Hike Location
Name: Grayson Highlands
Distance: 185 miles from Lynchburg(approx)
Total hiking distance: 8 miles.
Hiking Experience:Started 6:00 am in the morning. Had breakfast(pancakes) from McDonalds around 6:10.Started towards grayson highlands. Taken a bio break at a restroom house around 7:35. Reached the state park entrance around 9:40. Paid the parking fee, parked the vehicle and strated for hike around 9:56 am. The temperature is around 38F, much colder than the expected(as per forecast above 50F). There is a narrow trail starting from the parking area which leads to Appalachian trail(approx length of this trail is 2200 miles). The narrow trail is AT Spur trail. Through the trail there are blue markings providing the directions. The trail has huge trees and plain grass on either side of it. It passes along the small water streams with cold water. there are wooden bridges to cross the streams. The climate is very cold, windy and covered with fog covering the scenic view of the nature along the trail. The trail is flat walk initially for about a mile then stlope increases. The spur trail is ended and continued the hike on appalachian trail. There are white marks along the trail for directions. The trail also passes through water streams. There are beautiful ponies(small horse) along the trail. Also there is a trail register for safety and emergency purposes.
The temperature reduced, wind speed increased, the slope increased, making it little tough to proceed further. continued along the trail. Fog still prevailed along the trail. traversed along the hills and coninued further until we reached the junction(one route leads to Mt Rogers- highest mountain in Virgina, one leads to horse trail). Had lunch at the shelter over there around 1:00 pm. Planned to do camping in the night, however due to drastic climate change decided to cut off the trip for one day. After lunch started back to the starting point by 1:20 pm. still the temperature reamined the same. Reached the Wise shelter around 2:55 pm and took a break. The shelter is made of wood. Met few fellow hikers near the shelter. There are two type of hikers section hikers and thru hikers. Thru hikers are the ones who do the entire appalachian trial(which take few months) and section hikers, just do hiking for few days targeting to cover few miles. Started from shelter around 3:27 pm. reached the point where we need to take diversion and cut off from appalachian trial by 4:30 pm and take A.T. Spur trial. on the way, temperature slowly increased, saw sun for the first time for the day. Slowly reached the parking lot by 5:05 pm. Left to home by 5:30 and reached home by 9:00. This was the first hiking in US and thouroughly enjoyed it. All is well.
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