Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska
New member
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We decided after 8 years of living here in Virginia that it was time to take a trip up in the mountains to Crabtree Falls, a place all the locals said was a "must see" destination. We Googled the maps and I of course wanted to take the most direct route, cutting an hour off of the computer "suggested " route. We live in a fairly rural part of Virginia to start with but soon after starting out, it was plain to see it was about to get A LOT more rural. None of the roads we were traveling even had a dividing line down the middle and were barely wide enough for one car. The houses were very old, dilapidated and far and few between. I swear I saw some backyard moonshine stills covered over with old military camo netting. The small, run-down towns we were going through had names like Hicksburg, Yokelville, Inbred, Rebeltown and Redneck, Pop. 37. None of which you'd want to break down in for the night. Mangy dogs feeding on road kill and toothless, orange capped deer hunters parked beside the wooded roads, glared and spit tobacco onto the road as we drove by. We started up into the Blue Ridge Mountains. Clapboard shacks and shanties replaced old stone foundation houses we had been seeing, most deserted or in crumbling ruins, listing heavily on their last leg. The old Ford van steadily shifted between 1st and 2nd as we climbed higher and steeper up the mountain. Finally a road sign with an arrow read: Crabtree Falls.
There were about 20 cars in trail head parking lot. People (mostly yuppies) were strapping on backpacks, chewing granola bars or trails mix and arranging their water bottles. They looked weird in their spandex hiking suits and floppy jungle hats. Several had huge Rottweilers on chains and all resembled that bearded guy on the Red Green show - go figure.
The trail head sign warned to stay on the designated trail and it also read that 24 people have died and scores seriously injured when they got off the trail and tried climbing on the slippery, moss covered rocks. The trail was an endless series of switchbacks continually becoming steeper and steeper until near the top the terrain was pretty much an 80 degree incline but for the switchbacks (did I mention "endless" switchbacks?). People plodded ever upward in a zombie like Bataan Death March, too tired to even greet the shell-shocked veterans stumbling back down from the summit.
I climbed for about an hour and 20 minutes. My legs were like wet sponges, I had long ago stopped counting switchbacks and now just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Finally, at an elevation at what I'd guess was somewhere around 600,000 feet, my ears started popping from the elevation. That was a sign for me that I'm not going any further, because it can set off long-term vertigo. I told Sharon I wasn't going any further, but she and the girls continued on up to the top and took a few pictures. Hannah and I started heading back down, she had already messed her knee up hiking up. We all finally met up in the parking lot. Our analysis of the trip was that we couldn't really think of anybody we disliked enough to take them on this hike again. Thanks for looking.
Vernon [/size]
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[size=large]Look at the angle of the terrain behind Katie[/size]
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We decided after 8 years of living here in Virginia that it was time to take a trip up in the mountains to Crabtree Falls, a place all the locals said was a "must see" destination. We Googled the maps and I of course wanted to take the most direct route, cutting an hour off of the computer "suggested " route. We live in a fairly rural part of Virginia to start with but soon after starting out, it was plain to see it was about to get A LOT more rural. None of the roads we were traveling even had a dividing line down the middle and were barely wide enough for one car. The houses were very old, dilapidated and far and few between. I swear I saw some backyard moonshine stills covered over with old military camo netting. The small, run-down towns we were going through had names like Hicksburg, Yokelville, Inbred, Rebeltown and Redneck, Pop. 37. None of which you'd want to break down in for the night. Mangy dogs feeding on road kill and toothless, orange capped deer hunters parked beside the wooded roads, glared and spit tobacco onto the road as we drove by. We started up into the Blue Ridge Mountains. Clapboard shacks and shanties replaced old stone foundation houses we had been seeing, most deserted or in crumbling ruins, listing heavily on their last leg. The old Ford van steadily shifted between 1st and 2nd as we climbed higher and steeper up the mountain. Finally a road sign with an arrow read: Crabtree Falls.
There were about 20 cars in trail head parking lot. People (mostly yuppies) were strapping on backpacks, chewing granola bars or trails mix and arranging their water bottles. They looked weird in their spandex hiking suits and floppy jungle hats. Several had huge Rottweilers on chains and all resembled that bearded guy on the Red Green show - go figure.
The trail head sign warned to stay on the designated trail and it also read that 24 people have died and scores seriously injured when they got off the trail and tried climbing on the slippery, moss covered rocks. The trail was an endless series of switchbacks continually becoming steeper and steeper until near the top the terrain was pretty much an 80 degree incline but for the switchbacks (did I mention "endless" switchbacks?). People plodded ever upward in a zombie like Bataan Death March, too tired to even greet the shell-shocked veterans stumbling back down from the summit.
I climbed for about an hour and 20 minutes. My legs were like wet sponges, I had long ago stopped counting switchbacks and now just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Finally, at an elevation at what I'd guess was somewhere around 600,000 feet, my ears started popping from the elevation. That was a sign for me that I'm not going any further, because it can set off long-term vertigo. I told Sharon I wasn't going any further, but she and the girls continued on up to the top and took a few pictures. Hannah and I started heading back down, she had already messed her knee up hiking up. We all finally met up in the parking lot. Our analysis of the trip was that we couldn't really think of anybody we disliked enough to take them on this hike again. Thanks for looking.
Vernon [/size]
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[size=large]Look at the angle of the terrain behind Katie[/size]
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They had a banjo and a pig in the back. [/size]