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32ozgatorade
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« on: August 25, 2008, 01:21:01 PM » |
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Due to a conflict that arose I had to delay the trip 1 day.
Thursday - Suds of the day Yeungling
I arrived at the Austin Mountain - Furnace Mountain Loop trail head at 11:00. The hike begins at MP 83 on Skyline Drive and is fairly strenuous if only for the steep rocky descent. It begins by utilizing an old fire road before meeting the trail, and then the rocks begin.
The hike itself has some beatiful views. On the climb back up via the Furnace Mountain Trail I spotted 3 bears. I completed the 12.5 mile loop at approx 4:15, then it was on to the Loft Mountain Wayside for a blackbery milkshake and to stock up on beer. It was then up to MP 45.6 and the trail head to Hawksbill Summit.
On the way I spotted one bear walking north on Skyline Drive, and another bear just off of it in a tree. (Pictures Coming).
I arrived at Rock Spring Hut and spent the night there with 'Two Nice Young Jewish Boys' (that was there trail name, I renamed them 1 and 2) and a father and son. All turned down my offer of free beer so I had to drink it myself.
Friday - Suds of the day - Bud
Hiked back to car and drove to Elkwallow for breakfast before heading to the Keyser Run Fire Road/Little Devil Stairs Lariat Hike at MP 19. The first park of the hike is a gradual downhill walk along a fire rode ending at the Bolen Cemetery. Along the fire road I saw hundreds of butterflies and some blackberries. You then exit SNP for a tenth of a mile before rentering it. You then begin the 1700ft uphill climb. Depending on what book you look at, at one point you go up 1000ft in about 6/10th of a mile. The climb is very rocky and you are constantly crossing back and forth over what looks like a dry creek bed. About 1/2 mile after starting the uphill climb I was climbing over the last of three consecutive blow downs. I had my right pole planted and had just place my foot down when I heard the distinctive hiss... 5 inches from my pole, and about 10 inches from my log was a nice sized timber rattler. I was now stadling a blow down looking at a snake. Fortunately he chose not to strike and slithered off into the down the slope. With my heart racing I continued the ever steeper climb up. Upon reaching the fire road agaain I headed back to the car.
From there it was back to elkwallow for, you guessed it, beer.. Since they had no Yeungling, i settled for Bud. From there it was off to the trail head to the Gravel Springs Hut which is only a .4 mile hike.
Arriving at the Hut, I found 3M/Cougar, Midnight (a ridge runner), Manimal and Single Malt.. It was obvious we needed more beer, so 3m/cougar and I headed to my car, drove back to Elkwallow and bought a few more sixpacks.... I had met Midnight on my SNP section Hike so we spent some time catching up on the whereabouts of the hikers that I had met during My recent PA section hike.
Saturday - Suds of the day - Heineken
John Donovan Memorial Hike - I was told that this was one of John's favorite hikes, and since members of the club were doing it, I figured I would join them
I met 6 other members of ODATC at the trail head
We started the hike at MP 21 and took the AT to the Tuscarora-Overall Run trail. From there it was a steady downhill.. 20 minutes into the hike we spotted our first bear. We passed the dried up Upper and Overall Run falls and continued to descend to what we thought would surely be a dried up swimming hole.. It wasn't. We passed the swimming hole and set up our tents in a secluded spot on the hill, before returning to the swimming hole. We spent the afternoon at the hole (the water was a tad chilli) which got crowded rather quickly, as there was a Sierra Group from DC there. Several of them expressed interest in a follow up slackpacking with Suds trip.
After drying off we headed back out on the trail. We followed the Thomas Hollow Trail out of the park, and yellow blazed it into town where we ate some surprisingly great food at a local service station/restauraunt.
We then grabbed some beer and headed back to the swimming hole, hikeing most of the 4 miles in the dark via the Tuscorara Trail. (it should be noted that thanks to the PATC, the Tuscorora Trail is in awesome condition through here. It is so well maintained I could follow it in the dark without even looking at blazes, and I was teh lead hiker. 1/2 mile from camp we encountered yet another bear. Returning to camp, we once again cooled off in the swimming hole, sipping beer and Crowne, before heading to the tents.
Sunday - Suds of the Day - Guiness once I got back home..
Hiked back to our cars via the Overall/Beecher. Beecher Ridge, Traces, Tuscarora and AT trils, before parting ways, and heading home.. The hike is almost entirely up high, but except for a couple spots not too steep.
Overall another great 'out of Richmond' experience....
Next stop Tennessee....
'32oz
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