Date: 2008-03-12
From: Rte 613

To: Rte 635, Stony Creek Valley
Miles today: 7.3

Wednesday, March 12, 2008Yesterday I forgot to say that as we were setting the cars I saw the exact same brown horse with the AT white blaze on his forehead that Mountain Goat and I saw 4 years ago. In a pasture by the edge of 601. Didn¢t get a photo then, and didn¢t get one this time. Another reason to return to this beautiful area.Hiking south, Salt Sulphur Tpke (613) to Stony Creek Valley (635)Purple Rose is hacking and coughing. She was cold last night. Knowing her, she¢ll bravely hang in there without complaint. That lady has true grit.Start 9:30 on the north side of Potts Mtn at about 3800¢. No snow cover today, beautiful views, bitter sun, cold, windier than yesterday. Icy trail. Cold and windy enough to nearly freeze salt tears on my cheeks. I tie the floursack towel around my head kerchief-style, and pull down my hat. Limits visibility but warms my face, neck, and whole body. My hair¢s too thin and my body furnace too weak to hike in cold weather with my head uncovered. Bonus: the wide brim of my hat creates a micro-climate of warm dry air around my face that keeps my glasses from steaming.As I progress from old middle-age to young old-age, in some ways I care more about my appearance, in other ways less. The frumpy eccentricity of my headgear sometimes bothers me, making me camera-shy, sometimes not.Beautiful Purple Rose is blessed with thick thick hair and a hotter furnace. In most conditions, she can hike hatless. Today even Purple Rose is hiking with her head covered. She¢s wearing Purple Sherpa¢s oversize deerskin gloves.She says, If my water line freezes, that'll make a good story for today. An hour later, it¢s much warmer and we¢re walking through Pennsylvania-style rocks.Purple Rose's water line hasn't frozen. We'll have to find a good story somewhere else.Trail blazes are perfectly crisp, nicely oriented, well-distanced, brightly white.Another 45 minutes the trail descends somewhat and it becomes less rocky.We pass quite the silhouette, a large rock embedded vertically about 4 feet from the ground in the crotch of a tree.Stop at Bailey Gap Shelter.Noon, cross Rte 734.Beautifully-built switchbacks take us down to 635 through rhodo, laurel, galax and wintergreen. Wind¢s gone.Just before the road we stop to play on swinging vines at a large blowdown.Hemlock forest suffering from invasion of HSA. I can¢t bear to think of these forests minus hemlocks. Their soft needles, tiny cones, furrowed bark, grand size. They provide cover for wildlife and they¢re an important winter food supply for deer. A hundred years ago people couldn¢t imagine the forests devoid of American chestnut. Along the AT you still see chestnut suckers springing up from viable roots. Maybe the hemlocks will find a way to survive HSA.Out at 12:50. Purple Sherpa and Dixie greet us.Lunch.   Before we go on with today¢s hike, who swings by in his pickup to say a hearty hello but Otis! Thanks, again, Otis for a great stay at your place.The last time I was here, the bridge across Stony Creek had been washed out and I forded the creek in cool thigh-deep water. This time the bridge is still out, but the water level¢s lower. Lower, yes, but it will be ice-cold.Shall we wade or take the bypass?While I was in Florida last month, I didn¢t use the wetsuit or snorkeling gear. How can I justify the loss of all that usable space in the Element that's been occupied by that unused stuff? Use it here at Stony Creek! We'll keep out the cold by wearing neoprene socks and a pair of old snorkeling wet-socks. Brilliant!, as Mrs. Smoke would say.Purple Rose dons the neoprenes and me the wet-socks. The wet-socks go on hard. They¢re 30 years old.We wade across. So much more fun than a roadwalk.On the opposite shore, I try to remove the wet socks. No dice. The water has created a vacuum. It takes me holding my legs, Purple Rose pulling the socks and Purple Sherpa laughing and shouting from the opposite shore ¢PEEL them down¢ before 15 minutes later they¢re finally off with loud popping sounds.Guess this pathetic account will have to be today's story.The 2-mile hike out to Pine Swamp Branch (635) is up and down, running behind private property that lines the road.We come to a pile of beautiful turkey feathers, tucked partway under a rhododendron shrub. Downy feathers, stiff feathers, striking markings. What happened here?Past a clump of 20-foot holly trees, some with canker-like protuberances like I¢ve seen on beeches up north.Out at 3:45 to Dixie, Purple Sherpa and hot chocolate. How can life be better than this?Purple Sherpa tells us after we left him he met Crazy Diamond, who is one of the first of the 2008 NOBO¢s, having started January 9. Crazy Diamond thinks there may be one or two hikers ahead of him. So far, Purple Rose and I have met no one at all on the AT.We¢re skipping the 17.6-mile hike from Pine Branch Swamp to Rte 641. We¢ll save that to do at the end either as a 2-day hike with me and Lady Di or as a one-day hike by myself.Resupply in Pearisburg and relocate at the Rte 615 trailhead, the staging place for Purple Rose and my hike in 2005, and Mountain Goat and my hike in 2004.Gone this year is the 1993 bridge across Laurel Creek that was hand-crafted using traditional tools by Konarock and the Outdoor Club at Virginia Tech. Only the stone pillars, faced with stones from the creek, remain. The AT has been permanently re-routed down 615 and up to the old high water trail. More about this tomorrow. According to the radio, by 6PM it¢s 69 degrees in Roanoke.Goodnight.