Date: 2008-08-28
From: Groundhog Trail

To: New River, Senator Shumate Bridge
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: clear sky

Woke up this morning still wrapped in Faye¢s tender arms (the grey, rainy cold of Tropical Storm, named Faye that is). After breakfast in the camper, Bill drove me back to the Sugar Creek Farm Trailhead otherwise known as Groundhog Trail and I traced yesterday¢s egress back up (1500¢) to the Ridge of Peter Mountain and back to the AT. As has been my good fortune of late, the rain stopped as I stepped out of the car making today¢s hike much more enjoyable.For five hours I walked in quiet beauty of the southern Virginia woods referred to on the regional maps as ¢the Heart of Appalachia¢ wrapped in clouds. The grey screen that surrounded me in every direction made my world seem very small and close but in a serene and peaceful way. For the second day I encountered no people on the Trail but did raise four large White Tail Deer and a couple of Wild Turkeys. Mid-morning I crossed through Symms Gap Meadow where the Trail cut through waist-high grasses interspersed with fruit-laden Crabapple Trees so gnarled and overgrown it¢s hard to image that they weren¢t always that way. The wetness of the grass left me as sopped as if I walked through a waist-deep swimming pool. The water sloshed around in my trail shoes for the rest of the day ¢ a small price to pay for the joy of experiencing the solitude and beauty of the scene wrapped in a shapeless veil that made the scale of that mountain meadow difficult to grasp. I imagine that how I experienced that same scene would have been very different on a bright, sunlit day, but was perfectly content to take it in just the way it was today.After lunch set out on a rock trailside (it was too wet too sit anywhere) I continued on to Rice Field Shelter, perched in the woods alongside another grassy knoll where I met Joe, a North Bound Section Hiker coming up from Franklin, Tennessee south of the Smokies. He had a fire going and was just sitting there waiting out a turn in the weather. Our encounter probably wasn¢t unlike that of other mountain travelers*Why are you putting Mrs. Symms in here. I looked up online and didn¢t see anything about her. You also mentioned her above when you wrote; I crossed through Symms' Meadow where the Trail cut through waist-high grasses interspersed with fruit-laden crabapple trees so gnarled and overgrown it¢s hard to image that they weren¢t always that way ¢ although once they were probably a prized source of Mrs. Symms' crabapple pies and jelly. I took both out.After a bit I moved on to meet Bill who, attired in his new hiking duds was waiting for me on Turnsole Knob, about a mile from the parking area where the Trail crosses VA 641 outside Pearisburg. He had climbed 600 feet to get there which is no small feat for a ¢flatlander¢ ( as his quads repeatedly informed him as we made our way down!) Once there, Bill made a run to the Post Office (which had already closed for the day) while I tacked on another mile or two to get across the Shumate Bridge that crosses the New River.Back in the Camp Creek Park, Bill napped while I indulged myself with a 30 minute steaming shower in the Park¢s community shower facility, followed by dinner, talk about the day and bed. Today would have been Bill¢s and my sister¢s 43rd wedding anniversary, and his first one without her, a sad one for him, for sure. We talked about their wedding, the silly, fun things that happened on their honeymoon, memories from over the years and just sat in silence. I¢m glad I was with him and we were able to share not just a past together but a present, albeit a very different one, too. We turned out the lights as ¢Faye¢ whispered ¢good night¢ with her pitter-pat of rain on the camper roof. It was a good day.