Mt. Rogers trip report

“i picked an old high school friend up early saturday morning and we headed out. one stop at mcdonald's drive through and 2 gas fill ups later we pulled up to Mt. Rogers Outfitters.
There are a couple of very nice, knowledgeable guys that work in there. i picked up a map and started looking around. i saw a msr zoid 1.5 set up on the floor towards the back of the store so i went to check it out. i've had my eye on this tent for a while now but i've never seen it in the store. after getting in, and deciding i really liked it i went ahead and picked one up. nothing like a good impulse gear purchase right before a trip.
we headed up to grayson highlands state park. it sure was a long, windy drive to get up there. when we got there i put our parking money in the envelop, had a nice chat with the rangers who had a game check station set up, and learned that 603 is not a good place to park. the car thefts are spreading too. someone stole a brand new car off a lot in town a few days ago.
we parked at massie gap and final packing out of the way, we headed out. it was a beautiful day, perfect temps for a hike and a clear, blue sky. the blue blaze up to the AT was a good way to get some blood flowing after 7 hours in the truck. my dog, keef, was having a blast. being in the car all morning, he was raring to go.
once we joined the AT, i took a picture of my friend Johnny, as he took his first step on the trail. the views were great. we had rocky, grassy mountainsides in front and on side of us, and rolling mountains behind us. i threw some frisbee with keef as we made our way over to wilburn ridge.
that is a very pretty, popular area. there were people all over. we went up over a big ole pile of rocks. and got to go through a cool little tunnel(was this fat man's squeeze? anyone that knows) we took a break up on a big rock. i was sitting around throwing some frisbee with keef, just taking in the sunshine and scenery. we cracked a cold one and were having a good ole time. a hunter came up to us and asked if we were camping on "this here hill." we told him no, and he kept walking a little further. then he came back and informed us that he was in the process of having all of us runned off outta here. not wanting to talk too big to a man with a gun we shook it off. then he walked back the other way a little and took aim at something. it was a group of backpackers. he put his gun down and kept walking. right about this time i was ready to get moving away from this guy.
we continued on the AT to the Pine Mountain Trail. we set up camp in a field. i walked over to get water while Johnny gathered some wood for a fire. i took some pictures of the mountains in the distance as the sun faded away. the mountains were purple and very pretty.
i slept soundly and woke up to a cold morning. my tent was covered in frost and i was ready for some hot coffee. there were a couple horses less than 10 feet from my tent and keef wanted to play with them bad. i leashed him up so he couldn't bother the horses and went about my morning chores. the sun came up over the ridge and the frost on my tent was gone in no time.
after filling up on water and finding out my filter needed to be cleaned and i forgot the brush we headed out to reconnect to the AT. we took a break at the Wise shelter and continued back around to where we first got on the AT. on the way we came across 3 horses who did not like us being there. i think it was the dog they didn't like, really. one ran about 10 steps toward me and i got a little scared. we were right by one of the fences so i pulled keef's frisbee out and threw it over the fence. he, of course, chased it, jumping right through the barbed wire sections and the horses were happy to have the dog away from them. all the other horses paid us no mind at all, but this guy was not very fond of us.
we were headed to thomas knob shelter, and we took the wilburn ridge trail and then jumped on the rhododendron gap trail up to the crest trail. from there we cut across a few campsites to the AT again.
i gotta say, the view from behind thomas knob shelter was great. i don't know why i've heard so many bad things about the place. i guess if we weren't the only ones there it would have been a little crowded but i really liked it. we crashed early and woke up early this morning.
on the way back we got to take in some great scenery and talk to a nice hunter for a few minutes. that was the only person we saw this morning until we got to the parking lot where we talked to an old ranger for a little while.
it was a great trip, and i definitely want to go back and do a little more exploring.
i forgot to mention the lunar eclipse on saturday night. we didn't even know it was gonna happen so it was a special treat.”

“pics to come. my camera is messed up so i have to get the pics from my friend tomorrow or the next day.”

“nice report, and thanks for the heads up on the hunters to, looking forward to this weekend. Think you will get your pics up by Thurs?”

“hopefully tomorrow night.”

“Cool report! That makes me angry about the hunters... I saw the MSR Zoid in the outfitters in Damascus - I lingered by it for a long time! Did you see Grandma Gatewood's shoes?”

“...gotta really love those hunters....what a bunch of dopes they are.....can't wait to get there this weekend....post those pics asap man!”

“post em pics...I'm packin my wrist rocket for sure NOW!!! I was only foolin before.

you a hunter??? go ahead, make my day!!!”

“....take that....BONG!...snow bong to the eyeball....then a littel tweeking of the ear (Moe style) and drag'em off a cliff...that'll teach'em”

“....take that....BONG!...snow bong to the eyeball....then a little tweeking of the ear (Moe style) and drag'em off a cliff...that'll teach'em”

“....dude”

“I would have shoved the gun so far up that hunter's a$$, he would have thought it was his cousin.

Nice TR, ecept for the hunter incident (I'm still stewin'!)”

“nice report, thanks”

“yes, that was fatman squeeze. you covered alot of the good view areas. hope the weather cooperates with us this weekend.”

“Where are the pics? I hoped to see them before our trip this weekend.”

“Nice TR man. I was up there in Dec a couple of years ago and am looking forward to going back. Cool you got to catch the eclipse, bet you had a great view of it.”

“Nice TR man. I was up there in Dec a couple of years ago and am looking forward to going back. Cool you got to catch the eclipse, bet you had a great view of it.”