The Hike, Week 101: 1/15/06
We'd been trying off and on, these colder weeks, to get onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, drive north a short distance from Roanoke and build an Appalachian Trail hike that included a stop at a shelter for lunch. At last, on this cold (28 when we got out of the car at about 10 a.m.), breezy Sunday, the parkway was open. And, no surprise, there was plenty of room to park in the small space beyond the gate at Forest Road 186, along which the rhododendron leaves--along with The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All--were curled in against the elements as we started our walk.
By the time we'd done the easy 1.1-mile climb to the intersection with the AT, we were warmed up and ready to descend on the series of switchbacks that takes you down to Curry Creek, the first of four rock hops on the way to Wilson Creek Shelter. In each instance the flow was strong from the rains of the recent days, and so it took a moment to find the right--dry--rocks to get across the stream as the dogs took a long cold drink.
These 3.1 miles of the AT are good, relatively gentle miles, making their way down the the streambeds and then back up again, often through open-floored forest affording, in a leafless season, occasional views to the east. Gail commented on the satisfying, lightly frozen crunchiness of the trail under your boot, and then began to watch for ice ribbons--those curled strands of milky ice extruded from plant stems under certain conditions of melt/freeze. We'd crossed pretty streams, looked out upon the Shenandoah Valley and straddled forest saddles, but what the Day Hiker got the camera out for was to lie down on the trail--at two or three different spots--and attempt to get the light just right to shoot a little collection of three-inch pieces of ice poking up out of the frozen soil till the sun came around to that side of the mountain to make them disappear.
Wilson Creek Shelter is a good spot for a winter lunch. It opens to the south to let the sun in; the firepit was clean and ready and there was a small store of kindling under the shelter; the table is close enough to the fire to allow the Day Hiker to extend a foot or a hand and have to take only a step or two from her food to warm herself more fully, or even just posteriorly.
The trek back, more uphill than the way in, was warming and pleasant against the increasing breeze and the quick cooling of a short-day winter afternoon. But back at the car, the canine and human hikers all seemed to share an unspoken feeling that our nine miles had felt like less, that we could all have enjoyed a bit more time out upon the pretty Virginia land.
Click here for the archive of Kurt's Hikes
