March 4. Mill Mountain Star Trail up and back. 3.4 miles
An easy walk with family a couple of days after I tore a rotator cuff.
March 10. At Carvins Cove: Bennett Springs, Rattlin’ Run, Songbird and Tunnel trails and back. 8 miles.
It’s a source of wonder to me that our municipal water supply is fed not only by the small streams coming down the sides of Brushy and Tinker mountains, but also via a tunnel through each of those mountains. We visited the outlet of the Tinker Creek tunnel—more than 6,000 feet through one flank of Tinker Mountain—many years back, but had never seen where water comes in from Catawba Creek, some 10,000 feet through the part of Tinker Mountain that parallels the creek and Va. 779. Another source of wonder—the ever-burgeoning number of trails at Carvins Cove—now makes a visit to that tunnel possible, and that was the focus of this surprisingly rugged walk. The Rattlin’ Run trail, seemed to us, would be a real bear on a bike, and its rocky up-and-downs made us wish we’d brought along our walking poles after all.
March 11. On Mill Mountain: Star, Woodthrush, Ridgeline and Riser trails into South Roanoke and Fork in the Alley; Loop road, Monument and Star trails back. 8 miles.
This good long walk, or some variant of it, has become a real favorite of The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All and me, including as it does good distance, a solid coverage of our municipal mountain, the Fork’s Mediterranean salad, and a slightly shorter walk back along the side of the mountain.
March 17. Tinker Creek Trail from Plantation Road to Carvins Cove picnic area and back. 5 miles.
Sitting at a picnic table overlooking the reservoir with no one else at any table or anywhere close, The Day Hiker and I repeated a recent mantra: Every day is a good day for a picnic.
March 25: Read Mountain loop. 5.2 miles.
We went up the “back way,” taking the Rocky Way CCC trails around the mountain up to Buzzards Rock, and then down the shorter Buzzards Rock trail.
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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