Welcome to Kurt’s Hikes!

Welcome to Kurt’s Hikes!

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 360-plus weekends, they have missed 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. They completed the 550 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia in the summer of 2008, and have walked more than 3,500 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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Kurt and Gail atop Cascade Mountain, Adirondacks New York, July 22

Kurt’s Hikes: The Last Dispatch

As I conclude my tenure with Blue Ridge Country magazine, which began with its founding in 1988, I will not conclude the weekly woods walks with The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All.
The Greatest Day Hiker of Them All takes the jump at Arnold Valley Pool, June 16 (the family gave her a standing O).

20th Year of the Hiking Oddity: A Few New Spots and Lots of Family Along*

Most of our every-weekend hikes were local to our home in Roanoke, Virginia, and repeats of ones we’ve done many times, but there were a few new things along the way.
Gail stands atop Texas’s Palo Duro Canyon, October 4.

Kurt’s Hikes: June-December 2023

You look at seven months of hikes to close the 19th year of Gail and me walking every weekend and you start to see some patterns, most striking of which is the hikes are creeping toward shorter.
March 5: On the way up the Star Trail.

Kurt’s Hikes: Jan-May, 2023

One highlight of the walks of the first five months of the year was a semi-surprise for The Day Hiker when, upon our arrival at the base of the Star Trail up Roanoke Mountain, pretty much the whole dang family (all but the Raleigh family) was there.
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Kurt’s Hikes: Oct-Dec, 2022

Our fall hikes included lots of old favorites, a few urban walks and three great family hikes, with grandkids as young as 5 along for hikes of nearly eight miles total—in the cold!
Gail stays comfy in rain under the tarp at Carvins Cove, 9/11/22.

Kurt’s Hikes: Feb-Sept, 2022

Our hikes from February through September included our 18th annual Valentine’s Day visit to Apple Orchard Falls; and several firsts, including Virginia’s Channels and a section of the
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New Catawba Greenway Hike

New wagon tent!

Kurt’s Hikes: June-July ’21

Some Urban, Some Mountain, One Beach
Gail makes her way up Brushy Mountain.

Hikes: April-May ’21

Devil's Marbleyard, A.T. and More
Kurt and Cookie head up the Little Rocky Row Trail, March 20, 2021

March 2021 Hikes

CALENDAR OF EVENTS