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| Hiking | 9.09 Miles |
1,692 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.09 Miles | 4 Hrs 5 Mns | | 2.36 mph |
| 1,692 ft AEG | 14 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I decided to hike up to Mount Rogers, so as to bag another state highpoint -- this was my 20th.
I started from the Massie Gap TH, went on the Rhododendron Trail for about 1/2 miles, and then took the Appalachian Trail to the Summit Spur Trail, which I followed up to the summit. Then I reversed course back to the TH.
This section of the Appalachian Trail was more rocky than I would have imagined -- it reminded me of the section of Humphreys Summit Trail #151 that is below Agassiz Saddle.
The summit is covered in a thick spruce-fir forest which basically eliminated views and hardly let any sunlight in. There are some nice views along the Appalachian Trail though.
At the summit I saw one boulder with a benchmark disk on it, and another boulder with a reference mark on it (RM1). It looked obvious to me that the boulder with RM1 was the higher point of the two.
I did the hike on a Saturday and there were a fair number of people out there -- I'd say that most people were weekend backpacking this part of the Appalachian Trail.
These trails were very clean, with virtually no trash on them. I have observed that trails in this part of the country are much cleaner than what I see in trails in the western US. Several people were hiking with dogs, but they all had their dog on a leash.
On the way back I saw 2 wild ponies, which was cool to see. The ponies in this area are descended from Scottish shetland ponies, as opposed to the wild horses in the west which are of Spanish mustang descent.
I enjoyed this hike but I imagine that I would have enjoyed it more during the week, when there would have been fewer people on the trails. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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