Virginia's Highest

Straight off of Hwy VA 603 the trail is boardwalk for 1/8 mile. I guess it had been very muddy. We started out at 7:45 AM after a one-hour drive from my house.

The sign reveals a number of details of our hike: the distance to the summit, the distance to the AT, and how far up we intercepted this trail on the way back (Lewis Fork Trail).

 Herbaceous and evergreen

The fog was thicker when we started but the brightening looked better.

American Beech don't lose all of their leaves until the new leaves emerge in the Spring.

Algae laden shelf fungus says continuous moisture,

...as does moss.

Fog lifted, edge of an old field, glimpses of nearby ridges

Can you figure out how far we have come?

It is so hard to catch what the eye sees, what the mind considers, and what the heart feels in the quiet of the forest. It is melancholy and glorious, intense and subtle, beautiful and daunting, complex and simple all at the same time.

Double trail blazes mean a change in the trail, whether just a sharp turn not to be missed, a trail intersection, or road to be crossed.

Appalachian Highlands are so beautiful and productive and intense. They draw me back again and again.

Within a half-of-a-mile of the summit

Ah, we found it. She is trying to read the peak name.

So, was it set in 1930 and surveyed in 1933?

We puzzled over it for a few minutes when I concluded that it must mean USGS. After seeing the picture at home, I could not pretend that it is a bad G, but a good C tipped slightly. What does it mean? Does it mean USCS- U.S. Coastal Survey since the markers do say "U.S. Coastal & Geodetic Survey"?

When you are focusing on taking the picture rather than being in it!

I came across this second marker on a rock nearby that was a few feet higher. I wondered silently if there should not be two more, like when survey trees are painted on the side facing a corner marker, all with arrow facing the central one with the triangle. My daughter wondered about others aloud since this one says "NO.1", and we began to search. We found no others, but Wikipedia assures me that there are four total.

The summit is forested with no views and therefore a destination for purely destination sake. No, they are not ghosts. There are two clouds forming where sunlight is evaporating moisture in the moss-laden trunks and rocks.

Just down from the peak is small clearing with grass now dried by the pleasantly warm sun. I declared that it was time for lunch.

The approach had been forested with an easy grade, pleasant enough but with no big rewards. So, we decided to return by another set of paths. Soon we were out upon a sunny field with far flung views.

We stopped for yet another view when I glanced a movement in the brush by my peripheral vision. I thought it to be a deer but then looked to see otherwise.

These wild ponies are used to people but keep a distance of 10 or more feet. They graze all year round. In fact, I had once seen them many years ago scratching through deep snow in whiteout conditions for a little grass. Evidently there is a life to be had here since there is a sustainable herd of just over 100 animals (1). We saw three this day.

Administration of wild lands is cloaked in layered bureaucracy. Mt. Rogers sits in the Lewis Fork Wilderness within the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area that also somehow encompasses the Grayson Highlands State Park all within the Jefferson National Forest.

Fabio, the goldened-hair sire of many of the herd, put out to pasture. (1)

I didn't get a good picture, but when he decided that I was too close (~25 feet), he walked right by my daughter.

The two reasons Mt. Rogers itself is not overly exciting: 1) Tree toped without views and 2) Very broad gently sloped summit.

A fairly recent AT shelter. I understand that the vanguard of the class of 2024 AT through- hikers is just south of the Smokies Mountains N.P. It won't be even a month before the first waves of the push north come through this section filling the shelter and surrounding firepits.

Why is it open? That is a past and present question. Was it fire, logging, clearing for grazing that originated this condition? I cannot believe we are seeing natural draft bald conditions since surrounding environs above, below, and beside this are fully forested. And what keeps it so? 100 ponies could not pull this off though they assist. Is it mowed now and then to keep it in its historical and tourist-drawing condition? That seems a little questionable with the present funding and paradigm of the resource managers. What then? Well, it is beautiful.

We climbed atop one crag for the best view. We believe that we were seeing as far as ski slopes in North Carolina. The back side was easy to scramble up but the vertical face in front of my daughter is perhaps 80'.

The lichen was even more fluorescent greenish-yellow than the picture reveals.

You get into a get-there mentality at a certain point, so my last picture is at the end of the trail and the end of my tale. Through fog and sunshine, substantial conversation and silence, forest and glade, easy stroll and wet or rough, it was a good and memorable day. Life is good on the pleasant days and the challenging ones because God is good. I am thankful for this pleasant one.

1. The Only Place on the Appalachian Trail Where You Can See Wild Ponies | Travel| Smithsonian Magazine