Date: 2016-07-06
From: Knot Maul Branch Shelter

To: Chestnut Knob Shelter
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: thunderstorm

Knot Maul Branch Shelter to Chestnut Knob Shelter10 milesToday's plan was to hike up to Chestnut Knob for lunch and then hike on from there before stopping for the night, Chestnut Knob was the first place with a view, so I thought it would make a nice lunch spot. I figured it would be about four hours. I thought about that as I started to hike up the mountain. In a way it is like planning to drive from my home in Columbus, IN up to Lake Michigan and the Indiana Dunes for lunch with a good view. It's about a four our drive. If you are going that far for lunch, you'd better enjoy the journey.I did enjoy most of the journey up the mountain. Actually I went up and down a small mountain first, Lynn Camp Mountain. Then before heading up the larger Chestnut Knob, I came to a gravel road and found some "trail magic." Someone had left a cooler of apples and bananas. So I had one of each and started up the mountain. I passed several huge expanses of ferns. It rained hard for a while and then slacked off to a steady drizzle. As usually happens in the forest, it is hard to tell when the rain is replaced by water dripping from the trees. I put away my umbrella, got out my second hiking pole, and then the rain started to fall again. Was it rain, or was it the wind blowing water out of the trees? Either way, I decided I was already so wet it didn't matter. About halfway up the mountain the trail followed a narrow clearing in the forest. It wasn't wide enough to see a view into the distance, but it was wide enough to see a blue sky with white clouds. At the top the forest opened up completely so I could see the farms in the valley below. The Chestnut Knob Shelter was unusual. It was made of stone, it had four walls and a door, it had windows, and it had a table inside. It was 3:00 by the time I got there and I knew I wasn't going to make it to the next shelter before nightfall. And I knew the next shelter couldn't be this nice. So I decided to stay for the night. I spread my clothes out on a rock to try to dry them out.   While I was spreading out my clothes an Amish family came by. They were here from Lancaster County, PA. They said the whole family came to Virginia by bus to visit one of their brothers who owned one of the farms we could see down in the valley. They had hiked up from there, a two-mile hike up the mountain. Soon after the Amish family, Ellsa and Kolby, the couple I had met two nights ago at the road crossing in Atkins, arrived at the shelter. They decided to stay in their hammocks. Soon after they got their hammocks up and hung their clothes on a line in the sun between two trees at the edge of the forest, it clouded up and started to rain. We all snatched our clothes as quickly as possible so they wouldn't end up even wetter. It didn't rain long, and afterward there was beautiful rainbow that looked as if it was coming right up out of the valley. It all made me glad I had decided to stop there for the day instead of hiking on. I went to bed about 9:00 after watching the sunset, and then I got up about 11:00 and went back outside to look at the sky decked out with thousands if stars. I enjoyed the mountain top view for a few minutes and then went back to bed.