Blue Ridge Living Blogs Kurt's Hikes
Photo atop Mt. Pleasant looking southwest toward the Peaks of Otter by Ken Knott.
Blue Ridge Country editor-in-chief Kurt Rheinheimer and his wife Gail woke up on Valentine's Day in 2004 looking to do something a little different in recognition of the occasion.
Since then, Kurt and Gail have hiked at least once every weekend for more than seven years. Of those 360-plus weekends, they have missed 14, virtually all due to occasional balkiness from Kurt's old-man knees or achilles. For the first two years (Valentine's Day 2004 through Valentine's Day 2006) they didn't miss a single week. They completed the 550 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia in the summer of 2008, and have walked more than 3,500 miles total, mostly in Virginia but including hikes in West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Florida, Oregon and ... New Zealand!
Kurt & Gail Rheinheimer Featured in Channel 7 (WDBJ7.com) - October 30, 2011
Couple finds love for each other - and nature - through hiking.
On this old favorite, the day was hot and the trail surprisingly populated, including a Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club maintainer who said he had begun overseeing this section of the trail 32 years ago when it was rerouted, and his been its guardian ever since. We offered our usual thanks, and regrets at not helping, as usual being met with a smiling glad-you're-out-here.
You drive out of Roanoke at about 11:20 and it reads 95 on the car thermometer, you assume you're in for one hot hike.
Less than an hour later, at the little parking spot at the War Spur Trail on Va. 613 a few miles beyond Mountain Lake it is, astound...
We've arrived at Tinker Cliffs pretty much every way you can, save maybe this one: a one-mile road ride and another 1.4 or so along Happy Valley Road in the Carvins Cove Trail system; then locking the bikes at the intersection with the Arrowhead Trai...
The two oldest grandsons – both to turn 9 in the fall – have lost a little in the way of hiking enthusiasm from when we first took them out, way back when they were like 6.
Still, if you have an attractor like an eight-foot deep natural pool with an e...
As a part of four days of lots of fun and walking on a trip that based us in Old Town Alexandria, the one real hike hike was along these trails near the Potomac River where it gets scrunched up by big rocks and has to tumble over them through a gorge...
When all else fails (we again couldn't find the trailhead to go up Fort Lewis Mountain), we seem to end up goin' on up to McAfee Knob. After all, where is there a prettier view around Roanoke?
We began just after driving out of a shower in Salem. And ...
The Appalachian Trail guidebook talks about some sections of the trail having run "right down the middle" of the roadway that came along a few years after the trail was built to either cover it up or push it aside in this section.
From Black Horse Gap...
The Fool in the Woods, aka Blue Ridge Country editor in chief Kurt Rheinheimer, is back with more great woodland information and secrets, this time reporting on how Virginia's Devil's Marbleyard was formed.
See Kurt's Hikes Blog.
