September 1: Home to two downtown Roanoke destinations and back. 6 miles.
The good urban hike ought to have at least one mid-point destination, and this one had two. First Tuco’s Taco Garaje, a recent favorite of The Day Hiker, given the delicious tacos. From there, we walked on into downtown to pay our first visit to the Deschutes tasting room, located in the building of a long-ago favorite restaurant, Vanucci’s. We tried a flight of Roanoke’s new leading beer company, and came away with no change to our favorite offering, the Black Butte Porter.
September 4; Appalachian Trail from Blue Ridge Parkway milepost 97.7 to Wilson Creek and back. 7.4 miles.
This is a pleasant a fairly easy section of the AT, and the rocks along the creek make for a nice lunch spot. It took us most of our nearly-hour sitting there to draw out the crayfish, which were finally pulled out of hiding with a few green olives, with two crayfish making huge efforts to pull them back into holes large enough for their bodies, but not the olives
September 9: Apple Orchard Trail to Appalachian Trail to Apple Orchard Mountain summit and back. 8.6 miles.
Though we don’t undertake long climbs as much as we used to, The Greatest Day Hiker of Them All can still lead us up a big mountain in a pretty big hurry. A set of hikers stopping at Apple Orchard Falls seemed surprised that hey, some people were going on by for some reason. The Apple Orchard summit is a great spot for lunch, with full views to the east and west.
September 17. Bottom Creek Gorge trails. 5 miles.
Given our late start and the number of cars at the trailhead, we paused for lunch way earlier than usual on this hike, at the meeting point of the field and the forest along the Duval Trail, which we enjoyed for its solitude and gentle view. Lots of people out on a pretty day, but all gone by the time we got back to the car.
September 23. Lexington and Chessie Trail section out and back. 5 miles.
We were in Lexington for the wedding of Blue Ridge Country art director Jake Saunders, and too the opportunity to have lunch at Macado’s and then take a nice walk before the even-nicer ceremony. From downtown, we walked through part of the VMI campus, pausing on our way to let watch a parade of cadets walk into the stadium for the pending football game. On the Chessie we had semi-contact with VMI again, in the form of a posted notice that no VMI employee could make his or her way across a piece of riverside property where all other walkers of the trail could proceed. The three-page explanation of why is interesting, convoluted and sad. The two sides clearly need a Ghandi. On the way back into town, the score was like 43-7 UT-Chattanooga, and it only got worse from there. And the wedding? Delightful ceremony, terrific food and a good time.
September 30. Appalachian Trail from U.S. 11 at Troutville to Fullhardt Knob Shelter and back. 7.4 miles.
At the parking lot—on the west side of 11—was a hand-made poster to welcome the Quirin family home—they of the first-ever baby thru-hiker (see story in November/December issue of the magazine). We had thought they wouldn’t be returning to Roanoke until mid-October, but subsequent information reveals that they indeed got home to the Roanoke area on this date. Bummer that we missed them. As usual, The Day Hiker led us up the mountain at a good pace. With the shelter occupied, we ate back down the trail a short distance. On the way down, we met up with a thru-hiker headed to Georgia, who talked about her upcoming section hikes with a grandkid and with her husband. We’d been behind her for some distance until she paused on the little “bald” near the end of the section, and had commented on her being as “together”-appearing thru-hiker as we’d ever seen, with her tidy little pack, head scarf, and even busting out an umbrella against the sun on the open field of the little bald.
Since Valentine’s Day 2004, Blue Ridge Country Editor in Chief Kurt Rheinheimer and his wife Gail have hiked at least once almost every weekend. Of those bazillion weekends, they have missed just 14, virtually all due to occasional balkiness from Kurt’s old-man knees or achilles. For the first two years (Valentine’s Day 2004 through Valentine’s Day 2006) they didn’t miss a single week, and they have a longer streak now, which Kurt is too superstitious to talk about. They celebrated their 1oth anniversary of hiking with a February 2014 trip to hike the trails of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. They completed the 550 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia in the summer of 2008, and have walked more than 5,100 miles total, mostly in Virginia but including hikes in West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Florida, Oregon and … New Zealand! This blog is an ongoing chronicle of those hikes. We hope you enjoy these tales from the trail, and we encourage you to get out there and experience the beautiful Blue Ridge for yourself – happy hiking!
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