Damascus, VA to Pearisburg, VA

Day 2, Friday, September 21

Lost Mountain Shelter to Thomas Knob Shelter, 12.2 miles

Up at 6:50 AM. It's a refreshingly cool morning and I'm not as sore as I thought I'd be. I boil some water for coffee and hot chocolate before packing up. We're leaving the shelter by 7:45 AM.

It's only a little over a mile to the Highway 58 crossing at Summit Cut and we make that distance a few minutes after 8 AM. Twenty minutes later we cross VA 601 where I had originally planned for Dad to be picked up by the Mt. Rogers Outfitters shuttle. We've made a lot better time than I thought we would be able to do. We continue on.

Now the tough part. Climbing toward Whitetop Mountain. We climb steadily the next two hours across the base of Beech Mountain before breaking out into an old overgrown field just below Buzzard Rocks. We take a break at Buzzard Rocks for fifteen minutes. A few minutes after 11 AM, we cross the base of Whitetop Mountain. What a climb! Whitetop is the second highest mountain in Virginia. Although the AT doesn't cross the top of Whitetop any more, it goes close enough from my perspective.

There is a great spring on Whitetop Mountain, just a few hundred yards before the Whitetop Mountain Road. We stop and refill all of our water bottles. The spring is literally pouring water compared to the earlier ones we've passed.

At Whitetop Mountain Road, Dad decides to stop. I call the outfitter and they agree to pick him up here. He'll meet me tomorrow morning at Massie Gap in the Grayson Highlands with my food bag for the next leg of the trip. I head on. It's already noon and I've got a little over six miles to reach Thomas Knob Shelter, where I'll spend the night.

I reach Elk Garden at 1 PM and stop for a few minutes to talk with a Virginia DOT road crew before crossing the highway and opening the pasture gate on the other side. The pasture is full of cows. They keep me in their sights as I cross the pasture and climb the hill leaving the highway behind and below me.

It's a nice hike to Deep Gap but I can tell that I'm getting tired as I start up Mt. Rogers. The AT doesn't go over the top of Mt. Rogers any more either (Thank goodness!), but it goes high enough. The climb is rocky and I'm stumbling.

I meet an old man and his son who ask me which way to the top? I tell them I haven't passed the trail to the top yet and they turn around and follow me back to the pasture above Brier Ridge. It's shortly after 2 PM. I've got 1.4 miles to go now...uphill.

At 3:15 PM I break out into a field and I can see the top of Mt. Rogers on my left and miles of valley below and to my right. I see Thomas Knob Shelter in the distance and stop to take some pictures. A guy and a girl with ultralight gear pass me headed south.

I reach the shelter at 3:35 PM and I set my sleeping bag, shoes and other gear out to sun. I head for the spring below the shelter for water. I'm going to clean up some! As I head down the hill I see a USFS crew surveying a campsite below the spring. One of the girls looks up and says that there isn't much water. She's right, but I manage to pump enough out to wash up with. As I'm finishing getting water, they leave and a couple from Laurinburg who are camping nearby come down for water. I let them borrow my pot to pump water out of and I head back up the hill to take a bath in the woods past the shelter. I need it!

I guess I'm somewhat of a clean freak on the trail. I can't stand crawling into a sleeping bag at night all sweaty and sticky. I'd much rather find a spot in the woods away from the shelter and take a quick bath. I bring along a 2 ½ gallon plastic water bag for just that purpose. You wouldn't believe how much better you feel after cleaning up some.

I crawl through the barbed-wire fence across from the shelter and slip into the pasture below to find a spot out of sight to bath. In ten minutes, I'm a new person. I head back to the shelter. Still, no one else here, so I begin to cook supper. Noodles, fruit, grits, and plenty of water.

A couple with a dog hikes by and asks if there is a spring here. I show them where it is. They fill up with water and head on north. I finish supper, clean up and pack up and I'm ready to sit back and relax by 6 PM. There is still plenty of sun in the sky, but there is a slight breeze, and it's getting cool in the shade. I suspect with the clear sky overhead, the breeze, and the altitude over 5,000 feet, that it will be cool tonight.

I sit down to catch up with my journal and write this in the shelter journal.

"9/21"

"Great long day of uphill and trail from Lost Mountain Shelter to here, 12.2 miles. Second day out of Damascus after a long 16-mile yesterday. It always seems to take me 2-3 days to recover after the first day.

This is easily one of the most beautiful spots on the AT for me yet. Like Tray Mountain, Northern Smokies, Roan Mountain and the Humps, Mt. Rogers NRA is living up to what I had hoped for. I'm a full day ahead of schedule now, so maybe I can actually go further that I'd planned..."

"Snuffy"

I pull on my fleece at 7 PM. It's still 60 degrees, but the breeze feels cooler. After being hot and sweaty all day, now I'm chilled.

Richard comes in at 7:15 PM. I will have some company after all. He cooks supper and we talk until dark and the crescent Moon and stars come out. Richard is from Folly Island, SC, near Charleston, but now lives in Independence, VA near where his parents live. He's 49 years old and works odd jobs for a guy named "Mule". Yesterday they dug 300 pounds of potatoes. They hunt ginseng, goldenrod, and other herbs.

Richard used to have a grading/backhoe business in Charleston, but gave it up after 6 years. He spent six years working on a shrimp boat before that. I think he now enjoys the good life! He knows a lot about the Mt. Rogers NRA and the Grayson Highlands, so I learn a lot from him about what to expect.

The wind keeps building all night and it sounds like the ocean. The mice come out and it sounds like one is making havoc with my food bag hanging on the front of the shelter. I keep hoping it's just the wind.