.November 12, 2006 - Hike #2
This is my 2nd hike of the day. Lynn and Madison headed off with me. After about 20 minutes they headed back. I'm not sure how much I will have Madison on the trail the rest of this trip. My sore knee is really requiring my attention, and she still requires me to keep a close eye on her when she comes. It is just too hard to do both right now. Soon I reached Niday Shelter.
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From here I began the big climb of the day. Because of my sore knee, I gave myself extra time to complete this hike. Up to Sinking Creek Mountain I went. The elevation was just under 3500 feet. I saw about 7 or 8 hikers on the way. This is more than I have seen in the last week combined. I made it to the top where the trail leveled off. I came across an intersection with a blue blazed trail. I take a lot of the blue blazed trails to check out scenic views or other features; however, if I take this one I might not get back in time for dinner.
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~ ~ At the time, I thought the sign above represented a trail so I looked it up on the Internet. From the best I can tell, it is not a trail but one of several imaginary lines that separates the watershed in North America. I found the follow information at
www.worldatlas.com.
The Eastern Continental Divide runs along the high ridges and peaks of the Appalachian Mountains, and it separates land draining east to the Atlantic Ocean from that draining west and southwest to the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico.
So I guess it wasn't a long distance trail. The double blue blaze makes me think there must be at least some type of trail here, but it probably doesn't go to either the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean.
The next few miles I walked across a narrow ridge. Some mountains are wide as you walk along but with the leaves off the trees I could tell this one was quite narrow. I could see through the trees to my west, but to the east I had several unobstructed views.
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This narrow, rocky ridge was starting to get my knee.
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~ ~ More great views to the east.
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There was such a change in the weather today. It went from sunny skies and a record high temperature yesterday to freezing cold, cloudy, and very windy. The wind was just whipping across this narrow ridge. I was looking forward to the next shelter to get out of the wind for a while. The shelter is listed on the AT map as Sarver Cabin. Right now in the wind, a cabin instead of a leanto sounds quite inviting.
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~ ~ I finally reached the side trail for the shelter.
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Uggh. The shelter was a quarter of a mile away. I looked down at my knee which was really starting to act up. I guess a half mile roundtrip detour isn't such a good idea. I zipped my coat up a little further and headed into the wind.
After the side trail to the shelter there were piles and piles of rocks. This land had been cleared for something at some point. It was such a narrow area on the top of the mountain that I doubt it was for farming. Maybe it was grazing land once??
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I reached a set of powerlines and got my first unobstructed view of the valley to my west.
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I made the steep climb down the mountain. It really wasn't that steep but with my sore knee it made it seem steep. It was great to get off the ridge. The wind just about stopped now that I was in the valley.
Stiles, stiles, and stiles. I would go over a lot of them the next couple of miles.
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This smooth trail was wonderful on my knee.
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I briefly followed VA 630 across a bridge (not the bridge above, but a road bridge).
Here's Sinking Creek.
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I love the woods, but I love coming out of the woods into open, rolling hills.
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As expected, my crew faithfully came to meet me.
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Virginia is so beautiful, even on a cloudy day.
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Once back to our car we drove off to our new motel in Pearisburg. We have been moving every couple of days, but the trail makes a turn around Pearisburg, so we should be able to stay put for a few days.
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