Gail along the Glenwood Horse Trail, May, 2020.
You go out into the Virginia mountains every weekend for a decade and a half, you get to know a lot of trails.
You also find yourself going back to favorites over and over again, many of which are along or tied to the Appalachian Trail as it makes its way for more than 550 miles through the state.
Then you find yourself in a situation like the current one—the Appalachian Trail closed, some greenways and other trails closed—and you’re sort of forced, if you want to go out and hike comfortably, to visit some fairly obscure trails.
Gail carries the recent addition to lunch—camp chairs!
Which is what The Greatest Day Hiker and I have done over the recent weekends, and will likely continue to do over the coming ones. Places like the Glenwood Horse Trail’s many sections and a series of little-used trails off of it and off of the Blue Ridge Parkway have come calling for us, and we have walked them while coming across no more than the very occasional set of cyclists or hikers. And only one person on a horse. This as, over the weekends of April and early May, we have gone out on both Saturdays and Sundays.
And it’s kind of just-the-two-of-us romantic to think about the lonesome spots we’ve found for our picnics on these hikes. Romantic until you think about why you’re there and about the ongoing tragedies at places not so lonesome.
Going outside to play is a gift we should all get to enjoy. We’re grateful on every walk.