October 2020: Great Weather for 9 Good Hikes
November 2020: The Weather Holds Well, for 5 More
Lunch time on Brushy Mountain with McAfee Knob visible across the valley.
October 2. From Dragon’s tooth parking lot, Dragon’s Tooth, Scout and Appalachian Trail loop. 4 miles.
It got too late too fast for our original plan to visit Dragon’s Tooth on a weekday when the crowding might not be as several, so we settled for this easier, shorter loop that offers some good views eastward from along the A.T. before you get to Lost Spectacles Gap. We had lunch at one of the viewpoints and then headed down the Dragon’s Tooth Trail at Lost Spectacles Gap.
October 3. At Carvins Cove’s Timberview lot, Horse Pen and Lakeside trails out and back. 4 miles.
Easy, pleasant, and offering a great lunch spot on a point about a mile in on the Lakeside Trail.
October 9. At Carvins Cove’s Bennett Spring lot, Hotel and Buck trails to Brushy Mountain ridge line and back. 4 miles.
Not a terrible climb to a fine lunch spot looking over at McAfee Knob.
October 10. Ditto the October hike and its nice attributes. 4 miles.
October 17. Tinker Creek Greenway from Plantation Road to Carvins Cove and back. 4.8 miles.
From our usual lunch spot just shy of the fishing dock, it was the first time in a long time no one was on it.
October 18. Chestnut Ridge Loop Trail. 5.4 miles.
Roanoke’s easy urban loop never seems to crowd up, even when other easy-destination hikes do.
Shadows on the Old Hotel Trail
October 24: At Carvins Cove, Horsepen, First Deck, Royalty, Brushy Mountain and Trough trails loop. 4 miles.
We don’t hike to the top of McAfee Knob often these days, and content ourselves with the view of it from the Brushy Mountain ridge line.
October 30: Appalachian Trail from Jennings Creek to south to viewpoint and back. 6 miles.
We’d not been on this nearby section in so long that it was unfamiliar to us. . . and it’s a good walk.
Showing off the new lunch table
October 31: At Mt. Pleasant National Scenic Area, the Appalachian Trail/Old Hotel loop. 5.8 miles.
Yes, if was a Saturday, and yes, people are hiking like crazy these days, but little did we suspect . . even halfway up the usually totally lonesome forest road, we kept having to yield or be yielded to from vehicles coming back down. We were lucky to get a place to park, as someone else pulled out. And then, up the A.T. toward the beauty of Cold Mountain’s bald, there was a steady stream of people headed up, followed by big clusters of mostly college-age people at the northern end of the bald. By the time we’d walked the mile across it to our usually lunch spot, the crowd had thinned. And on through the rest of the loop things were pretty much as usual.
November 7: Rocky Row Trail to Appalachian Trail to Fullers Rocks and back. 5.6 miles.
Always lonesome, always worth the climb to the great view down onto the James River, nearly 2,000 feet below, for lunch. (Our climb from U.S. 501 was several hundred feet less.
November 13: Andy Layne and Appalachian Trails to Tinker Cliffs and back. 7.2 miles.
It had been a minute since we’d done such distance and such a climb—about 2,000 feet—and we were pleasantly surprised at the relative ease of going up, if not the time, which ran to two hours and 20 minutes for a hike that we’ve done for many years in more like an hour and 40. Fortunately pace is far less a concern than the walk itself and the great view west, south and north from Tinker Cliffs.
November 14: Appalachian Trail from Jennings Creek south to Cove Mountain Shelter and back. 6 miles.
Another pleasant walk on this newly rediscovered section that is relatively gentle and delivers some good views westward.
November 21: At Carvins Cove, Hotel, Buck, Brushy Mountain, Hi Dee Ho trail loop. 6.5 miles.
A crowded day at the Bennett Springs parking lot gave way to a pleasant and uncrowded walk up the mountainside to a nice lunch.
November 26: Dragon’s Tooth, Scout, Appalachian trails loop. 4 miles.
The combination of COVID preventing our usual at-home Thanksgiving Day, along with the plan to gather most of the family at a big ol campsite full o tents for Friday afternoon into Saturday sent us out for our first-ever Thanksgiving Day hike, weenie though it was. And The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All came through with her usual stunningly marvelous lunch. On this day—what else?—exquisite turkey sandwiches.