to be seen.  Gone from sight that quickly in the vicious wind.  Could we really hike in this? 

The main cabin at Woodshole Hostel

It snowed on us all the way to Pearisburg.  Most of the day’s trail wound along the ridgeline of the mountain.  We were right on the top with the wind and snow blowing across the mountain into our faces.  Noses running, eyes watering, fingers and toes freezing.  My purple bandana hanging on my backpack strap was frozen solid; it was no good to wipe my runny nose on.  My thumb was cracked and bleeding.  Were we crazy to be out here like this?  Probably.   But as long as we kept moving we were okay.  Thankfully hiking in the snow burned enough calories to keep our body warm. 

We finally reached the peak of Angels Rest on Pearis Mountain and began the long descent down into Pearisburg.  The lower we went, instead of snow on the ground we began to see ice on the ground and icicles hanging from the sides of the mountain.  It became quite slippery.  When we finally reached the bottom of the mountain, the ground was no longer icy but slushy.  We had walked out of the worst conditions.  We began to see other hikers coming from the Pearisburg side, out for a leisurely day hike up to Angel’s Rest. 

First view of Pearisburg from Angels Rest

We had been told by other hikers that the trail came right down into Pearisburg at the Burger King.  We reached Va. 634 and saw no Burger King.  The trail crossed the road and kept going downward on the other side.   Maybe we needed to keep going to get into town.  We crossed the road and kept going. In another half mile we came to another smaller residential street.  Still no Burger King, but we at least saw some houses. A quick look at our Companion told us this must be Lane Street and we had to go east one mile to get to the Post Office.  We turned right and hoped it would take us to town and to food.

 We had heard about the All-You-Can-Eat Chinese Restaurant and that was what we were looking for. The Lucky Star was not hard to find, located on the main drag.  We went inside and were greeted warmly and treated like long lost friends.  Apparently, they are accustomed to hikers.

Icicles hanging on Angels Rest

We called Bubba while we were eating and told him we had made it.  He arrived in the parking lot soon to pick us up.  When our phone finally got full reception, we had a text message come through from Bubba for last night warning us of the bad weather coming our way.  Like I said, Bubba is a very nice, helpful, caring person.

After collecting our vehicle at the Big Walker Motel, we drove into Blytheville to the Best Western for a comfortable night and a day off tomorrow.  We deserve it after the bitter couple of days we have had on the trail. 

Brushy Mountain to Woodshole Hostel

Brushy Mountain to Woodshole Hostel

Day Six – Saturday, March 29, 2014

18.5 miles

8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

 

The first thing I noticed this morning was the lack of air in my air mattress.  It evidently had sprung a leak.  The weather was not too terribly bad this morning with temperatures around 51 degrees again.  But the temperature dropped throughout the day until it started drizzling rain by the afternoon.  We figured we were in for another cold night. 

We passed a couple of highways and crossed Kimberling Creek Suspension Bridge before coming to Dismal Creek Falls sign.  We decided against taking the trail down to the creek to see the falls.  The trail running parallel to the creek was pretty flat. 

We continued on to Wapiti Shelter where we took a short break before continuing on to try to make it to approximately Big Horse Gap where we would stealth camp.  As we walked the weather got colder and colder and more miserable with the cold rain.  We started talking about how nice it would be to have a room at Woodshole Hostel to get out of the weather.  If we could manage to hike another 1.6 miles, we could make it there for the night.  The thought of a warm bed kept us going.

We reached the road at Sugar Run Gap and saw the sign with directions to the hostel.  We turned right and walked down the road about a half mile.  Before we rounded the corner to see the hostel, we first saw someone’s tent pitched out in the fenced-in field.

Woodshole Hostel has a stellar reputation amongst hikers.  It is an 1880’s log cabin, first opened as a hostel in 1986 by Roy and Tillie Wood.  Their granddaughter, Neville and her husband, Michael, now run the hostel.  They practice farming, beekeeping, organic gardening, yoga, and massage therapy.  They offer a couple of rooms in the log cabin, private (which we were hoping for) or shared, and also have a bunkhouse and tent camping.  Guests are invited to help with chores and participate in meals. 

We stepped up on the porch dripping with rain.  We left our bags and boots on the porch and stepped inside to be greeted by Neville.  She immediately offered us a shower and asked if we would like to join them for dinner.  We took her up on both.  

After our hot shower dinner was ready to be served.  We joined several other people in the dining room for a Woodshole tradition. We stood around the tables, held hands and went around the circle telling what we are thankful for.  It was a great way to get to know the other folks just a little bit.  There were a couple of sisters meeting there for a reunion, a young couple on their honeymoon, a trio of hikers, and a young lady who was working at the hostel.  Michael was not at home, but had gone to visit his sick mother.  We then walked around the serving table in the kitchen to get our food.  I remember a salad, diced potatoes, and homemade bread, but for the life of me cannot remember the whole meal.  I just know it was good.   

With that many people in the room, we knew it was hopeless to expect a bed in the main cabin. We were sent to the bunkhouse.  “Okay,” we thought, “that’s better than being outside in the elements. “ After dinner we were warm, full, and comfortable but it was short-lived as we donned our jackets, boots and packs and trudged through the rain to the barn.  We entered a kitchen area and found the ladder leading upstairs to the loft/bedroom which contained about a dozen twin-sized mattresses.  We chose two on the end of the room by the shuttered window.  One other bunk was contained the gear of a person whom we assumed would show up later in the night.  Of course, the barn had no bathroom and, before going to sleep, I had to make a trip to the privy out back.

The loft was cold with gaps between the logs in the wall and under the eaves, but we had warm bags so we settled in and were soon fast asleep.  Later, we did hear two fellows come up the stairs and quietly go to bed.  Throughout the night, we could hear the wind howling outside, making doors and windows on the barn open and bang shut again.  Occasionally I felt rain blowing in on my face through the shutters on the window. Overall, we both slept pretty well and were warm.

When we awoke the next morning, we found out that it was not rain blowing in on us after all.   The foot of my sleeping bag, being closest to the window, was covered in snow.   In fact, there was snow all over the room that had blown in under the eaves of the roof.  I’m not sure now that this was better than being in the tent.