Date: 2004-05-16
From: USFS103,Big Horse Gap

To: Va. 634/793 trailhead
Miles today: 11.1

We are listening to a bird chirping in the woods and Cindy is recording it. Now today is Sunday May 16th. We spent last night at the Holiday Motor Lodge in Pearisburg. We went out and overindulged at Subway of all places. We bought 3 Footlong sandwiches for 10.99. So how could we resist that. So this morning we got up and left the place at about 7:45, drop the 1 car off at VA 634/793 trailhead. And Drove up here to Sugar Run Gap. And we're starting on the trail at 9:05 am. We did see two hikers near Woods Hole hostel but we only said hi to them. At a Viewpoint we met Little Tree and Walking stomach. They are heading into Pearisburg tonight, if we see them there, we need to get pictures. And now it's 10:20 a.m., and we are at Doc's Knob shelter. Nice shelter with a nice location right off the trail. We both took advantage of the privy. We took two or three short breaks, sitting on a rock, resting our feet on an old woods road.And then it turned 90 degrees to the right and went straight up the mountain. Just about as steep as a person can walk. Luckily it only went up like that for a hundred fifty yards. You get to the crest and go under some power lines. Then you come to another opening and more power lines, With good views looking off to the West. We walk along the crest and over Paris Mountain, and finally a viewing point. Which may have been Angels Rest ,we don't know. We have the threat of some bad weather, with thunder in the distance. So we're taking a nice lunch break and letting our feet dry out. The skies hazy with clouds rolling in and threatening weather. We've passed a number of hikers on the trail today, none we knew other than Little Tree. Our lunch was between 1:30 p.m. and 2 pm. About 15 minutes later we came to the real Angels Rest Viewpoint with a big rock outcropping. We could see Pearisburg and the New River. We spent 20 minutes here, picture taking and looking at the GPS, enjoying the view. Then we started on the Steep descent at about 2:45 p.m. And at about 3:45 p.m. we came out to our car on VA 634/793 trailhead in Pearisburg. A truck was dropping off two hikers near our car, it had Florida plates and we wondered if it could be Lady Critter doing some trail shuttling. So now we're on our way back up to get our other car at Sugar run Gap or maybe to hike another 1.6 miles today. We drank a soda and drove onto Big Horse Gap to hike that 1.6 miles to Sugar Run. At Big Horse Gap, Terry is taking a pee when we heard a dog bark, and a hiker approaching. We jumped on the trail and started hiking, only later to find out it was Hobbes who we had heard approaching. We practically ran down the trail and did the 1.6 mi in 40 minutes from 4:20 to 5:07 pm. There was a hiker standing by our car when we came out of the woods at Sugar Run Gap. The hiker moved on down the trail toward Woods Hole. We started to change our clothes, When another hiker came out of the woods and started looking at his data book. We told him that Woods Hole was just on down this old woods road a little further. Turns out it was Hobbes. We gave him a ride down there in our car and we all got out and looked around the place . There was Papa Quick and the two guys left in his group, turns out the old guy is only 79 not 81. Cujo was up in The Loft at Woods Hole, they had mattress pads, about eight of them in the loft. Looks like a comfy place to stay. Talk to Cujo for a while, but nobody knew where Batch was. Terry talked to some hikers who said Batch was only doing Bland to Pearisburg and getting off. So we had a nice time there and then left to get our other car. We went back into town and tried to stay at the Rendezvous but couldn't, so We went back to the Holiday Lodge and cleaned up. Went out to eat at the Family and Friends restaurant. The food was okay , afterwards Terry said Subway's the real way to go. We went back to our room at the motel.