We hiked this section on July 7, 2011.
Road walk of 0.8 miles + 6.9 = 7.7 miles
We had a large group hiking today – 18 people plus the hike leaders from the Piedmont AT Hiking Club. Our leader was Dave and the sweep was a sweet lady named Margaret.
The group consisted of Nancy Ellen & Michael from State College (PA), two quiet gals from DC, a family of 8, Richard from Norfolk, Heather from Johnson City (TN), a tall lady who worked in Glacier NP, another very tall lady who liked to take pictures, and was from California, a lady from Philly who could pass for a mother-in-law from the Sopranos, and a lady who worked at Quest labs.
7 of us did the road walk of 0.8 miles before the official hike started.
We waited about 15 minutes at the trail head before the other cars showed up.
A road walk we never have to do again.
The hike today was pretty easy because the ascents were gradual and not too long. The hiker leader was easy going and let the kids run ahead of the group with their uncle. We were suppose to stop at the top of each hour and wait for the entire group to catch up, but that didn’t happen.
We stopped lunch on Brushy Mountain and the kids still had gone on ahead.
The descent to the end was good but Dirigo was feeling the effects from the heat and humidity and had a slight headache. Drink more water!
We met the faster group at a picnic table right before the trail crossed VA615 and we also came to a place with a lounge chair, burnt out console TV and a tire swing. Lots of glass in the area too.
The trail dropped on 615 and crosses over a beautiful bridge which looked pretty new. Some of the people went and soaked their feet in the stream and the kids were fishing for crawdads with a sock. The people with keys when back to pick up the cars. As we were come back to pick up the others the clouds were getting black. Just as they bailed into the car it started to rain. Again another wonderful hike.
