Just for both followers out there . . . not sure why I’ve let these little reports slide; did for awhile have to do with sort of guilt at being out in the woods during stay-at-home admonishments, but we’ve been consistent in choosing little-used trails and hopping off to the side as other hikers approach.
Gail beside a more-than-full-pond Carvins Cove.
Gail beside a more-than-full-pond Carvins Cove.
Anyway, here’s where The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All and I have been over recent weeks:
May 16 (still during the time when our number-one goal was to see no one on the trail): Glenwood Horse Trail to Appalachian Trail to Curry Creek Trail and back. 6.2 miles. Just a tiny tiny section of the AT to get to a nice stream-side lunch.
May 23: Tinker Creek Greenway from Plantation Road across boat launch area and onto Happy Valley Trail to pond-side lunch at Carvins Cove and back. 6 miles. On the day after several days of heavy rains, you could still hear—even from far across the reservoir as we were—the roar of the water going over the dam. The level of flow-over had reached as high as 2 1/2 feet before receding significantly before we got there.
May 25: Little Rocky Row Trail to Appalachian Trail to Fullers Rock and back. 6 miles. you can't beat a Memorial Day walk up an empty trail to look down on the flow of the mighty-full James River for lunch.
Along the Little Rocky Row Trail, Memorial Day 2020.
May 30: Salt Pond Road to Appalachian Trail toward Fullhardt Knob and back. 6 miles. The AT was open by this date, and we saw many more people than we’d expected.
June 6. The Hinchee Trail from Salem up onto the Brushy Mountain Trail and back. 10.8 miles. With me in search of that perfect viewpoint over onto McAfee Knob (and The Day Hiker protesting at each bend of the Brushy Mountain Trail), this was our longest hike in a few years. But hey, the lunch spot was great: McAfee from Brushy Mountain looks just like it walkway does!
June 13: Back at Carvins Cove, Horsepen, Gauntlet, Brushy Mountain, Royalty trails loop. 6 miles. With, once again, that fine view of McAfee at lunch . . . well, through a few more trees.
June 20: Chestnut Ridge Loop Trail near Roanoke. 5.4 miles. With lunch on one of the old picnic tables at the abandoned Roanoke Mountain Campground. We wondered if the new parks bill might have funding for its comeback.
A brief rain shower along the Chestnut Ridge Loop Trail resulted in our best tarp-pitch ever.
June 21: Apple Orchard, forest road, Cornelius Creek loop. 6.2 miles. We took a chance on what can be a crowded trail at times, especially on a nice day after a few days of rain. Things were pretty empty going up to the falls, which were full and loud. But between the falls and the forest road were lots of sets of people coming down from the Blue Ridge Parkway. Once we hit the forest road and then the Cornelius Creek Trail, we had things pretty much to ourselves. And we planned ahead well enough that we had our Chacos in the packs for that last crossing of Cornelius, which was a wader.
The flows were great all along the Apple Orchard Trail on June 21.
June 27: At Carvins Cove, Bennett Springs Loop, Rattlin Run, Songbird trails out and back. 6.5 miles. The Bennett Springs parking lot was full. Appeared to be mostly cyclists, and the situation would have turned us away a few weeks back. But we did find a parking spot near the road, and crossed it to the non-Brushy Mountain side of the preserve, where there was exactly no one. On our full walk, we saw no one save one kindred couple, and we crossed them at distance both times. Lunch was lush n lonely—perfect.