[at-l] Trip Report Grayson Highlands Part 1 of 2

["Stewart Holt" <Stewart_Holt@compuserve.com>]

Trip Report Grayson Highlands Part 1 of 2

There is a web page to accompany this report at:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Stewart_Holt/Grayso~1.ht
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My son, Stephen, and I spent April 4-7, 2000 on the AT in the
Grayson
Highlands/Mount Rogers area of Virginia. We spent one nice
afternoon and two
foggy, drizzly days there last October and didn't get to see as
much as we
wanted. We have systematically hiked the AT from Springer to SMNP
but this
was a trip to explore and enjoy this unusual area.

The area is about 30 trail miles north of Damascus, VA. This is a
very
unusual area because it is so different from most of the southern
Appalachians. The area includes the highest mountain in Virginia,
Mount
Rogers, Pine Mountain, and Wilburn Ridge. Thomas Knob is east of
Mount
Rogers and Pine Mountain extends northeast. Wilburn Ridge extends
to the
south. Rhododendron Gap is at this junction. At the south end,
Wilburn ridge
extends into Grayson Highlands State Park and curves east to form
a large
cove. Mount Rogers is made of a vary hard volcanic rock.
Rhododendron Gap
rocks are a pinkish volcanic ash which has been pressed by other
rock into
layers of something durable. That area may have been the site of
limited
glacial activity.

At one time the AT ran past Mount Rogers and Thomas Knob and over
the crest
of Pine Mountain over to the Old Orchard Shelter. It has since
been
re-routed to follow Wilburn Ridge into the park in a circuitous
manner and
connects with the Pine Mountain Trail near the Old Orchard
Shelter. This
change added a lot of beautiful scenery to the trail. By
including the Pine
Mountain Trail, a loop hike can be made from the park. Many other
loops are
possible as well.

I said the area was different. First of all, the entire area is
laced with
trails. There is the AT, Wilburn Ridge Trail, Rhododendron Gap
Trail, and
Virginia Highlands Horse Trail for starters. Part of the
Rhododendron Gap
Trail has blue blazes painted over old white AT blazes and the AT
now
follows a grassy path from Massie Gap. I have 4 maps of the area
and none
show all of the trails or agree on their exact location. Part of
our goal
was to figure out the area and see the parts we missed the first
time.

The area has vast treeless areas and offers great views. It looks
like it
belongs out west somewhere. Mount Rogers has a red spruce/Fraser
fir forest
covering its summit. It is often fog covered. When we hiked to
its summit
last fall, Stephen commented that it was exactly how he
envisioned the
forests described in European literature that were so dark that
they lurked
with evil. There are patches of spruce and dying fir scattered
around on the
higher ridges that are mostly covered with grass and small
bushes. There is
a lot of Rhododendron around. Wild ponies live in the area and
are
instrumental in keeping the area from returning to forest. They
are managed
by the Wilburn Ridge Wild Pony Association. I think there about
200 in the
area. If I remember right, there are annual roundups and
auctions.

That bring us to why the area is so different. Back in the late
1800's and
early 1900's the area was almost completely logged for its prize
spruce and
fir. The waste from logging would catch on fire and the resulting
fires
along with erosion from rain completely removed 15 feet or so of
rich humus
soil, exposing a large amount of rock. The resulting area can no
longer
support large trees on the ridges. Acid rain and the balsam
woolly adelgid
have devastated the fir trees here as elsewhere. This is the same
situation
that resulted in the Dolly Sods area in West Virginia. It feels a
little
strange to be attracted to two areas that were the result of
utter
devastation by man. In both cases, nature has begun to restore
the area
through a natural progression. The dominant spruce/fir forest
brought by
glacier is not likely to reestablish anytime soon.

We arrived in the Grayson Highlands State Park at about 2:30 in
the
afternoon as a major rain system, which flooded parts of the
Tennessee
Valley, was moving out and a cold front was moving in. The
weather
alternated between periods of sun and broken clouds and heavy
snow showers.
The Massie Gap trail in the park meets the AT at its namesake.
For the
second time, we missed the AT and took the Rhododendron Gap trail
out of
Massie Gap. They meet at the park boundary where a set of steps
crosses the
wire fence at the park boundary. A fence encloses the park. There
are ponies
inside the park and outside the park. I thought I recognized the
same
individual ponies both in and out of the park. We crossed the
fence and
headed up Wilburn Ridge. The wind was strong and the intermittent
snow was
beginning to cover the ground. We found a spot to camp to the
leeward side
of one of the several large rock pinnacles on Wilburn Ridge and
set up the
tent. After a brief climb to the top of the rocks we had dinner
and were in
the sleeping bags before dark.

