INTO LEXINGTON

AT Day 050: Saturday May 27,  2023

Mile 789 + 20 miles / 32 km

Total Distance Hiked: 809 miles/ 1302km

John Hollow Shelter – Fullers Rocks – Little Rocky Row – Big Rocky Row – Salt Log Gap – Bluff Mountain – Punchbowl Shelter – Punchbowl Overlook – VA route 607 – Reservoir Road – Brown Mountain Creek – Brown Mountain Creek Shelter – US Route 60 – Lexington

A:5377 ft / 1640 m  D:4390 ft /1339 m

I was finishing my morning coffee in the silence of the morning twilight when a whiff of cigarette smoke drifted over towards our tent. We were camped probably about 100m from the shelter and there was one person in the shelter who was a smoker and that was obviously his first cigarette for the day.

We broke camp and got out of there just after 6:00 a.m. We were keen to make a start while we were fresh on the 3-mile , 2000 foot climb up to the top of Big Rocky Rowe. 

We made good time got to the top of  Little Rocky Rowe which had fantastic views of the James Valley. I wished we pushed on last night and made it up here to camp. What a great spot to enjoy your morning coffee. The next climb onto the ridge of  Big Rocky Row where we had more filtered views but still pretty nice. 

Bluff Mountain soon followed for the  third big climb this morning. I have been listening  to a podcast called  ‘The Green Tunnel’ on the history of the Appalachian Trail.  Episode 2 has a great recounting of the early history of sections of the trail including a story of a little boy who got lost and died on Bluff Mountain. It was a hearbreaking story that stayed with me for some time. The trail passes the spot where his body was found. It was so sad to pass the memorial to little Ottie.  His spirit is still believed to haunt the area, especially around Punchbowl shelter. 

As we were making good time on trail in the morning, so we decided to head into Buena Vista today, camp at the town campground, resupply in the morning before coming back on trail.  We hiked for a little bit just before lunch with Sarah and Darren from England who were lovely to chat to for a little while. They soon took off and we did our own thing hoping to get to the road to Buena Vista, US Highway 60,  by around 3:30 today. A southbound slack pack hiker we passed earlier in the day told us about some great trail magic on the highway. 

From VA Route 607 we descended to Brown Creek.  It was really nice to walk through the Brown Creek area and to see what remains of the Brown Creek community I had heard about  on the ‘Green Tunnel’ podcast. Same episode that covers the history of the loss of little Ottie.  Brown Creek community was established  by the newly freed slaves following the Civil War.  They developed an industry growing corn, tobacco and wheat in this area. Their land was over time acquired by the National Forests to protect the drinking water catchment of the newly developed Lynchburg Reservoir which we passed earlier.   Hard to imagine what the community would have looked like as very little remains to show their presence.  

We were pleasantly surprised to find the trail magic even earlier on Virginia Route 607. A group of friends from Ohio put money together to fund this.  Even more surprising was that two of them were hiking the AT and we had met them on McAfee’s Knob a few days ago.  We stopped for a while and had a Gatorade and some fruit …oh and also some chips and a beer. We thanked them and hopefully will see them back on trail soon.  

We were very happy to make it to US Highway 60 by 3 pm, but so disappointed to find that the promised great trail magic at the highway had packed up and driven away just before we got there.  It’s kept us motoring all day to get here on time.  The  disappointment was somewhat tempered by the previous generous  offerings at VR 607. 

Hammer made up a sign to hitch to Buena Vista, which was 9 miles away. Our plan was to camp at the city campground, shop for resupply in the morning and then shuttle back on trail on Sunday.  

We waited for about 15 minutes before we got a ride with Marc, a Lexington resident travelling back home from his property at the foothills of Mt Pleasant above which the AT  traverses. On the drive into town we learnt that Marc had recently retired and moved to Lexington from the Virginia coastline. He had previous ties to the town having attended the historic Virginia Military Institute. He also mentioned that he and his wife love Huskies having provided a home for a couple of dogs that have been terribly abused by their previous owners.

We got to the Buena Vista town campground and luckily Marc waited to see us accommodated.  The previous area allocated to AT hikers was being redeveloped and we were offered a site which was a couple of miles up from the campground office.  This was not going to work out for us at all, as it was way too far to walk to town and grocery stores. While we were still trying to think of how to make this work,  to our surprise Marc, after speaking to his wife on the phone, very generously offered us a room to stay at their home in nearby Lexington. So Marc turned out to be our trail angel on US Highway 60 in more ways then one.  Instead of Buena Vista we were on our way to nearby Lexington. The drive through Lexington showed a lively and interesting downtown area.  The skyline was dominated by the Military School, which was spread over an enormous campus.

We arrived at their house and met Laura, Marcs wife and later in the evening we met their four huskies.  A short walk from their house to Kroger’s supermarket and our resupply was completed.

We had a shower and I luxuriated on the softest bathmat my feet have ever rested on. It was a sublime sensation after the rocky trail pounding my feet have endured. It was lovely to spend a couple of hours getting to know Marc and Laura and their four adorable dogs.