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Weekend Hikes - Week 76
WEB EXCLUSIVE
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The weekend hikers: Gail and Kurt Rheinheimer stand on top of Rice Fields, a bald southwest of Blacksburg, Va. along the Appalachian Trail. They were photographed in May by a couple who were thru-hiking the AT with their two children. |
Week 76: Virginia’s AT, famous for its climbs and descents and its dips and rises even along ridgelines, can’t have too many sections any flatter than that between where it crosses Va. 606 in Bland County (off of Va. 42) northward to the southern end of the Ribble Trail. For much of these 5.5 miles, the sound if not the sight of Dismal Creek is a companion. And at the point where you’re about as far from the creek as you get, there’s a side trail taking you .3 mile each way to Dismal Falls, a pretty if relatively modest tumble that, with its easy access, is a local favorite. We came across a family, several dogs, an arriving couple and a thru-hiker, all eating or swimming or sunning.
Though the ease of the walk didn’t allow The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All to pull away from me as much as she usually does, she did experience a signature trail moment. Early on in our series of hikes, I did walk ahead much more often than I do now, and for one reason only: “Kurt, nobody’s been on this trail today and I’m tired of hitting all these spider webs – you get up here ’cause you know how I’m afraid of spiders.”
On this hike, along the stream in a rhododendron thicket, Gail stopped to get me to look at something that wasn’t a wildflower: a beautiful web holding not just delicate drops of moisture but also its colorful and distinctly eight-legged builder; I followed as Gail had us bending down and to the side so as not to disturb what had been put there before we arrived. No mention whatsoever of me going ahead.
Lunch was along Dismal Creek (it’s always reassuring to see live fish in streams this close to civilization) just south of the Ribble Trail intersection. Our walk back felt relatively leisurely, though Gail took advantage of the terrain to knock out the miles at 20 minutes per. The accompanying and mild disadvantage to such a flat, stream-side hike: You’re walking at a pretty much constant 2,300 or so feet the whole way.
–Kurt Rheinheimer, Editor in Chief
Click here for the archive of Kurt's Hikes
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