mount rogers, va - november 2003

“and.......I missed everyone!!!!.......it has been a long lonely weekend.........”

“gemini, last weekend when i went up there, we got lost on that same section. the trail intersections aren't marked where the rhododendron gap trail and AT cross. at least, i don't think they are. the wilburn ridge trail wasn't marked either. good thing they all pretty much go to the same place.”

“except=accept”

“We got to Grayson parking lot Sat around 1:30 and started up Rhododendron Trail to cathc the AT up to the summit. I had my 12 yr old son and 9 yr old daughter with me. Her first trip carrying her own load.

Put on the rain gear since a constant drizzle was falling and were doing pretty good.

Once we caught the AT and started climbing higher the wind picked up. After we got above Massie Gap the wind was downright rude, plus it seemed like the rain was becoming sleet.

We opted to turn around. I knew the kids wouldn't have any fun in 30 mph wind with sleet mixed in and I didn't relish the thought of trying to cook in that mess myself. Once we dropped back down into the trees, it was much better though and my daughter suggest that we camp here.

So we did. Had a great night, saw lots of the ponies. Right after we got set up, Fritz came by on his way to the summit. About an hour later he came back through with a group, I'll probably miss someone so please don't be upset. Yam, Pensy, YnamiYnami, walkindude and at least a couple more. They confirmed the s--tty weather up top.

It rained on us overnight, but we all stayed dry. Got up this morning and packed up headed back to the cars. Overall a good trip was salvaged from a crummy weekend. My daughter says she'd love to go back up there in the summer and get to the top.

It was great to meet all you guys that came by Sat evening.”

“hiknmike, are you the mike I hiked with before?? I am trying to figure out if you mike from the yahoo board...”

“No, sorry that's not me. Never been on the yahoo board.”

“Sounds like a good time had by all!


8)”

“okay, I really was wondering. Lots of hiknMikes out there then. :)
Sorry I didn't meet you Saturday. We may have passed each other, don't know.

We need to hike together one of those days.”

“Yeah, except for the folks who got to feeling bad, even the folks going out early seemd to be having a pretty decent time.

Hey, gemini - you ever been to Ellicot Rocks? I've been wanting to get over there for a while now.”

“Hmm, never been there. Got to check it out on yahoo after this post. :)

Let me know when you wanna go. I am ready!”

“I'm glad you guys managed to squeeze in a good trip. I was thinking about you, watching the Weather Channel --- it looked like it might be getting pretty messy up there.”

“Yeah, the weather was pretty nasty, at least on Saturday. Rain and cold wind just don't mix. I never saw the sleet, but I was told some sort of sleet was coming down during the early morning hours. I was still sleeping then.

I do know that I really have to winterize my gear. Thought I am pretty set for winter, but I need to take a second look at my boots and gloves. Not sure why my boots let me down. They are goretex. I guess I'll have to seal them somehow.

Glad to hear from hiking mike that the rest of the group is okay. I really was wondering what happend to them. I am still not sure what exactelly happend. Why we got to camp before them.
Did ya all get lost??

I know Spam doubted me for a little while. We did not see boot prints of the others while on pine crest trail (was it pine crest??). I thought they maybe took the trail right next to pine crest. I knew we were on the right trail though because I came down that trail the day before.


ahhh, anyway. I had a blast. Bad weather and all!”

“it is pretty easy to miss the pine mountain trail where it heads west at the intersection with the lewis fork trail. penssy had been across there last year so i figured he would have remembered. the crest trail runs along parallel to the pine mountain trail. seems that if they took that, they would have still beat the rest of us to rhododendron gap. i figured they hiked on by to the summit.”

“Due to much confusion, and many questions, I'll use the name TheNomad from here on out.

I've actually earned this name, it's a long story though.”

“i think we have a nomad already, too:) it's ok though, i think everyone will be able to tell teh difference”

“heeheehee....we have a nomad on this board. heeheehee....



baume, I am curious about what happend. Let's hope they hurry home and post a trip report. we may get out butts chewed for leaving :(”

“<ouch>

LOL”

“Gemini - no one would chew you outfor bailing - it was obvious to everyone at Rhododendron Gap that you were mildly hypothermic and you getting up and hiking out was your best choice. Me - well I let myself get influenced by the baume weather report perdicting more steady rain for Sunday - then on the way home I heard the weather report indicating only a "slight" chance of showers - sigh - still and all once Jerbear decided to head out it was obvious that it was not going to happen at the gap - however I am glad Jerbear headed out with you since I was a bit worried about your mental state with the hypothermia but on the other hand you did look ok once you got your pack on and ready to go.”

“After Baume dropped Azimuth and I off at the car at Grindstone, we made a straight arrow for da Barrel near Abingdon. We feasted on catfish and chicken sandwich with coffees between us. We hotel shopped off I-81 and opted for a Days Inn on Saturday night instead of the wind-infested Rhodie Gap. The next morning after blasting the heat all night in the room and laughing at Sanford and Son, we were on our way for bacon and biscuits and gravy and hashbrown casserole at, of course, da Barrel. Before we got through the double doors, we ran into Ewker, Yam, and Walkindude! We were like, "How'd y'all get off the mountain so quick?!" Anyway, we have been watching football and looking at maps and data books about Mount Rogers and the AT.

