Hike, March 1, 2020: Little Rocky Row Trail to Appalachian Trail to Fullers Rocks and back. 6.2 miles.
The view from Fullers Rocks onto the James River and, beyond on the horizon, Apple Orchard Mountain.
One good measure of a good walk is how good the destination point is. Which, on nearly all of our hikes, is somewhere near the mid-point, for lunch.
The Little Rocky Row Trail, at an obscure spot along Va. 130 east of Natural Bridge, Virginia, is a good trail—wide, not-too-rocky and usually empty—to an especially good destination. You reach the Appalachian Trail after a 3-mile climb with far fewer switchbacks than the A.T. offers for its longer route up to the same spot. And from that intersection, it’s just another tenth to Fullers Rocks, a flat, open spot looking down on the James River.
It’s a good place to talk about the mighty James, on its 348-mile way from headwaters in Botetourt County on down through Richmond and into the Chesapeake Bay. We wondered, looking down, if it was maybe one-fifth as wide where we watched it glisten as it is where we’ve walked along both sides in Richmond.
It’s a good place, on a warm, sunny winter afternoon, to look beyond the James as well, up onto the horizon, where you can see the tower atop Apple Orchard Mountain, the highest spot on the Great Trail, headed north, until you get to Vermont.
And the walk back to Va. 130 is mostly all downhill and pleasant.
Walking with the Men
Hike, 3/6-8/20: Appalachian Trail, Mau-Har loop. 14 miles
About once a year, The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All stays home with the other ladies of the family (and a few still-too-young boys n girls), as the men—as young as 17, as old as, well I’m not saying—go out for a winter weekend backpacking trip.
This one was attempted last winter and, amid rain and worries over room in the shelters, got scaled back.
So we went back to where we failed last year and had one of our best ever. Ben, Eric, David, Carl and Adam—our sons—and grandsons Aden and Matthew, set out into the cold night on Friday—out of rain showers on the way and into snow flurries in the forest—for the 2.8 miles from where the Appalachian Trail crosses Va. 56 and the Tye River and climbs about 1,000 feet to the Harpers Creek Shelter which, to our surprise given the popularity of the loop, we had nearly to ourselves. Over in the far corner was a lone sleeper as our early wave came in at around 9 pm. We did build a fire, but also did out best not to disturb her gentle snores.
We early wavers hung around said fire till midnight, our expected time for the arrival of the rest of us. Turned out they didn't roll in till more like 1:30.
I got a good head-start in the morning, toward making my way up the rest of the 3,000-foot climb of Three Ridges and on to Mau-Har Shelter in a time at least somewhat proximate to the others. And at the pause-point at the summit, I did get to share lunch with most everyone.
And again, I got a head start toward the shelter, and didn’t come in much more than an hour after the first arrivals. We had the shelter to ourselves for a time—back in those pre-Coronavirus days—before three students from N.C. State rolled in to take over a corner. We all had a good long evening at the shelter, with a fine fire. And in the morning I was up earliest, rekindled the fire and got a good solid head start on the five miles back to the car, once again not coming in too long after the first arrivals.
Around the MauHar Shelter
We did not know, the eight of us, how lucky we were to get out before the world changed. But to our credit, we did all realize what a fine hike it was.
Lonesome Walks
On March 14, we took a little-used route at Roanoke’s Carvins Cove, walking the Bennett Springs, Rattlin Run, Songbird, Four Gorges loop, for a pleasant 6.6 miles.
On March 21, before the Appalachian Trail Conference advised not to hike the trail, we walked from Black Horse Gap just off the Blue Ridge Parkway to Wilson Creek Shelter and back. 5 miles. We saw no one on the trail except two apparent thru-hikers headed north, who barreled past the shelter as we ate lunch, as if they were on a mission to get to Maine before the trail got shut down.
On March 22, we did the same walk again, as The Day Hiker had left Cookie’s food bowl there, so we went back to get it, seeing no one on the trail.
And on March 28, once the AT was semi-shut down, we sought out the lonesomeness of the Glenwood Horse Trail for about 5 miles.