Date: 2015-04-09
From: VA 670 South Fork Holston River

To: I-81 (Atkins)
Miles today: 18.9

We got lucky again today. There was a likelihood of rain, especially after noon. Cumulus started building late in the morning, but no precip ever materialized. It was a tough day in other parts of the central region, but not so bad around here. Our biggest issue today was the heat, 80 deg., we're not used to it. And the heat brought out the bugs, and we weren't ready for them either. Enough about that, the trail was dry and in good condition today. We slack-packed NoBo from VA 670 to I-81, Atkins, VA. We started as early as we could get there (7:30) since we had a long day planned and wanted to beat the thunderstorms if possible. I really enjoyed the hike. We went through a lot of variations in terrain today. A lot of open forest - that's my term for really tall trees with little or no ground cover, just a floor of leaves. And since none of the trees have leaves yet, it's a somewhat stark landscape. I'll include a picture. What I've found interesting is that the tree trunks really stand out. Most are skinny and very, very tall, but a few have taken on some unusual shapes. And I've taken a few minutes to photograph some of them. We're also encountering more rocks, today on the ridges. They're tough on feet and slow us down a lot. It would be really easy to twist an ankle, or trip. It's worst when there are no places to step between the rocks. Good practice for PA. I've tried to capture how difficult some of the steeper rocky sections are, but it just doesn't come through in 2D. There's no way to convey the discomfort of looking down a narrow, steep, rock-strewn trail. We had literally miles of rhodo tunnels today too. We had one long stretch where the trail descended through rhododendrons in parallel with a stream. We rock-hopped across the stream many times and we could constantly hear the water cascading over the rocks. At times the rhodos closed in on both sides and overhead and it got dark in the tunnel. If you've never experienced this, you really should try a section hike through one of these areas. I can only imagine what it's like when the rhodos bloom. We passed by Partnership Shelter today (it's very close to the Mt. Rogers Visitor Center). The shelter is a large, double deck log structure, that even includes a solar shower (not working this early in the year). Princess thinks that she caught a bug here when we stayed here last year. A feature of the shelter is that hikers can order a pizza and have it delivered from Marion, VA, which is not too far away. Not long after leaving the Visitor Center, we passed Silverback and Walleye, a friend of his who is hiking with him to get a taste of the trail. They were both stopped partway up a long, steep climb - we were all sweating at that point. We didn't see them again, I hope Walleye did OK. Princess didn't notice that Walleye was wearing an Ohio State t-shirt, she's from AL, a Crimson Tide fanatic (perhaps you could tell from the hound's tooth hat and scarf in our TJ pic), and hasn't recovered from the BCS game. It's late and I have to get some Z's. We have a long walk tomorrow, and they say there's a 100% chance of rain. Our luck may have run out. PS: the Guest Book responses to my question about the flower suggested it's either a trout lily, or a dog-toothed violet. I looked both up on the web, and I think it was probably the lily. Both the flower and the leaves looked the same. Dog-toothed violet,Trout lily,