Based on weather reports, I has figured that it would get down to
about 15
degrees and certainly no less that 10. We had 20-degree bags
(comfortable
down to 30) and put army poncho liners in them and wore long
underwear. We
placed water bottles and the filter between us so they would not
freeze. As
an additional measure we deployed a tarp made of thin tent
material over our
sleeping bags. A thermometer showed the water bottle area
stabilized at 40
degrees. Over night, the wind increased and occasionally spilled
over or
around the windbreak and unleashed its fury on the Walrus Arch
Rival. We had
the foot of the tent pointed towards the wind and it withstood it
well
although at times I was worried. During the stronger wind gusts,
ice
crystals rained down on our faces from the rain fly above. The
temperature
dropped to 18 and we were a little too warm but it felt good!

The next morning, my watch alarm went off exactly at sun rise and
I managed
to take a picture through the tent door, but the wind by this
time was
rocking the tent so hard that it is a little blurred. This
contact with the
icy air convinced me to stay in the tent until the sun warmed it
up.

When we did get up, the sky was a deep purple with no clouds in
sight. We
cooked breakfast with the Gaz stove that managed boil water in
spite of the
temperature in the low 20's. As we walked onto the open part of
the ridge,
we found out how much good the windbreak had been doing. Climbing
the 30 or
40 foot pinnacle made an even larger difference in the wind. On
the top it
was very difficult to stand and almost impossible during the
gusts. On
ascending, my hat went ahead of me in spite of the chinstrap. I
uttered one
expletive, followed by "HAT!" As I topped the rock, I saw that
Stephen had
nailed it to the ground with a hiking pole. I seized it with both
hands. As
I lay on the rock trying to hold the camera still, I remembered
thinking,
last October, "I want to get up here right after a front comes
through. It
might be windy though." Yep!

We had come to day hike a lot of the various trails and we
decided to find a
more protected base camp to do that from. As we were about to
break camp, we
saw the only other person for the first day and a half of the
trip. An F-16
pilot cleared the ridge at a lower point only a few hundred feet
away. It
was a strange perspective to see the plane from above. I guess he
wanted to
see the snow covered mountains. I prefer a slower pace.

We hiked back towards the park and found a grassy campsite just
north (trail
south) of the park boundary. There was water nearby. The area had
numerous
dead fir trees mixed with live spruces. In the protection of the
hillside
and trees, it warmed up and was very pleasant. After resting and
eating
lunch, we decided to hike the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail,
south, until
it met the Rhododendron Gap Trail and from there to the gap.

After a short walk, we saw a "No Horses" sign by a footpath and
decided to
follow that. It led through woods and open fields that had
numerous
intersecting paths, probably made by animals. We took whichever
one was
headed in the direction indicated by the GPS set on Rhododendron
Gap. We
entered one large open field that had 8 to 10 ponies grazing in
it. A series
of springs lies to the north of the field with a split rail fence
enclosing
the one nearest the gap. These fences keep animals (mainly the
ponies) out
of the immediate spring area. This is the spring that is marked
on the AT
map that we could not find last fall when we had to hike all the
way to
Thomas Knob Shelter for water.

Returning, we took the Rhododendron Gap trail back to camp. This
trail heads
down near the spring and stays on the west side of the ridge for
about half
way and then crosses the AT and drops down on the east side of
the ridge the
rest of the way. It avoids the rock climbing that both the AT and
Wilburn
Ridge trails do. After an early dinner, we had time for a walk
along Wilburn
Ridge into the park to get a closer look at ponies that were
grazing. The
ponies in this area seek protected areas in bad weather (unlike
some
hikers). We saw only 3 last fall. They were beginning to show
their numbers
now. The night was considerably warmer with little wind at this
site.




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