Date: 2005-10-04
From: Crabtree Falls TH, Va 826 Meadows Ln

To: Va. 56, Tye river
Miles today: 5.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Monday Oct 3rd, 2005 Terry¢s 60th birthday. For his birthday we took off for Virginia and the A/T. We left the house a little after 9:00 AM and I think we drove 11 hours and we finally stopped in Covington, VA. We parked the car in the Best Western parking lot. It worked out OK. It was kind of bad in the middle of the night when I had to go pee. It got a little cool but I covered up.Tuesday, Oct 4th. 6:30 am we left and at 7:00 we were on the road. 7:45 am we were at the Enterprise parking lot. We got the car and it seemed like forever trying to figure things out and going to the grocery to get ice and water. We drove to the Tye River on US 56 and left our car there. We had to move things over to the rental car. We had breakfast there. Finally at 11:00 am we left in our red Chevy cavalier. We checked the fish hatchery to look around then got on VA 826 Meadows Ln, where it said it was a 4WD road. We went ahead but didn¢t have too much trouble. We took our time. There were a couple of creek crossings but no big deal. We finally came to a parking lot with some outhouses with a map to Crab Tree Falls. It wasn¢t where we wanted to be but when we went on up a little further the road got really bad. So we parked in the parking lot and hiked about a half mile up Meadows Ln to the AT. . It was a good hike in elevation up to the trail. We step on the A T again, and its always a great sensation. We left the car at 12:25 pm, and got on the AT at 12:40 pm, and at 1:15 pm to the Priest Shelter trail. We went 1/10 mile to the shelter and got there at 1:20 pm. We met a lawyer who lived in Indiana but grew up near Peoria, IL. His family owns 170 acres of farmland in Pike Co. We talked quite a while. He was supposed to be meeting his wife at the Tye River on US 56, about the time he was there with us, and he had over 4 miles to go. It was nice talking to him. We stayed at the shelter until 2 pm. We were back on the AT. We did some more climbing and got to the Priest at 2:10 pm. It was a nice lookout looking northwest.  We stayed there 10-15 minutes looking at the views. About 2:30pm we ran into 4 gals with a Husky. We talked to them awhile finally figuring out that they had come up from Crab Tree Falls Trailhead at US 56. They missed the views that I thought were obvious at the top of the mountain. They went over the other side and were coming back. We told them where to look for the views. We started a steep, steep, steep down right after that and at 3:40 pm we were at another lookout looking to the east over a big valley.  We stayed there until 4 pm. and then continued down, crossed Cripple Creek and down more, never leveling off. Just down, down, down, and near the end we got on some old roads which was a little bit nicer. There were a lot of switchbacks and very rocky. I twisted my ankle on top and again two or three more times on the way down because of all the loose rock and acorns. The feet come out from under you. We got back to our car at 5:10 pm on Tye river. We tried to find a place to camp out or stay. We stopped at a couple of campgrounds but they wanted too much. So we ended up at the Days Inn at Exit 205 on I-81. With our coupon out of our travel book we paid $49.95 plus tax. We ate at Joyce¢s Restaurant inside the Days Inn. It was a nice meal. We each had a bowl of chili which was real good. It was a nice day, we¢re worn out and we¢ll see what tomorrow brings. We did 0.5 mile to the AT and then 5.7 miles on the AT down to the Tye River from the Crabtree Falls TH, Va 826 Meadows Ln, for a total of 6.2 miles of hiking.