Date: 2004-04-27
From: Va. 603, Fox Creek

To: Va. 672
Miles today: 14.0

Today is Tuesday April 27nd. And we left the Relax Inn at about 8 a.m. We drove down the interstate to Marion and Highway 16 and drove to Hurricane Campground road, Virginia 650. Dropped off a car there, drove around to Virginia 603, Fox Creek, and started hiking at about 9:10 a.m. We just crossed the road and there was Bramble and his girlfriend Kate and dog. They had camped out there at the road overnight and Bramble was very anxious to talk to us. He gave us a card with his website address and was soliciting for cancer contributions. So we told them we had already met them back on the trail previously. So we had heard all about his cause, and they decided they remembered us. We stood there and talked to them for 10 minutes, but don't remember what about. Mostly about other hikers and what Bramble does, sometimes off trail, to make money. We started hiking and we thought the trail was really great. It gradually went up the hill and around the hill, to get toward the summit. And we got to the crest of Iron Mountain, which was about a 2 mile walk . Then we went on for a while and came to the Iron Mountain Side Trail, which went off left. And all the way back to Damascus, if you took it. Then we met 2 Guys section hiking. They were from Columbus Ohio, but I can't remember their names. They were hiking from Virginia 42 to Damascus, on a 8 day section hike. We kept going and went downhill Steeply on an old logging road. It was a nice cool day and we wore our fleece except when we were going uphill. We kept hiking and hiking and kept thinking about the pizza we were carrying. And finally after 3 hours get down to where the side trail goes to Hurricane Campground. And we decided to sit there and have lunch. We took a half hour lunch break between 12:40 p.m. and 1:10 p.m. Just when we're getting up from lunch a guy comes hiking by southbound, and we talked to him. His trail name is Granite and he thru hiked in 2000. But he's out section hiking now. His favorite part of the trail is from Burke's Garden down to the Smokies. He is from Detroit Michigan. He's going to quit in Hot Springs, North Carolina because of time constraints. He took a train from Detroit down to Wytheville for his hiking Adventure . While we talk to him and during lunch there was a slight drizzle going on. And then two North Bound hikers walk by. We didn't get to talk to them. We went on and went by a waterfall called Comers Creek.It was a nice slide type waterfall. Finally at 2:10 p.m. we came out to the car. We drove our car back up to Virginia 16. And we look down the road and we saw two hikers, they started running toward our car, I guess hoping to catch a ride with us. Turns out it was the two guys that walked by us while we talked to Granite. Their trail names are Lead Dog, because he's always in the lead, and Freeze From Florida. We took them into Troutdale, they were going to the hostel, we didn't even know about a hostel in Troutdale. We drop them at the post office and they said the hostel was just this White House up on top of the hill near there .They were picking up mail drops at the hostel . We went and picked up our second car and then we took Highway 741, which turned out to be a beautiful road and a shortcut road. We decided we're going to do another short hike this afternoon. So we just dropped off the car at Slabtown Road Virginia 672 . And we're headed back to Virginia 650 for hiking. Okay, we started on the trail from Virginia 650 At 3:50 p.m. And it takes you up up up. It was a pretty nice Trail. We finally got to high top but we didn't go out to see the view of Mount Rogers and Whitetop in the whole range of mountains. Of course it was pretty overcast at that time. And then it started to go down and down and down. One guy passed us, his name was AddRock and who else did we see on the trail today. We went to the Trimpi Shelter And met Boxcar and Stretch with their dog Roots. A black dog with white spots, maybe a border collie. Roots is doing really well on the trail and the guys are doing really good. They are setting up camp and going to get firewood for a fire in the shelter. Looks like they should be nice and cozy tonight. We talked to them about meeting Bramble and they wanted to call him Rambo, but they were afraid to. They are looking forward to the Partnership Shelter tomorrow night and ordering pizza. We told them Bramble may still show up here tonight. He's only about 13 miles back, he may come in at midnight. Another guy we saw was the Stumblebum. We left there, but now Terry has to run back and get his poles. To finish up our hike, we came down through some old pit mines, for manganese and iron, that they worked during World War II. We go over a stile and into a big opening, where it was a pasture with cattle. We walked right by a bull and a bunch of cows. Then over another stile and down a road along another pasture. We came out at 6:45 pm to VA 672. We took a back road around to our car, it was a beautiful evening. The Sun was shining, and now we're heading into town to look for a motel tonight. And that's it.