We hiked this section on July 6, 2011 during the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s 38th Biennial Conference.
I think there is a book named “No child left indoors?”
Today, we had a kid on the hike who should have been locked in the closet all day while we hiked!
Our hike leaders were Norman and Jinx from the wonderful NBATC so we had yet another great hike. Norman said that there was a 50% chance of thunderstorms this afternoon so everyone wanted to be done by the early afternoon.
We drove all the cars to VA 601 and then left a single car there; all the people in this car piled into other cars. Todd had to leave from VA 601 so he drove his car to VA 601 and then he rode with us to Elk Garden.
We arrived at Elk Garden and had the chance to use the pit toilet.
We looked north and saw the open field that we hiked several summers ago with Mel and Patty on our very first backpacking trip.
We hiked with Marathon John & his nephew, Teri & Janet, Lee Ann, Van & his wife, a very nice 83 year old lady from the BMECC, a quiet husband & wife, Mike the eye doctor from NC, Todd from GATC, Jay from Ohio, Hannah, and a lady from the DC area.
We started at Elk Garden and started a gradual ascent leading to an open field. There was a trail that went off to the summit of Whitetop Mountain, which you can drive to by car.
We ran into several long distance hikers and Van couldn’t resist offering the guys some of his food. Van is a former trail maintainer from Maine and he met his wife at one of the ATC conferences in the 90’s.
We saw several beautiful orange Turks Cap lilies at the beginning and end of the hike- Python’s favorite flower. We also saw Bee Balm and black cohosh.
We descended in the woods and came out in another field and ascended to Buzzard Rock where we had lunch.
We were completely exposed to the elements at this point. We could see Whitetop Mountain and it looked like there was a weather station at the top.
The low hanging clouds were kind of dark but we took our time and enjoyed our lunches.
A beautiful orange butterfly was very attracted to Mike’s yellow Osprey backpack.
Todd left the group at this point to continue to VA 601 because had to be back in Atlanta by 6:30.
Buzzard Rock is an excellent place for hawk watching and we only saw one very far away. There was a cairn near the summit but Norman and a few others dismantled it.
Norman told us to be careful descending right after lunch because the rocks were very loose. Van’s wife slipped and fell back hitting her back on a rock. Fortunately, she was okay and got up with Van’s help after a couple of minutes.
The trail descended through some rocky terrain and started the switchbacks down to VA 601. The rocks were slippery from the rain so everyone went slowly to avoid getting hurt.
The forest in this section seemed newer and we saw two deer up on the ridge.
We also met a long distance hiker from either New Zealand or Australia.
Once we got to VA 601, all the drivers piled into the car and left to get the cars.
We waited about 10 minutes before Hannah and Jinx arrived. Hannah had initially been apprehensive about joining this hike and warned the leaders that she was slow. But, she made it!