KICK IT UP A NOTCH

Thursday, September 18 – Boy has it been foggy each morning. We like to get an early start each day, especially days when we want to do a hike. If we waited for the fog to burn off, we wouldn’t be leaving until about 9:30. This is what it looked like this morning at about 8:30.

 

We decided to increase our hiking mileage today. We hiked one part of the New River Trail. When we planned the hike we didn't realize it was a former railroad route (Rails to Trails) making it a very easy hike on a smooth graded surface. This trail is accessible for hikers, bikers, and horseback riding. The entire trail is over 50 miles long. It begins in Pulaski, VA, and follows the New River to Galax, VA.

We began our hike at the Shot Tower Historic State Park. Built in 1807, it stands 75 feet tall. Beneath the base, is a lower shaft dropping an additional 75 feet to the river level. Hot lead was dropped from the top of the tower 150 feet to a large kettle of water at the bottom. The long fall was thought necessary to properly mold the lead into a perfectly round sphere. According to research and tax records, it was the first factory to mass-produce shot on American soil.

 

Back to the hike.... We followed a path around the Shot Tower to some stairs leading down to the trail. We hiked from the Shot Tower to Austinville, a distance of 3.6 miles and back for a total hike of 7.2 miles. As stated earlier, this is considered an easy hike, although we haven't hiked that far for several months so we had enough by the time we were finished.

There were mile markers along the trail, so it was interesting to clock, time and distance. We were surprised it took us 20 minutes to travel a mile. Three miles per hour. We were a little deflated, thinking we sped along at about 4 miles per hour....and that was on a FLAT surface....JEESH!

 

There is one neat tunnel we passed through and an abundance of beautiful scenery.

How do those tree grow like that?

We were happy to have the trail almost exclusively to ourselves. We only saw one bike rider and one additional hiker the entire morning.

 

Where we turned around.

By noon we returned to our car and were headed back to the campground.

One more day, here in Wytheville, VA and we have an interesting side trip planned. So check back and see where we are headed.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

THE BEST WINERY WE HAVE EVER BEEN TO

Wednesday, September 17 continued – After our hike, we decided to stop at “one of the smallest churches in the country.” What a cute and unique house of worship. Yes, they do have services, although there are only four pews. It sure would be a nice place for a small wedding.

This picture brought back memories for Paul. He said his mom had it hanging in their house the entire time he lived there.

 

Our last stop of the day was West Wind Farm Winery. Located about three miles down the road from our campground, this is another one of those “must stop” places if you are ever in the area.

We spent an hour with the owners and winemaker, what a lovely couple.

 

They grew up in this area and know a good wine, let me tell you! This is the nicest winery we ever visited and we enjoyed ALL the wines.

We left with only one bottle, but purchased several gifts for family. Never too late to start Christmas shopping. I'm telling you, we could have easily purchased several cases of all their wonderful wine… $$$$. We predicate that this wine may win the Weaver’s Annual Wine Tasting Party held next summer.

We've got more hiking to do and additional sights to see, so stop back and check out what we're up to!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL

Wednesday, September 17 – Ever since our daughter attended Virginia Tech ( 2003-2007), Paul wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail. We would pass access points several times while driving SR-460 from I-77 to the school. Well, today we are going to make that happen!

The Appalachian Trail is a public footpath that follows more than 2,100 miles of Appalachian Mountain ridgelines between Maine and Georgia. It was constructed in the 1920's and 1930's by volunteer hiking clubs. One-fourth of the trail lies in Virginia, where we are now camped. The trail runs roughly parallel to, but many miles removed from, the Blue Ridge Parkway. This section, in Virginia, is an area of mature forest and wilderness with high summits, as impressive as any region south of New England.

It was a bit overcast this morning.

We drove about a dozen miles north on I-77 to right outside Bland, VA. We then exited on the scenic Route 52 and drove a few miles to the trail head. It is located at the highest point on the Big Walker Mountain National Scenic Byway in the beautiful mountains of western Virginia. You are definitely off the beaten path and able to enjoy views where “Only the Birds See More.”

We stopped in the Big Walker Store for a cup of coffee and some delicious cranberry bread for breakfast. We chose not to climb the tower for $6 each.....we are cheap-scapes. By-the-way, the temperature at the top of the mountain was 56 degrees on this chilly Wednesday morning.

 

We also saw a very interesting sign. Now we know who Wytheville is named for.

  

We followed the path behind the store past the old green truck and found the trail to Monster Rock.

We hiked past the Rock along the trail for over an hour before heading back.

There is a trail there somewhere.

This is our first hike since Paul's A-Fib incident so we wanted to take it easy and work into longer hikes. Paul did check his pulse several times (He is never aware of the A-Fib situation.) and found his pulse was beating on a nice rhythm although a little faster now that we were hiking at 3500 feet up and down hills.(Yeah we know Pam and John, 3500' is nothing compared to your 10K foot hikes in Glacier NP.....slow but sure. :-)).

We really enjoyed this hike. The hike is on the ridge which made the hiking on big rocks a small challenge sometimes.

We didn’t see much of the sky during the hike.

Paul did his best to hold up the boulder with two hands so Marsha could hike under it.

If he was feeling 100%, he could probably hold it up like Marsha.

The leaves have just started to change color. We both agree that this would be a gorgeous place to hike come October.

We did more sightseeing today, but we will tell you all about that tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day.