City of Roanoke

Sarver Hollow Shelter (681.8) to VA Route 620 (697.0)
Total miles: 16.2

A beautiful start to the day… heading slowly uphill through beautiful farmlands and grazing cows who were very interested in why I was disrupting their breakfasts.

A few miles in, I passed by the Keffer Oak, the 2nd largest tree on the AT. Estimated to be 300 years old, it looked to be @ 10-12 feet in diameter. I’m always in wonder when looking at something that was around when George Washington was born.

Came up on Drifter & Blue at mile 8. A husband & wife team in their early 60’s who I’ve seen back and forth over the past couple of weeks. A salt of the earth couple from Michigan. Have enjoyed our conversations and look forward to following their thru hike north.

Miles 9-11 saw a treacherous rock face scramble over large 45 degree angle slabs that were slightly wet/slippery. I can’t imagine what this would be like when raining and/or with ice.

At mile 12 (3,400 ft), I crossed the Eastern Continental Divide on top of Sinking Creek Mtn. Very interesting, actually. This is where waters on the west side of this mountain flow into the Mississippi River and then the Gulf of Mexico (1,920 miles away), while rivers on the east side flow into the James River and then into the Atlantic Ocean (405 miles away).

The day ended in tense fashion as everyone on this 100-mile area of the trail were urgently advised to get into town due to severe tornado warnings that had been posted for this section of Virginia. We were finally able to line up a shuttle driver by 7:30pm and headed further down the mtn with our headlamps on to be safely extricated! 🤞

This ended up being the end of my hike for this section, cut short by one day. Seeing as we had to be shuttled into Roanoke (where I was to end tomorrow night anyway), I decided to call it a trip and not go back out in the torrential rain the next day.Læs mere