Hikes: August 2018
Old and wet. No, the trees, not the guy headed up the side of Mill Mountain.
August 4: Off the Blue Ridge Parkway: Salt Pond Road to Appalachian Trail to Wilson Creek and back. 8 miles.
The forest road is an easy-climb mile, and that stretch of the AT meanders without too much up and down through lots of rhododendron to the modest Wilson Creek, which makes a nice spot for lunch if, like The Day Hiker, you’re patient, and keep trying tiny tiny bits of your lunch until yes, at last, the crawdads come out from under the rocks. Well, this one took on a bigger project: working to back his way in with a full olive in tow, repeatedly getting his body in, but not the bounty.
August 12: Home to Green Goat via Roanoke River Greenway and back. 3 miles.
On a busy family weekend, not much time left, on a Sunday evening, for not much of a hike beyond a short, enjoyable urban one.
August 18: From Star Trail parking lot: Over Mill Mountain via Woodthrush, Ridgeline, Riser and Big Sunny, and back via Riser and Roanoke River Greenway. 6 miles.
Gnarly. No, the mushrooms on the tree, not the old guy walking the AT toward Carvins Cove.
Yes, you walk over Mill Mountain, you earn your lunch at Fork in the Alley, and even your Blue Cow ice cream on the way back.
August 20-24: Beach walks and Highway 12 bike rides on the Outer Banks, for lots of miles afoot and awheel.
The beach is good and wide, but the wonderful and continuous bike path and lanes along the roadway make for pleasurable forays in the both directions for food, the big dune and lots more.
August 26: Appalachian Trail from U.S. 220 south to Carvins Cove overlook and back. 5.6 miles.
We got to thinking, from our lunch perch overlooking a full-pond reservoir, about how, back in the day (1938, it turns out), the proverbial city fathers paid $4.5 million for the land under and around the 63-acre impoundment, so that we—a vastly increased population—would have water to drink.