DEAD AND GONE
Rocky
and I were up early the next morning. We
wanted to squeeze in a hike, but Rocky had to be home for dinner, as he was
expecting company. We left his cabin
around 7:30 under rapidly clearing skies, and headed back to Pearisburg,
Virginia. We continued a few more miles,
and found the turn up to Mountain Lake.
Originally we had planned to hike to the Cascades, which is one of
Virginia’s finest waterfalls. With the
blue sky and bright sunshine though, I was more inclined to head up high. I’ve wanted to visit the Mountain Lake
Wilderness for years, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
We
made the long, windy drive up snow-covered roads to the Mountain Lake Hotel,
which was closed for the winter. Beyond
was Mountain Lake – one of only two natural lakes in the state of Virginia. Well, that’s true in theory. Currently, there is no water in the
lake. Apparently the lake periodically disappears - naturally. The lake vanished earlier this year, and nobody knows when it might return.
We
continued beyond the hotel, the lakebed, and the Va
Tech Research Station. After another
mile or so, we found the marked trailhead on the right. There were several trucks here, and it
appeared that they all belonged to hunters.
Fortunately I had brought enough blaze orange
for both of us.
We
got out of the truck, and almost got right back in. It was windy and cold up there! We both bundled up, and trundled through the
snow to the signboard at the trailhead.
The map on the sign there shows the War Spur and Chestnut Trails, which
form a loop. According to that map, the two
trails diverge a short distance from the road.
In reality, the loop starts right at the parking area.
We
headed down the War Spur Trail through a couple inches of fresh snow. We passed a nice camping area and a junction
with a spur trail to the AT. Beyond, we
descended into a cove featuring old-growth Hemlocks. There are some nice trees here, including one
particularly stout one. Unfortunately,
all of them have already succumbed to the blight.
We
crossed a small stream, and climbed on switchbacks. A few minutes later, we arrived at a
junction. Here, we took a short side
trail down to the War Spur Overlook. We
were startled to find a hunter at the cliffs.
What was he doing there, standing guard over the valley below? We chatted briefly while we took in the
view. It was a good one, with a clear
view down the valley.
We
didn’t linger long, thanks to the icy wind.
We headed back to the junction, and picked up the Chestnut Trail. We followed this path back through lovely
open woods to the car.
We
arrived at the car before 11. We still
had a little time at our disposal, so we decided to do another short hike. We drove 2 miles farther up the road to the
trailhead for the AT. From there, we
followed the Appalachian Trail a ¼ mile up to well-named Wind Rock. From Wind Rock, we were treated to fantastic
views to the north, east and west. From
the cliffs, we gazed out over West Virginia, and looked back towards Peters
Mountain and Pearisburg. Despite the
chill, we decided to have an early lunch. I’d brought hot soup in a thermos, and that really
hit the spot. I shared it with Rocky,
before we headed back down to the car.
From
there, we headed back to Statesville and on towards home. It was great seeing Rocky again, and I’m
already looking forward to our next adventure together!
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Please remember to Leave No Trace!