Appalachian Trail from U.S. 220 south to Hay Rock and back. 8 miles.
There are many signature rock formations along the 550 miles of Appalachian Trail in Virginia, some of them relatively close to roadways, and thus with easy access to many. The sandstone formation at Hay Rock, on the other hand, is four miles in from the closest road, which makes the graffiti – more pervasive here than anywhere else we've seen on the Virginia AT – all the more perplexing and jarring as you come across it after having walked those four miles of mostly forested trail.
In fact, while Hay Rock is an occasional destination for us for a good climb and a pleasant eight-mile hike, it isn't at all an inviting place to sit down for lunch, owing to the multi-color names and messages that cover the inner side of the formation's rocks and the sooty-sand floor beneath that inner side.But along the ridge for a mile and a half or so – from the start of the ridge of under the first set of power lines to Hay Rock – are any number of rocky points looking either (and in some cases both) out onto Carvins Cove and the mountains to the west, or onto the southern end of the Great Valley of Virginia, with that southern end being the first edges of Botetourt County, where many acres formerly fields have come to hold new subdivisions. We picked a rock looking both ways for lunch on this warm day; as we sat there, Carvins Cove remained at full pond and southern Botetourt grew no more, though the reddish dirt of Daleville Town Center showed sure signs or more-to-come.
On the way down, into the lengthening shadows of a fall day, it was as if the valley had awakened; the trail, empty on the way up, was alive with hikers of all ages and descriptions, all on their way toward great vistas. But, likely, not as far as the graffiti at Hay Rock.
November 29, 2008
