This is one of the earliest photos of the hiking oddity; four years in, in 2008, Matthew and Aden had just turned six–they’ll graduate from high school this year. Good dawg Fluff left us about 8 years ago.
Hikes for January/February 2021
Our first two months of 2021 hikes were highlighted by the annual Valentine’s Day return to the trail of our first hike of the oddity, on February 14, 2004—the Apple Orchard Falls Trail. This was the first of those returns that we walked in snow, as we did in 2004. We also ate lunch just about the same spot, and took the opportunity to wonder aloud about what those two people—alone in the snow in 2004—would have to say if they saw the gray-haired people with their fancy lightweight chairs and table, sitting in four inches of snow on a cold day for lunch as the freezing fog settled around them. We did not take time to consider the opposite view—what reaction the older people, who had taken a half hour longer to make the 2.2-mile climb, would have had to those younger, thinner, brown-haired people over there shivering in their lack of full layers and non-waterproof shoes. One thing the “two couples” had in common: no camera either time, as we didn’t think of it the first time, and the phone we carried on the 17th visit quit quickly in the cold.
Brief summaries of the Jan.-Feb., ’21 hikes:
January 2: Appalachian Trail from Va. 621 south to crest of Brush Mountain and back. 7 miles. It had been long enough that we’d been on this section that it felt like new trail.
January 9: Appalachian Trail from U.S. 220 south to Carvins Cove overlook and back. 5.6 miles We’d avoided this walk—one of our most-repeated—for several months after an unpleasant, if brief, encounter with a mildly hostile non-hiker who seemed to have taken up residence in the woods. No sign on this day and thus a happy return to a favorite lunch spot.
January 16: Tinker Creek Greenway from Plantation Road to Carvins Cove and back. 4.8 miles. Where on a winter day at the fishing dock, no one was testing the line between fishing and standing around looking like an idiot.
January 23: Appalachian Trail from James River south to Grassy Island Ridge and back. 5.8 miles. Another section so long not visited as to be largely forgotten, at least after the trail turns away from the river.
January 29: Read Mountain Trails loop. 5.4 miles. Though since we ate at Boulder overlook, we did not go all the way out to Buzzard Rock.
January 30: At Carvins Cove, Horse Pen and Lakeside trails to our favorite lake-side lunch spot and back. 4 miles
February 7. Mill Mountain’s Woodthrush, Ridgeline and Star trails loop. 5 miles. On a very cold day, we again had any picnic table we wanted atop the mountain.
February 12: Appalachian Trail south from Jennings Creek onto Cove Mountain and back. 5.5 miles. This climb, gentler and shorter than the likes of McAfee and Tinker Cliffs, is becoming a geezer go-to for us.
February 14: The 17th annual climb up to Apple Orchard Falls, but just an up and back on a snowy day. 4.4 miles.
February 20: At Carvins Cove, Horse Pen, First Deck, Royalty, Brushy Mountain and Trough loop. 3.2 miles. Easy peasy, but with the cold westerly wind, we eschewed the usual west-face view of McAfee and instead ‘schwacked a short way down the eastern slope for a warm winter lunch.
February 27: Appalachian Trail from U.S. 220 south to Carvins Cove overlook and back. 5.6 miles. The section continues to take on sort of urban traits, including on this day two boxes of fresh food just beyond the parking lot railing as you start the connector trail to the A.T., one of which was gone upon our return.
February 28: Chestnut Ridge Loop Trail. 5.4 miles. We did the loop in the opposite direction that we usually do—turning left from the parking lot on the Mill Mountain access road—and the combination of winter openness and that seldom-used direction made a new hike again, though we ate lunch near where we usually do.
