Date: 2010-06-01
From: Pearisburg

To: Trout Creek/VA 620
Miles today: 18.9

01 June 2020, Trout Creek/VA 620   When we got to VA 630 Patches and Denver were waiting for their shuttle to go to Troutville for a post office which our shuttle provider was doing. We walked the trail about 0.2 and ran into everyone else that Patches and Denver were hiking with and some others at a campsite, Rocky, Grizzly, SK¢Rabbit(I think), Pebbles, Rainbow, and Stick Shift. We stopped a socialized for a short period and moved on for a little bit until we reached the Keffer Oak. The Keffer Oak is the largest oak tree in the south on the Appalachian Trail; it measures at 18 feet round. We took some pictures and moved on.   We had a climb coming up shortly after the Keffer Oak so we did not lollygag around the oak. We wanted to get the climb out of the way while it was still morning and cool out. Part way up the climb we ran into Peace Pipe. He was taking a break and smoking a cigarette. He told us he had just checked his phone and found out he had a message that one of his friends had died. We talked for a little bit. He asked if I was the Troll that owned WhiteBlaze and thanked me a lot for all the information he was able to obtain from the web site. I made sure he was ok before I left him because he seemed pretty upset over his friend.   When we got to the top of Sinking Creek Mountain and were walking the ridge line, in the wide areas, there were all these rock piles scattered around, some of them were square and some round. We figured that they were structures left over from the civil war for protection. Later in the day we talked to our shuttle provider that slack packed us and asked about this, she told us that before all the current roads were put in there use to be a major transportation route and there were outpost up there during the civil war. She also said it was called Mini Ball Hill because of all the little cannon balls up there. She also said there were piles of cannon balls up there but we did not see any these. I took some pictures.   We stopped and took a break on the ridge line at one of the overlooks and had a snack.   We skipped going to Savar Hallow Shelter and I regret that now. I wanted to see the remnants of the old homestead and I did not realize they were down by the shelter.   We stopped for lunch at Niday Shelter. We noticed the time and realized we could not lollygag for lunch because we still had 10 more miles to go and it was 2:30.   We got to the climb up Brush Mountain and it was a long climb but it had switchbacks so it was not real bad. It was late in the afternoon and muggy, which seems to make things hard and wet, we were sweating our asses off. I did not stop once on the hike up the mountain. I got near the top and there was a bench so I waited for Hopper. I was surprised to find out she was so close behind me. I thought she was a good half hour behind me but she was only 15 minutes.   After Hopper showed we heard thunder in the distance. I made the comment that I hope it does not rain. Hopper said the magic words and said I hope it rains. Low and behold it started raining. It only rained for five minutes.   We made it to the Audie Murphy Monument by 4 pm. We took pictures and Hopper spread some of Mike¢s ashes. Audie Murphy was flying a plane that crashed into this mountain and died. He was the most decorated American WWII veteran.   We made it to our pickup point at 6:15. While waiting for our shuttle provider the mosquitoes were think and bothersome.