Elk Garden trailhead crosses the paved road, and the AT starts its 5 mile accent to the highest point on the AT in Virginia, Mount Rogers. It’s a wonderful climb, hiking through several meadows. The meadows combined with the ridge hiking, you might think you’re in the highlands of Scotland.
One of the highlights of this section are the wild ponies. They are not afraid of hikers, often getting very close. I didn’t see this, but was told they are like tame deer, and will invade your camp looking for treats.
Waterboy received some premium trail magic, Pizza!!
Rest stop at Dickey Gap. Ran into Taco, Nobo Lobo and Hot Stuff, along with Waterboy. Not pictured, Odeon
It’s spring turkey hunting season in Virginia. Waterboy, CornDog and Warrior Princess came across a turkey hunter. CD and WP are terrified of gun fire, but they seemed to get over it pretty quickly when the hunter presented the turkey for inspection. Ok, I’ll be upfront, I wasn’t sure this was an in-season kill, so I went a little hunting myself online. It’s legit, we are within a short early hunting season, so my apologies to the hunter.
Came across more hikers after returning from my hike at Dickey. Nice trio of guys; Spoon from Dublin, Pinecone from Texas,Captain Handy (darn it, I forgot from where). Pinecone and Captain Handy had also hiked parts of the PCT, so it was fun to talk shop for a bit. Rockstar showed up, and a new guy I hadn’t met, T-berry, from Harrisburg, VA (not photographed)
On the trail, you use your trail names. A friendly “hello” from a hiker who enjoyed some trail magic a week earlier.
