Looking back toward the Highlands
Fantastic weather for hiking again! This is looking south from our mid-morning respite. Where we had been for the last week or so.
Beautiful is an overused adjective on this trip -- but what within the English language can describe the continued unfolding of the landscape?
We made Chestnut Knob S., an old stone and morter structure, late morning. Then beheld Burkes Garden. Wow! I've read of Burkes, a valley ringed by ridges. Lunched on the south slope of Walker Gap.
We spent the bulk of the day, a warm sunny afternoon, skirting B.G. on the southern ridge line. PUDs all along. D.C., Sleddog, High Spirits, Breeze, Visitor and me. Came to an outcropping of rock, beginning to tire. Laid out for a spell when some day hikers happened upon us. They were from Martinsville, the Virginia Nat Sci Museum field trips. We yogied some cranberry juice and lemonade, along with melon, chocolate peanuts and raisins. Oh, good stuff. Two Roanoke Times reporters arrived and chatted. Then we pushed on to get water from Davis Farm. Somehow must have missed it -- I went down to the site, but no water.
We trudged down what seemed like forever to Jenkins Shelter. Buzz and Spaceman were there -- they had just seen a bear! No bears in the night that we saw, but D.C. saw one up by the privy.