Kurt Rheinheimer
The view from the ridgeline at Dragon’s Tooth is always worth the climb.
Hikes: June & July 2018
June 3: At Carvins Cove, Loop hike of Bennett Springs, Rattlin’ Run, Songbird, Brushy Mountain and Four Gorges trails: 7 miles.
This is a new favorite for The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All, but her fondness creates a hitch for he who works to keep up: Maybe a fifth of the way into this walk is a nice, shaded, trailside bench, honoring long-time area trail advocate Mervin Brower, who died in 2016. It’s a nice spot for lunch, but who wants to get up from that and have most of your hike still to come? Especially when the early-in lunch has her hiking even faster than usual.
June 10-12: Walks through Watoga State Park, West Virginia. 6 miles
The all-family trip involved three separate cabins in pretty easy walking distance of each other, and we did lots of that, and walked to the lake, the pool and the office/CCC Museum, which is pretty nifty. One highlight of the weekend was multiple bear sightings, including what seemed to be one calm and patient bear who appeared to make his or her way slowly from cabin to cabin, and when clapped or shouted away, loped off toward another. A big hit with grandkids of many ages; a point of fear for those of other ages.
June 16: Tinker Creek Greenway from Plantation Road to Carvins Cove. 4.8 miles.
Always fun, always easy, always a good picnic by the water.
June 17: On Mill Mountain, Woodthrush, Ridgeline, Riser trails to lunch and back on Roanoke River Greenway. 7 miles
Yes, the Mediterranean Salad at Fork in the Alley remains well worth the walk; as does the on-the-way-back stop at Blue Cow in this pretty-dang-urban hike.
June 23: Little Rocky Row Trail to Appalachian Trail and Rocky Row and back. 8 miles
We’d not done this trail for many years, which turned out to be long enough ago for us to have forgotten that its unrelenting climb is just as hard, in another way, as the climb up on the Appalachian Trail, with its 21 switchbacks. But the view down onto the James makes it worth the walk, either way
June 30: Apple Orchard Trail to above the falls and back. 6 miles
There’s a nice spot just above the falls, with a tiny falls that we always worry will fool people coming down from the Blue Ridge Parkway into thinking it is Apple Orchard Falls. My fantasy that, from this spot, we could ‘shwack down a little ways to look down upon the real falls turns out to be just that.
Kurt Rheinheimer
At some sections the New River Trail is high above the river; at others not so much.
July 4: Bicycling New River Trail from Shot Tower to Galax and back. 27 miles.
Kurt Rheinheimer
Gail pauses at a falls along the New River Trail.
We’re down to one or two sections left, depending on how we play it. This section brought to light the dependability—in so many of the Virginia mountain small burgs—of the regional Macado’s chain. The mammoth menu and the gloriously cluttered walls are, well, dependable no matter which of the 15 Virginia locations you walk into. The New River Trail never fails to impress us as one amazing state park. Its linear wonders—river views, tunnels, easy grade, shade and more—make it a sort of bicycle parallel to the linear car-trip Blue Ridge Parkway in the national parks realm.
July 7: Scout, Appalachian and Dragon’s Tooth Trail to and from Dragon’s Tooth. 5.2 miles
From the department of yes, you do get older: The rockiness and the faux-technical aspects of the last section of the climb were a bit more acute than they’ve been. The lunch and view from the ridgeline was no less enjoyable for the earning our way up there.
July 8: At Carvins Cove, Songbird, Rattlin Run trails out and back. 5 miles
The cheap version of the June 3 hike above, wherein you render the bench lunch not so soon-in-the-hike by simply making the hike shorter—an out-and-back instead of the longer loop.
July 15: Walking around Cave Mountain Lake. 1 mile
The family picnic to an old favorite featured frisbee, football and walks to the dam.
Gail Rheinheimer
Kurt lowers a giant rock to its resting place along the Harkening Hill Trail.
July 21: At Peaks of Otter, Elk Run, Harkening Hill and Abbott Lake Trails. 5.2 miles
At least on this day we had an excuse for dining in on a perfectly fine day for a picnic—as of course ALL days are: The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All punctuated this, our 28th wedding anniversary, with frequent reminders that yes, at least one of us had remembered . .. how do you turn down a nice lake-side-window lunch in the lodge dining room in the face of that? Basically, you don’t.
July 22: On Mill Mountain, Star and Monument Trails, Roanoke River Greenway. 6 miles
Hey, on your second hike of the weekend, haven’t you earned that Fork Mediterranean and that Blue Cow two-scoop Red Rooster coffee with chocolate chip?
July 28: From Black Horse Gap on Blue Ridge Parkway via Appalachian Trail to Wilson Creek Shelter and back. 5 miles
This cool, often rhododendron-shrouded section of The Great Trail is also pleasing for its gentle climbs and descents, and the nice, open feel of lunch at the Wilson Creek Shelter picnic table.
July 29: Tinker Creek Greenway from Plantation Road to Carvins Cove and back. 4.8 miles
From the department of always-a-perfect-day-for-a-picnic: We ate lunch just shy of the fishing dock, and watched various paddlers make their way to and fro out on the water.
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!
Feedback? Suggestions? They are always appreciated. Feel free to contact us at krheinheimer@leisuremedia360.com