April 1 I hiked the Powell Mountain Trail, my last real trail in the SNAP 500. The day was lovely, partly sunny and warm. I hiked in short sleeves most of the day. The most dangerous part of the trip was getting from the parking area onto the steps to the trail, a stretch of icy snow. The trail descends slightly from Skyline Drive, then goes up a ridge and rolls along for a while until it descends fairly steeply as it reaches the road at the bottom. I put on my overboots to start because there was still a fair amount of wet snow on the trail but I ditched them after cresting the first ridge.
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| Powell Mt. Trail close to Skyline Drive |
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| View south from Powell Mt. Trail |
After returning to the car, I went to Bootens Gap and hiked the Conway River Fire Road to the Park boundary. That hike made me appreciate the finer points of fire roads, which I hope to write up for the Potomac Appalachian.
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| Top of Conway River FR |
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| Conway River FR at SNP boundary |
Then I walked the Tanner Ridge Administrative Road which was gross and doesn't belong anywhere in the Guidebook or on the back of the PATC maps. It's only redeeming value for hiking (possibly) is winter access to the Big Meadows area trails.
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| Tanners Ridge Administrative Road - No thank you |
Finally, since I still had time (since I was spending the night in the Park), I parked near the Big Meadows campground and hoofed it over to the Blackrock trail from Big Meadows Lodge, up to Blackrock, and then down to the AT. Fabulous views from the top and not much work, although there was snow and ice on the path up from the Lodge parking lot. [I have recorded this as 0.3 miles (0.2 from AT to Blackrock and 0.1 from Blackrock to parking lot which is confirmed by trailhead sign and guidebook description of AT) even though the distance chart on the back of the map says 0.1 miles.]
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| View from Blackrock (Central District) |
6.7 unique SNAP 500 miles; 13.8 total miles; 4 new trails.
My beloved Artunus drove all the way out to SNP to meet me for the night at Skyland. What a guy! Skyland is now being run by a new concessionaire, Delaware North. Granted this was only the 5th day of operation but we were a little disappointed at the speed of service and the lack of a decent selection of draft beer (Bud lite and a wheat beer). We did like the guitarist singer in the bar that evening. I was amazed at how many people were in the park and staying at Skyland. Not that I saw a soul on the trails.
April 2 I moved down to the South District to pick up a couple of long fire roads I had missed. A cold front had swept in the night before and it was cold and windy so I kept my mittens and jacket on most of the morning and started with a neck gaiter for walking into the wind. I hiked down the Madison Run Fire Road as far as the Austin Mountain Trail and back (4.4 or 4.5 miles each way by the sign posts).
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| Cascade at side of Madison Run Fire Road |
Then I crossed Skyline Drive and hiked the Browns Gap Fire Road down to the boundary and back (3.5 miles by the book; 3.9 miles by the posts).
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| Toad/Frog eggs along Browns Gap FR |
I made really good time on the trails (3+ mph) so I still had time when I finished to hike the Ivy Creek Maintenance Hut Road which was a pleasant surprise. The road still had slushy snow on it and the hut had a pile of snow in front. I'm guessing that these "maintenance huts" used to be shelters along the AT. The Ivy Creek MH is a mere 200 yards from the AT.
I'm getting very close to completion. Just a 17 mile stretch of AT, 3 little trail-lets in Central, a few fire roads in south, plus the one and only Gas Pipeline Rd. I plan to finish before the end of April. Stay tuned!
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