First Day Hike 2019

We always take a hike on the first day of each year. It seems a good start towards optimism about appreciating earths beauty, taking charge of our health, spending time with friends and just plain getting out there. The couple that usually goes with us called before we left to meet them to tell us they were fighting the flu so we ended up going alone instead. We could have stayed home but instead decided to do a hike closer to home that the three of them had done without me over Thanksgiving, while I was away at my sister’s.

We drove about an hour south and west to Star Tannery, Virginia and then onto gravel route 609 to the ridge crest and a trailhead for the Tuscarora Trail. It runs along the West Virginia / Virginia line and we were the only ones parked. Grabbing my day pack and wearing a long sleeved shirt, vest, and fleece jacket with a wool hat, we headed North up the trail.

I had my rain jacket just in case since we have had nothing but rain the whole past year, a total of 68.31 inches. That is twice our normal. Clouds were scudding by, some dark, others wispy with spots of blue showing through. It was hard to tell what the day would bring.

It did not take long to start warming up, zippers going down, hat off occasionally. The woods were fairly clear of undergrowth and lots of loose sandstone rocks made the walking careful. A breeze was blowing from the southwest and the clouds were moving fast. After about 8 tenths of a mile we came to Eagle Nest Rocks and climbed out to get a clear view of the hills and valleys of Virginia. We could see a few houses scattered in the woods below but the trees were thick enough that we could not see the road in to them. It was quiet up there with just the sighing of the wind through the trees. Jeff thought we might turn around at this point but I voted him down. It was not even worth the drive to do a hike that short. You couldn’t even call it a hike really, even if it had been uphill most of the way so far.

We kept walking along the ridge, kind of level trending towards downhill for a couple of miles, and came to some cool rock outcroppings, laurels, and views to the West Virginia side. The light kept changing, lighting up the tree trunks close by but with a backdrop of very dark clouds. The east side of the rocks would block the wind and we munched on some granola bars and sipped our water in peace.

What is That Sound

After we had walked for another mile or so, I started to hear a high pitch, swooshing sound and was trying to locate the source. Some kind of telecommunications tower was over in some young pines and the support wires were singing in the wind. There was no path to get closer so we kept on going north. More rocks, more views, mostly just quiet, peaceful woods. It was in the high 40’s and a beautiful day.

As we walked on, I started hearing more singing in a different pitch, bigger and strange. We emerged from the woods into a cleared electric right of way with giant high tension power lines running through it. One tower was bigger than the others, catching the stress of a turn in the lines and it was humming and singing from more than one place in it’s humongous self. The trail passed under the towers so we kept walking, even though I really do not like to be near those things. We could hear stray electricity sparking through the air which always makes me want to grab a fluorescent light tube to see if you really can light one up from down below with just stray power. I have to try that someday.

According to our map there was a place called the Pinnacles up ahead that we had made our goal. Actually there were a couple places nearby with the same name which was odd. We walked through more woods and could see some rocks on the next ridge but the path turned away from them and kind of meandered around looking kind of boring. We turned around after we had gone further than it should have been, passing a USGS elevation marker and then going off trail towards the rocks we had seen.

The deer obviously thought it was a good hang out spot, with droppings and flattened plants all over, but the rocks were not all that impressive. I climbed to the top of one group and got a photo of some feldspar colored rock and lichens but it turned out to be not much of a view and we headed back towards the truck.

The walk in took us 3 hours, since we stopped to check out all the rocks and views, and the return trip took only 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Not the most exciting hike, but worth doing, and a great way to spend a beautiful day outside where it did not rain on us even once.

Click the links below for more hikes and maps and such. No strings attached.

https://www.alltrails.com/explore/us/virginia/star-tannery

https://www.hikingupward.com/GWNF/EagleRock/

-Wendy lee, writing at Edgewise Woods, Gardens and Critters