August 4. Appalachian Trail south from Afton Mountain to the remnants of the old Lowe cabin and back, 4 miles. A quick leg-stretcher on a drive to Richmond and a week's vacation beyond. On a hot afternoon, we closed a little more of the shrinking non-hiked miles between Roanoke and I-64. While it's not the most exciting section of the AT--paralleling the Blue Ridge parkway for a distance before ambling along in the woods with relatively little ascent or descent--it was a good day for The Day Hiker and her wildflowers, as several sections are along open, nearly field-like areas. Lunch was at the chimney of the old cabin, where we were visited briefly by a couple from the area, who explained the history of the remains.
August 11. On the way back from Richmond, two short fill-ins of sections of the Appalachian Trail between earlier hikes. First, a rare trail run for The Day Hiker and me: a 2.4-mile out-and back from the Dripping Rocks parking lot on the Blue Ridge Parkway to the blue-blaze trail to an overlook. One finding from this jaunt was that we run (well, jog) at just about exactly double the pace at which we walk . .
. 11 or 12-minute miles versus 23 or 24 for walking. Second chunk: From the Three Ridges overlook at parkway MP13.1 southward to Maupin Shelter and back, a 4.6-mile walk. These two pieces leave only a few miles between Wythe County where the trail crosses I-81 and Nelson County, where it crosses I-64 . . . and with a few chunks in the Shenandoah and the southernmost 20 miles coming out of Tennessee behind us, we're beyond the 300-mile mark in our slow-but-steady quest to walk all 550 Virginia miles.
August 18. The hard-to-find Grouse Trail off of Forest Road 224 up to the North Mountain Trail northward for 2.5 miles and back. 8 miles total. We'd never been on any of the three of North Mountain's westward-slope trails (Turkey, Grouse and Deer), and weren't sure which one we were on as we started up a blazed but unlabeled trail. We walked North Mountain's undulating ridge line in sunshine, with good views to the east and west between the trees--a rare occurrence for us as it seems it always rains when we're on North Mountain. (Hey, we tried.)
August 25. Appalachian Trail from I-81 northward to the crest of Gullion Mountain and back. 10 miles. Another new section of the AT for us, featuring fields and cows, shallow forest and then a good climb to the 3,300-foot crest of the Gullion part of Brushy Mountain. This was one of the hottest days we've hiked in over these three and a half years of treks, though we did have a bit of a breeze on the ridge line for lunch.
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