Date: 2017-09-18
From: Thomas Knob Shelter

To: Saunders Shelter
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: clear sky

I got up this morning around 6:15 a.m. Normal morning routine, except there were more people. Picture. After breakfast and chatting, we hiked a short distance south to a side trail which went to the summit of Mount Rogers. It was about 1/2 mile each way. I took a picture of the survey marker at the peak. After returning to the trail we continued south.Along the way, when I had enough signal to do so, I stopped to call the hostel in Damascus and confirm my arrival for tomorrow. I also asked about a pharmacy where I could pick up prescriptions, and the hostel operator provided a name and phone number. I called my doctor next, to arrange for the delivery of the prescriptions I needed to that pharmacy. I hiked through the woods and across more fields. Pictures. As I hiked I wondered if the increase in elevation had something to do with the increased degree to which the foliage had changed colors. Last night's Thomas Knob shelter was at about 50,340 feet elevation, just over 1 mile high.After reaching the base of climb, I went through an open field, across a road and parking lot and entered the woods to climb up the other side of the valley. Next I hiked through another field, across a gravel road and down into yet another field. Pictures. There I stopped to get water at a fast flowing spring. I also met a day hiker who had picked up the trail name Night Stranger when he hiked on the PCT. Picture.At several points throughout this morning, and yesterday, I could see far to the south that there were mountains much larger than those we had been climbing on. I wondered which ones they were, far enough away to be in Tennessee. At another point in one of these highland fields, I climbed a rocky out cropping and got some pictures of the 360 degree Panorama. There was a group of three day hikers there and we chatted for a few minutes and then moved on. From there the trail continued to go up and down through forests and fields at a relatively mild grade.I stopped at the Lost Mountain Shelter for lunch around 1 p.m. Wesley and Stewart were already there. Around 1:30 p.m. or so we continued hiking south. About 2:15 p.m. I crossed a large bridge dedicated to Luther Hassinger, who had evidently owned a sawmill and logging operation in this area in the early 1900s. On the bridge was a girl on a bike. She was taking a picture of something. As I got closer she explained that it was a black snake curled up in a rotten section of one of the cross beams supporting the bridge. So I took a picture of it to.My first impression was that this wooden bridge was part of Forest Service road, but then seeing the dedication I thought perhaps it was a logging company road. This was a one lane gravel road about 50 feet above a creek bed. Below, along as side of the creek there was another gravel road along which were several wooden platforms with railings extended out over the water, about every 50 yards. As guessed, later a sign confirmed that this was for fishing. A little further down the trail I saw sign with a picture of a train on it, indicating that I was now joining what was called the Virginia Creeper Trail. However, less than a quarter mile later, the Appalachian Trail split off to the right and went back up into the road along the side of a hill.