North on the Appalachian Trail

Most of my hikes are loops or out and backs, but with a large enough group and a few cars, we had the opportunity last Saturday to do a straight shot up the AT.  The hike was with the Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club, and we hiked north from the South River Falls Picnic Area to Milam Gap, where we left a couple of cars to shuttle everyone back to the starting point.  I'll be leading Road Scholar hikes in that area in about a month, and wanted to check out one of the trails so I'd know in advance what it was like.  However, the Road Scholar hike will start at Lewis Mountain and go to Milam Gap, and is several miles shorter than the one we did Saturday.  It was also a good chance to hang out with trail friends old and new, and see more of the spectacular wildflowers in the park, like these trillium.

Here is the elevation profile for the hike, which was 11.8 miles long, including two side excursions.  There were four significant climbs along the way, and plenty of shorter climbs, so I would estimate that we gained 1,900 - 2,000 feet during the hike.  I am not in the shape I was in October, the day was warm, and I was feeling it as I hiked the final ascent up Hazeltop Mountain.  But a couple of snails that blew by me on that stretch gave me encouraging words, and I made it.

We started at the red arrow and ended at the pink arrow.

Here is the track for the hike, heading north.  It's a straight shot up the AT.

This track shows more details of our little side trips to Lewis Mountain (black arrow) and Bear Fence Mountain (red arrow).

We had ten people on this hike.  Here are nine of them....

and here is the 10th, checking our map at the start of the hike.  You can see how I got at least part of my trail name, Grey Ghost.

Most of this hike, you are in the forest, following the white blazes,

but now and then, we had some partial views.

Most of the group made the short and steep climb up to the great views of Bear Fence Mountain.  I was tired and had been up there before.  I also had forgotten that I could have gone up there without doing the full rock scramble.  It's a place that I will probably lead the Road Scholar hikers, though.

Along the way, the wildflowers were pretty spectacular, especially the trillium and wild geranium:

Among others, we saw bristly buttercup:

Virginia spiderwort:

and golden ragwort:

Also, a lady we met on the trail pointed out this flower that she called little brown jug.  You can see that the flower is brown and is under the leaves almost on the ground.  I've since learned that it is Canadian wild ginger.

I really enjoyed this hike.  With the warm weather, a nice lunch break near Lewis Mountain, the side hikes, and the car shuttle, it took longer than I expected.  We got to the park about 9AM and didn't leave until about 5PM.  I was tired for the drive home, but felt blessed to have spent the day in a beautiful place with a great group of fellow hikers.