It was such a lovely hike, but I am glad we came down early. I was exhausted this morning, but glad I made it out for the trip! It was great meeting some new folks - hope to see you again soon!! :D”

“"No one has seen Pennsy, Yam and walkingdude. We weren’t sure what happened. Did they decide to hike up to Thomas Knob shelter?"

Gemini
08:25:50 AM
11/16/03


I told Everyone that if I got to the top and the weather was crappy (which EVERYONE knew it would be) I was heading for the shelter. Is was VERY windy and raining at R. Gap so we headed for Thomas Knob Shelter.
BTW, we did see Rad & OM's tents but there was no sign of them.
When we got to the shelter there was a Boyscout troop that was just about to leave. Me, Pennsy, Yam, & YnamiYnami went upstairs and changed into dry clothes and ate lunch and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited..... but no one else from our group showed up. Finally Pennsy walked back to R Gap and saw Rad & OM and they said everyone else bailed. Without even going to Thomas Knob shelter first(which BTW we were the only ones occupying at the time). Pennsy brought us word back about everyone else. My thoughts were this, I was in a warm shelter, I'm either staying here or If I leave it was to go all the way down. I wasn't about to trade in shelter space for a spot on a cold windy & rainy ridge top. As a group we figured it would be funner to head down and go join the others in the Hostil in Damascus.
We Collected Ewker, and loads of others along the way and went to town for pizza and a room. The only one at the Hostil was Trekkngirl. What happened to everyone else now?!?!
Unfortunatly the only ones we couldn't find along the trail was Karo, Little Bit, Stikmon, & Stratusloop. They wound up spending the night on the ridge.”

“Also to add, The four of us that grabbed the shelter were there for 3 hours until a herd of Boy Scouts basicly ran us out. Those loud annoying little b@st@rds helped us make our decision to leave for Damascus.”

“I know how you feel about being invaded. That happen to me up at Savage Gulf. Only it wasn't Boy Scouts. But it wasn't bad weather so I just let them have it. Some people are just rude.”

“I did talk with Stan, he found Karo and Little Bit this morning, they got to Rhod. Gap around 2:30, never saw anyone, camped there...saw my not in the trail reg. on the way down this morning.

So the only ones unaccounted for are Stikmon/Khatru and Stratusloop, who were together, and Gonzo and RockStomper, who I think just headed out directly from the shelter on Saturday morning. Not a bad decision.

Hope to see a post soon from those two pairs.

Great to meet so many new people, wish there was more time, wish we all had Saturday night and Sunday morning together.

More later.”

“Sounds very similar to last year.

I certainly missed you folks. My arb case lasted until 6:28 pm! There was no way I was driving the 7 hours that night.

Gemini, glad to hear your OK. 02' crew, sorry I missed you guys, I'm bummed that I missed this trip, regardless of the crappy weather, and glad everybody came back OK.

#&%!$, I missed the radster again! I don't think I'll ver meet OM.... it's cosmic or somethin'.”

“Huggin' om again was one of the biggest reasons I drove all the way down there (10 hours). I came within about two minutes of missing her entirely, but I did get to see her for about five minutes on Saturday afternoon.

One of many blessings on this trip.”

“Since I'm new, i oughtta be allowed to pick a name that doesn't look like I'm taggin someone else.

This is it, ain't changin again.


LOL”

“hikinmike became Roam Around”

“I regret missing OM. I had a big ole hug waiting on her too. :(
I did really enjoy seeing everyone and getting to meet new people! :)


Hope the next trip will be with better weather conditions!!

We missed ya Buddha Bear. Sorry you had to work.”

“Hikinmike. you really are going to confuse all of us.

Fritz, it was nice to meet ya. Like you I feel that the time was too short. Well, maybe next time.”

“Heck, I missed ya too dude, it's been awhile! And I was looking forward to meeting fritz too. Well, there's always next year!”

“Yeah, you too BB.”

“I'll stick with this. I'm getting confused myself.”

“That'll work, Mike!”

“Heck, Hikin'Mike/RoamAround, would have been cool to meet you too. I didn't even know you were coming!”

“Mike, how bout' Scooter McHiker?”

“That one cracked me up.

Jeez, I can't change it again.

I just got hooked up with the board a few weeks ago. That's what made me decide to head up to VA this weekend.

Enjoyed meeting you folks, the one's I ran into anyway. Hope to catch more of you soon.”

“Jerbear
Ewker
Yam
Karo
Trekkngirl
Gemini
Walkindude
Smokygirl
Azmath Cordinator
Spam
Tn War Eagle (Stan)
Little Bit
Pennsy
Fritz
Baume66
YnamiYnami
Stikmon
Statusloop
Masa
Gonzo
Rock Stomper
Roam Around (Hikin Mike)
HOI
OM
Radagast
__________
25”

“Sounds like an awesome and challenging weekend due to weather! Great trip reports.”

