Date: 2015-04-13
From: VA 623

To: US 52
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was warmer than yesterday and every bit as nice. We checked out of the Comfort Inn and Bubba picked us up at 5:45 for the mountainside ride up to the trail. He took us to the same point (VA 623) as yesterday, except this time we headed north. We left our backpacks in his van and carried our slack-packs since he will be picking us up later today. I wore a short sleeve T and I was cold when we started, but not for long and I was comfortable the rest of the day. The first couple of miles was more of the ridge line around Burke's Garden (an extension of the start of yesterday's hike). I thought it was fun climbing through the rock outcroppings along the ridge, and I tried to take some pics. But the beauty and the massive scale just don't seem to come through, perhaps I should try B&W. Bubba likes photography and says that he usually takes 2 photos, one color and one B&W, and picks the one he likes best. Anyway, when we quit the ridge, we had an extended downhill for two and a half miles, down to the Jenkins Shelter. There was a sign on the spur trail to the shelter that warned of bear activity, and cautioned hikers to hoist food in bear bags. After a 500 ft climb from the shelter we were treated to an extended "road walk". Instead of following the ridge line, the AT followed an old forest service or logging road that paralleled the ridge just to one side. We were "treated" because the old roadbed is straighter and more level, and much easier to walk on than the rocky ridge line. It's also much faster and we were able to really book it for 3 or 4 miles. We noticed that there were a few blue blazes along the roadbed and sometimes the white blazes were painted over blue blazes. We speculated that initially the roadbed may have been an alternative to the ridge line, and at some point the AT was rerouted to the roadbed. When we finally quit the roadbed, we headed sharply down, eventually to a nice footbridge across Laurel Creek adjacent to a gravel road, VA 615. We saw two vehicles parked on the road and met two trail angels, Trail Dreamer and Steve, who offer to take any hikers into Bland to eat or pick up whatever supplies they need. They said they do it for about 10 weeks during the peak of the thru-hiker season. You meet a lot of really nice people along the trail. We were well-stocked and on a schedule, so we thanked them and pressed on. A few feet on the other side of the road was a campsite where Ranger and I camped last year, along with Crook and his dog Leo. As we started up the next hill we saw a sign indicating that a "small" forest fire had briefly closed this section of the trail about a month ago and that Forest Service workers had managed to suppress the fire. There were a number of switchbacks in the trail and a significant portion of the hillside showed the results of the fire. It appeared the fire had consumed the fuel on the ground, but may not have severely damaged more mature trees. Much of the remainder of the hike was along a contour that wound around a long ridge line toward Bland, VA (I believe). The contour was well below the crest of the ridge and hugged the hillside, up to the right and down to the left. The trail had some smaller ups and downs, went through rhodos and pines and hardwoods, and had some scenic views at some turns, but never crossed over the ridge. Eventually we dropped down toward Bland and Bastion, walked a short distance on a gravel road and stopped at US 52, just short of I-77. Bubba picked us up 10 min after we called (he lives in Bland) and took us and our backpacks to Trent's Grocery. Trent's now has an inside room (in addition to their campground) that we had reserved and we'll stay here two nights. After settling in, we had a late lunch and stocked up. The store isn't large, but seems to carry just what we need, and has a good grill menu. We came back later for supper and found Maverick in the store. He hoped that Trent's had a bunkhouse (rain is likely), but they don't, so he elected to head back to the trail and camp for the night. Now it's time to rest up for another long day tomorrow.