On a perfect day for walking the woods, many people were walking in the woods on the flanks of 4,001-foot Flat Top Mountain just off the Blue Ridge Parkway.
To the extent that up top, both the western and eastern rock outcroppings were well populated with lunchers, photographers and binocular-toting sightseers pointing out Smith Mountain Lake up that way, Lynchburg over there and the Bedford reservoir right down there.
These three, of course were on the eastern side of things, where we found a our own fine flat rock for lunch – just back from the usual spot but also a little higher and still within easy conversing distance of others being pleased with themselves for walking up here and looking out over where Virginia turns flat.
On our brief visit to the western side, I pretended the glasses I lost here almost exactly a year ago – November 7, 2009 – were going to be nestled down in a crevice amid the rocks. No such luck, of course, but then neither did I lose another pair on this fine day for a walk, a day when The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All walked once again without her dog Cookie, who was back home recovering from knee surgery.
Flat Top Trail to summit and back. 5.2 miles.
How To Get There: Trailhead is at milepost 83.5 of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Hike, November 13, 2010
