December 1. Appalachian Trail from where it crosses Skyline Drive at Sawmill Run Overlook (near MP 96) southward to Bear Den Mountain towers and back. 10 miles. This up-and-down, out-and-back hike that earned us five more miles of AT north of I-64, got me to thinking two things: 1. We've now done about 355 of the 540 miles in Virginia, and all of the remaining miles are far from home. 2. What if, given the long drives and our practice of hiking either out and back or a loop that's only part AT, what if we hiked against each other? That is, one of us drops the other at one end of a stretch, then drives to the far end; we cross somewhere toward the middle, eat lunch, and continue on our way, with the initially dropped-off hiker then driving back to retrieve the other. Both The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All and I sort of shrugged with a well-maybe at that idea which perhaps, someday along the Skyline Drive where the trail parallels and the parking spots are many, we may try. The problem for me, of course, would be that Gail would be two-thirds done and I one-third when we met for lunch. On this day, walking together as we always have (well, as close to together as I can keep myself), we had lunch around the towers on Bear Den Mountain, with good views to the east and west.
December 8 Hikette. Dragon's Trail fro VA. 311 to Scout Trail to AT south to Dragon's Tooth Trail back to 311. 3.5 miles. With the 5K Jingle Bell Run early in the day and the prospect of Christmas shopping later in the day, we took maybe the shortest hike we have over these nearly four years. The challenge for us on this short stretch of the Appalachian Trail has always been trying to figure out which chunk of rock, exactly, is Rawie's Rest. There are nice spots, once you gain the ridge line, that look east and west, but the one we usually settle upon looks pretty much northward out over the Catawba Valley. A very warm day for December 8, and so there were lots of little hiking parties--nearly all taking a real hike, on up to Dragon's Tooth.
December 15. Appalachian Trail from U.S. 220 to first full viewpoint of Carvins Cove and back. 6 miles. With the pressures of Christmas and The Day Hiker a little under the weather, we got out into the weather nonetheless for a favorite short hike up Tinker Mountain to "Hey" Rock – the first significant outcropping that looks down on what on this day was a reservoir about 15 feet below full pond and appearing very much to be only 60 percent full, with broad bare "beach" all around its shoreline.
December 22. Part of the new section of Roanoke River Greenway to the Star Trail, over Mill Mountain and back down the Monument Trail to the starting point. About 4.5 miles. From Walnut avenue, the new greenway parallels the river pleasantly, and gives view to the bench cuts that have been made to lessen the flooding of the river. The one lack on this pleasant walk is a path between the greenway over to the Star Trail trailhead, though it is easy enough to pick your way across Riverland Road to the parking area. On this cold day, the top of the mountain was largely deserted, save for an occasional walking couple. Our loop then took us part way back down the Star Trail to its intersection with the Monument Trail, which quickly delivered us back to our starting point.
December 26-29. The Northern Virginia section of the Appalachian Trail. 54.3 miles. How cool it is to end a day having walked an entire section map for the trail. At about 19 miles it must surely be the shortest of any AT map, but still . . . our walk from Snickers Gap at Va. 7 northward into Harpers Ferry, W.Va., where the hot tub room at the Hilltop House awaited was our longest single day of hiking and also one of the most satisfying. The Northern Virginia mountains are not particularly demanding, but do offer their share of climbs and descents, and our last three miles or so were in a light rain – all of which made those water-bubbling jets all the more satisfying. Our subsequent three days – to complete another map – all also benefitted from a shuttle, allowing us to hike in just one direction, with distances of 14.1, 13.5 and 8.2 miles. This took us to within 3.6 miles of Shenandoah National Park, a fact we had not realized, since it's on the northernmost SNP map, until lunch on that last day. At which point The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All, whose driving, driven, dominant walking only increases in intensity with sustained days of hiking, suggested that we knock that section out that afternoon, before going home. Though we ultimately decided against doing so – we'd truly have been racing the darkness – the idea in itself provided a new and strong piece of evidence for what I already know: The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All truly is the greatest day hiker of them all . . . give her a nice meal and a soft bed to walk toward and she's hard to stop. (And two of our nights – at the Ashby Inn in Paris! – filled the meal/bed pairing gloriously.) In all, while the hiking was not particularly demanding except in its length, these four days were immensely satisfying, as they pushed our Virginia-AT mileage above the 400-mile mark and engendered a goal to finish in '08. And we made a new friend in shuttler Sharon Johnson, whose services will continue to come in handy, come spring, as we hope to walk the rest of Shenandoah National Park.
December 31. AT: Va 42 to FR 222 and back. 13 miles. With The Day Hiker all fired up from the Northern Virginia trek, she pretty much insisted we take New Year's Eve Day to head down near Marion and walk our last section north of where the trail crosses 81, thereby completing the miles between I-64 and I-81. And perhaps conditioned by the recent days of long treks, we agreed that this 13-miler seemed relatively easy. "No more weenie hikes, Kurt," Gail said at one point, in reference to the short walks we took mid-month. This hike is basically climbing and descending two peaks, both gentle enough not to require much in the way of switchbacks and both affording reasonably good views east and west. Lunch was along Lick Creek, about a mile and quarter back in from the turnaround point. The broad, strong-flowing stream was clear-looking but apparently lifeless. And the day, carrying a forecast for the 50s, felt as though it was determined to remain in the upper 30s.
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