The weekend hikers: Gail and Kurt Rheinheimer stand on top of Rice Fields, a bald southwest of Blacksburg, Va. along the Appalachian Trail. They were photographed in May by a couple who were thru-hiking the AT with their two children.

Week 75, Virginia AT: The trailhead for this section of the Appalachian is along the non-paved section of Va. 663, deep into Giles County, with parking for two or three cars where the trail crosses. We were headed south on the AT, toward and past the first intersection with the Ribble Trail, along the Ridge of Sugar Run Mountain, down its far side and then back up it via the Ribble to return to the AT, for a 12.6-mile loop.

We got a little taste of the day to come almost as soon as we got on the trail as several little rivulets were finding their path of least resistance via the trail; this was Sunday, July 16, not too many days after the remnants of hurricanes Cindy and Dennis had dumped heavy showers of the region. All through the day, Sugar Run Mountain’s springs and feeder streams looked nothing like July; they ranged from swift and clear the loud and overflowing – making the forest feel much more like a massive snow-melt day than the middle of summer. Temperatures remained distinctly summery.

The Greatest Day Hiker Of The All took her usual lead, but with her keener-by-the-week interest in wildflowers, I’d get to catch up now and again, to be shown a particularly fine specimen of Indian pipe or wintergreen, whorled loosestrife or galax. The forest’s understory was as lush as early spring, the rhododendron were still in bloom and in spots we came across healthy hemlocks – a great hike for flora, with the rhododendron so thick in spots as to create a tunnel nearly dark as night.

Gail tried to talk us into lunch about 2.4 miles short of the halfway point, simply because that spot--out on rocks looking eastward – would be the best view of the day. Still, a lunch with an actual table--at Wapiti Shelter – is a rarity, and allowed her to spread out the flower books for further study.

Back on the trail just below the shelter, as we reached Sugar Run Creek, we also reached the point of giving up on keeping the feet dry, as the fording got constant enough that you started to get a little careless. By the time we were climbing back up the mountain via the Ribble – with water flowing at brook level right down the trail for much of the way – Gail was tromping through it with the splash and glee of a nine-year-old boy, albeit with soaked boots.

A great loop overall--complete with a Class A view, good climbs, a dose of Virginia ridge, healthy and diverse plantlife and water water everywhere.

–Kurt Rheinheimer, Editor in Chief

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