Date: 2004-04-26
From: Slabtown Road 672

To: Va. 16, Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 9.2
Weather: moderate rain

What is a split hike? 2 or more separate hikes in same day.Va. 672 to VA 670,S Fork Holston River  N 1.1miles VA 670,S Fork Holston River to Va. 601   S 4.0 Va. 16, Partnership Shelter to USFS 86   S 4.1Today is Monday April 26th. We slept in this Morning, we camped again at the Grindstone Campground and slept in because it was raining. It rain most of the night. Finally the alarm went off, we got up went to the bathroom, decided to drive on in to Shady Grove and have some breakfast. So we did that. Really nice. And we went down the  Va 670 along the Holston River, park the car there and then went around to Slabtown Road 672. We did 1.1 miles in the rain, It was a little more than drizzle, just a nice steady shower. That went really good, we got on the trail at 9:40 a.m., and off at 10:05. Then we decided to come on over and do the 4 miler between Virginia 601 down to Virginia 670. First, we stop by the Mount Rogers Recreation Area, we looked at everything there and Terry bought himself a new t-shirt. We had to come on up on Va 601 off Va 16 and at about 11:55 a.m. we get on the trail. We got down the trail about a mile and the first people we ran into were Freedom and Carefree. We stopped and talked to them for a little while, they were almost at the top of the hill. They were not looking the happiest. Hiking up the hill Freedom seem like she might have a injured leg. They are going to the Partnership shelter and they're looking forward to ordering pizza from there. They also want to shower there, but they don't seem to have a towel. They're hoping to be in Atkins Virginia tomorrow night and get a hotel. We left them and further on down the trail we ran into Ichabod. Talk to him quite a bit about GG. Then Along came a hiker named Fire with this dog Roxy who's Trail name was Buddy, how many dogs have their own trail name. But Buddy didn't look real happy, he had a little pack on him to carry his own food. And Fire said he was going to take him to a vet in town to see if Buddy might have worms. We continued on and passed a few more hikers, there was a girl hiker named Rex. We walked on and came along an old rail bed and finally walked out to our car at 1:50 p.m. It rained a little bit off and on during the hike. Our third shuttle of the day, we parked the car on Virginia 16 in front of the Mount Rogers Recreation Area. And drove around to Glade Mt Road, FS 86. We got on the trail at about 3:40 p.m. The trail was rocky in places and steep up and down. When we got up higher I know we were walking in fog. It was an eerie feeling but cool and some drizzle. We met a hiker who told us Fire and his dog buddy had made it to the Partnership Shelter. And Fire was hoping, when we came back to get our car, we might take Buddy to the vets. As we're walking, going down the trail I hear something, I thought it was behind me, but it was Baker coming up the trail toward me. And he had a good story. He said that Fire had to call for a taxi to take him and Buddy into town to the vets, so they wouldn't be waiting for us there. We came to a USGS marker that somebody told us was two miles down the trail. It had taken us about an hour to get there. We crossed a gravel road, Forest Service 622 at 5:25 p.m. We had 7 tenths of a mile to go, just up over a hill. And we made it to the car at 5:45 p.m. So now we're going back to pick up our other car and drive into town and enjoy ourselves. Okay, one more thing about the hike today. The weather started out cool and Breezy, or windy, And kind of foggy in the morning. A mostly cloudy day, but the sun came out A few times. You could look off from the hilltops and see sunlight down in the valleys. But windy and overcast mostly, where we were hiking. Oh, we did get hailed on today, by some very tiny hail.