September 2012

As a part of 4 days of lots of fun and walking on a trip that based us in Old Town Alexandria, the one real hike hike was along these trails near the Potomac River where it gets scrunched up by big rocks and has to tumble over them through a gorge.

When all else fails (we again couldn't find the trailhead to go up Fort Lewis Mountain), we seem to end up goin' on up to McAfee Knob. After all, where is there a prettier view around Roanoke?

The Appalachian Trail guidebook talks about some sections of the trail having run "right down the middle" of the roadway that came along a few years after the trail was built to either cover it up or push it aside in this section.

A hot and pretty day, a son and his girlfriend visiting from Raleigh and a good wet spring . . . what better place for a hike than the Cascades and Barney's Wall?

On this day, we began northward – the hiking direction of 99 percent of the thru-hikers in these Virginia woods at this time of year.