April 1. War Spur and Appalachian trails to Wind Rock and back. 7.6 miles.
It’s as often as not that when we reach the viewpoint at Wind Rock, the fog is thick enough that what we can see is basically a few tree tops. So it was on this day, when we crossed both the first hiker of the season to start toward Maine from Georgia (“Well, there are a few ahead of me now,” he said), and another thru-hiker, who lamented he’d already been shut out for views at Clingmans Dome, and was wondering if he was going to experience fog at highpoints the rest of the way north. This was the first time in many of walking to Wind Rock, that we turned around and headed back via the trails rather than using the forest road to complete a loop, wondering to one another why we’d always walked the road, complaining about it as we did.
April 2. Lower Hoop Hole Trail. 4 miles.
Big ol’ family hike with seven stream crossings of fast-and-full Stony Run on the way up, a nice lunch stop and a then a few boys of several ages jumping into the coolest, coldest swimmin’ hole we know. Ben, Eric, Carl and Tyler all jumped in, and Lily, Reese, Grayson and Ava were all big-kid hikers even when some of them are very small. And did rock lots of rock-hopping (sometimes shoulder-sitting on big brother).
April 8. Over Mill Mountain via the Star Trail, down the Loop Road and into Roanoke and ba…uh, nope. 4 miles.
We got the first half of this over-the-mountain-and-back-
April 15. Chestnut Ridge Loop Trail. 5.4 miles.
The pleasant, familiar, easy nearby walk as a sort of default for the weekend’s hike when who knew . . .
. . . That on April 16, The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All would say, hey, let’s go do Rock Castle Gorge (10.8 miles, although the Day Hiker’s wrist device might be closer to the real distance at 12.0). We’d not done this big, beautiful, demanding hike for years, and sure enough it turned out to be as big, beautiful and demanding as ever, complete with 2,000-foot descent to start and matching 2,000-foot climb after the walk along Rock Castle Creek. We had lunch were we usually do—way too far before halfway, at a bench along the creek. The hike is indeed Virginia Mountains in Miniature.
April 22. From home along Roanoke River Greenway to downtown Roanoke and Athens Grill and back. 7.0 miles.
With rain in the forecast and umbrellas in the backpack, a fine urban walk to a fine pair of Greek salads with chicken.
April 29. Family walk from home to Green Goat and back (well, for some of us). 4 miles.
Seems like the huge variety of ages, commitments, feedings, naps has reached a point where if we want a whole-family walk, the Roanoke River Greenway is the place: Just walk out the door of the house and get started down the hill toward it; no driving, no meeting up, no logistics. And the Green Goat Restaurant is good at accommodating a bunch of run-around kids, what with the blocks to build with and the expanse of Roanoke River Greenway lands to kick a ball across, or get a new boo-boo. Good at accommodating a bunch of watch-em-play adults as well, what with a good collection of beers and, of course, the ever-popular Moscow Mule. A good way to celebrate two birthdays and David and Emily coming from Raleigh for those and to see new-baby Andrew.
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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