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 93: 11/20/05

Since:
1. The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All had devoted two hours and two minutes of her Saturday to running the Star City Half Marathon, and was thus the slightest bit stiff.

2. Sunday morning logistics led us to an after-lunch head-out for a hike on a day when the sun went down at just about 5 pm.

We therefore: Were in search of something not-too-far/not-too-long/mountain-nifty/yet-new-to-us.

We found it, in the Sulphur Ridge/Price/Broad Mountain loop on the Craig/Botetourt counties line, just off of Va. 606 north of Roanoke--an easy, nearby five-mile loop with lots of ridge line and good views. The Sulphur Ridge Trail begins with a descent to Sulphur Springs Branch, which carried only a minor flow beneath rocks and leaves. After a brief following of the streambed, the trail turns back up the mountainside.

I'd kept up with the slightly hobbly GDHOTA quite easily to this point, but as we began to climb, she was loosened up enough from her big run (second in her age group after no more prep for the 13.1-mile race than a weekend run here and there), to begin to pull away a little as we headed toward the spine of Sulphur Ridge.

Along the ridge, we climbed a series of ever-slightly-higher knobs in search of the perfect one for lunch, and found it just shy of where the trail turns to the east to meet the Price Mountain part of the Price/Broad Mountain Trail. As we headed back south into the fading afternoon, the big orange sun ahead and to our right was hidden now and again by gentle clouds. The views were good to both sides of the ridge line. The trail was leaf-laden and generally gentle--an easy, pleasant finish to an easy, pleasant Sunday afternoon walk in the woods.

Click here for the archive of Kurt's Hikes