“Wow! I didn't realize there were that many folks up there. No wonder the parking lot was full when I got there Sat.”

“who was rock stomper??”

“rockstomper and i got kind of a late start friday, so it was pitch dark (althought he sky was absolutely clear and full of stars)when we started making our way up toward the old orchard shelter....rockstomper had forgotten her headlamp, so we had to make do with one light between the two of us....when we got up to the shelter, there was a major campfire blazing and a lot of happy faces crowded around it.... it was great to see baume again and to meet a whole lot of new tter's....we set up our tent, cooked up some soup and because we were semi tuckered out, hit the bags early....

it rained most of the night....next morning it was still raining fairly steady....everybody else was getting up and rolling out onto the trail, but we decided to sleep in and see if the rain was going to let up....it didn't....

after our third pot of coffee, the tent started getting too small....we decided to drag all our gear up to the (now empty) shelter and regroup....we found that stikmon and stratusloop (and khatru) had the same idea....after much discussion of our options, we decided to stay put....we had a whole lot of excellent food, a fire that was soon burning hot again, a half pound of fresh ground coffee, a deck of cards, and most of all a clean, dry shelter....

we met a lot of interesting people by staying there....a group of 6 guys dayhiking stopped by for hot coffee (one of them had recently completed section hiking the AT....took him 19 years!!)....

rockstomper and i decided to go on a day hike....we went up the lewis fork trail to the cliffside trail, then over to pine mountain, then over to the AT, and back down the mountain to the shelter....when we got back down there we met a group of young through hikers that were heading south on the AT and were "only 500 miles" from completion....it was a pleasure talking to them....i was amazed by how clean, organized, and just generally together they were....

later in the afternoon we were joined by ron and mike and spent a pleasant evening swapping tales around the fire....

sunday morning, rockstomper and i left early and headed down to the grindstone campground....got cleaned up at their excellent shower facility, hit the road hard, and we were back in columbus by 4:30....

sorry everybody had such a hard time up at the gap....i wish that i could have gotten to know each one of you better, but now i can place a real face and voice with a name....look forward to the next hike!!!

thanks again to baume 66 for putting this together....”

“okay, now I remember rock stomper. :)”

“okay, now I remember rock stomper. :)”

“woah...how did I do that??”

“My pics will be posted at the end of this post.

I wasn't sure which way I was going to go to get to R Gap. I started up the AT with Mesa59 and TennWarEagle. We eventually passed Trekkngirl and met up wthe Smokygirl and azimuthcoorindator at the Pint Mtn Trail. We stood around a while waiting on Trekkngirl and trying to decide which way to go. We had a choice of 8 miles or 2 miles so we took the 8 mile hike on the AT while trekkngirl took the short route.
Thetrip on the AT was great, it was a light rain and no wind as long as you were inthe woods but once you hit the balds it was hard to walk. We started up AT at Scales and 3 hunters were dragging in three deers. Yum deer steak. Once we got to the bald above Scales we saw our first pony. I don't know how hard the wind was blowing but it would push you off the trail and the freezing rain hitting your face wasn't that great. We only saw one group of hikers on the AT and that was right before we got to Wise Shelter. I stopped to grab a bite and get some water. Smoky and Az went on ahead. Eventually we caught up with them and that is when we saw baume66, gemini and jerbear. That is when they told us they were bailing. I asked about walkindude and Yam and they said they hadn't seen them. The only thing I could do was to keep on hiking and eventually we ran into the reat of the group coming down the mountain. We stood on a bald and held Yam down to keep her from flying away ;) We finally decided to head on back to the Massie Gap parking lot. So after going alomost all the way to R gap and back down TennWarEagle, Meas59 and myself did approx 13 miles. That is the reason we never made it to the shelter.
It was a good trip but the weather has messed things up for 2 yrs in a row. Maybe it is time for a change of months baume66 :)

Here is my pics from the trip
Mt Rogers 2003”

“nice pics Ewker. Sorry I missed you - got to meet some of the group while they were coming down.”

“Roam Around, I was in the group that stopped and talk to you but there was so many you couldn't keep up with all of us. Actually I passed you and your kids as you were going up the rocks before your kids demanded you turn around and head back down....lol”

“Great pics Ewk!

I knew you guys were gonna be cold...I was up at the same place in June and it was coooooold then.”

“OOOOHHHhhhhh ok. I know who you were now. Sorry, I was a bit overwhelmed with all the names.

And, actually, the kids would not say (admit) they wanted to go back. But once I said I thought that's what we should do, they didn't argue at all! LOL

It was even Sarah's idea to stop and camp where we did.

As it turned out we had a good time too.”

“Great pics Ewker!

I can't believe ol' ynamiynami looks so.........normal. ;)
Did he talk with a funny accent? ;)”