April 1. The Mill Mountain Star Trail up and back. 3.2 miles. On a cool and threatening day, a short jaunt up the back side of Roanoke's municipal mountain with Blue Ridge Country publisher Richard Wells, his wife Alison and new creative director Leonard Loria, just prior to starting his new post with us after several years as art director of Yankee magazine in New Hampshire. The walk was pleasant and easy, and the promised rain held off as we visited the star, wandered the mountain top, had a bite to eat and headed back down.
Later that same day, with The Greatest Day Hiker of Them All not quite hike-sated, we scurried out I-81 to Daleville where the Appalachian Trail crosses U.S. 220 and took the trail up Tinker Mountain three miles to the rock outcropping (pre-Hay Rock) that looks out onto Carvins Cove. She was pleased that we could leave the house at 4, walk the six miles with an hour in the middle for dinner and still be back home well before dark--as testament to daylight savings time as well as to the 20-minute mile pace she sets, up or down a mountainside.
April 8. U.S 11 at Troutville up the Appalachian Trail to Fullhart Knob Shelter and back. 8.0 miles. A cold enough day to select a hike with a shelter destination, to assure a fire for lunch. And given the semi-urban feel of much of this hike (leaving from a major US highway, crossing a busy Virginia highway, walking through fields and for about a half mile on private property), it's a better hike in the cold than it was the last time we did it--in the buggy heat of summer. Once again we had a runner connection, having dropped son Adam off where the AT crosses US 220 so he could run to catch us, which he did within three-tenths or so of when we started. The Day Hiker once again put us through a stop-start walk, with the wildflowers drawing her glance down and stopping her abruptly before she put it back into high gear up the mountainside.
April 15. Salt Pond Road off the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Appalachian Trail to Fullhart Knob Shelter and back. 7.8 miles. A threatening enough day to do a walk to a shelter once again, so we headed back to the previous week's destination, but from the other end of things. Salt Pond Road, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, is one of the easiest, most-pleasant miles you can walk in our area--a gentle climb on a soft surface flanked by evergreens and rhododendron. And the just-under-three-mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail southward from where it crosses Salt Pond Road is an equally pleasant stretch, climbing gently toward the knob-top shelter. Aside from a few sprinkles, the big storm of that weekend held off during our walking hours, and so lunch was pleasant, sitting on the lip of the shelter with a few drops hitting our shoes. The wildflower report was once again highly positive for The Day Hiker.
April 21. The Mount Pleasant/Mt. Pompey loop in the Mount Pleasant National Scenic Area. 6.2 miles. If there are two better loop hikes from one parking spot, I'd sure love to know about them. This one takes you over two 4,000-foot peaks, with Mount Pleasant affording great views to the east and west (including a view of Cold Mountain, the highlight of the other loop). On this warm, clear, inviting day, the area was full of hikers and scout campers, but to The Day Hiker's disappointment, not so full of wildflowers. This high, semi-remote area appeared to be a month behind the places we'd walked in the immediately preceding weeks. The western viewpoint was filled with perhaps 20 young people in Virginia Tech gear--Hokie students we assumed, but it was a day when the "we are all Hokies now" perspective was so strong that you couldn't be sure. Given that crowd and the inability of the older dog to make her way up the rock to the viewpoint, we walked back to the eastern view for lunch, where we learned that hey, come a beautiful day in April, it's time to bust out the sunscreen.
April 28. War Spur/Chestnut/Appalachian Trail/Va 613. 6.8 miles. A favorite of The Day Hiker, for its viewpoint over what are now long-dead hemlocks; for the walk through the remnants of a stand of "virgin" hemlocks--some still surviving; and for its lunch spot at 4,128-foot Wind Rock. This walk also offers about a half mile of plateau walking at about 4,000 feet, just before the ascent to Wind Rock. On this day the stretch was still devoid of green save for a few evergreens, many of which appeared to be healthy, un-adelgid-attacked hemlock trees, a surprising thing to us given the dead hemlocks throughout the rest of the walk. The other downside to the elevation: a dearth of wildflowers for The Day Hiker.
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