Back in 2020, while on a sunset hike on February 29 organized by our local outdoor outfitter in Fredericksburg, someone told be about Meetup. It's an online place to connect with people with similar interests. The person told me that there were dozens of groups of people who enjoyed hiking and other outdoor activities. The next day, March 1, I downloaded the app and joined a couple of hiking groups and planned to go on a few hikes with them. Everyone knows what happened next. All the events were cancelled. Later in the spring when stores were cautiously beginning to reopen, I went to the outfitter and got myself a good pair of trekking poles and a daypack, and did a few solo hikes to break them in. After a while, the group hikes started to reappear, and for the next year or so I enjoyed many hikes in some beautiful places and met some great people.
PHOTO DUMP! The Leap Day sunset hike was cold but beautiful!
I got to hike with my friend and co-worker Jacklyn!
I discovered some really beautiful places on my group hikes in 2020 and 2021, including Bear Church Rock and Rapidan Camp in Shenandoah National Park, Sky Meadows, Maryland Heights at Harper's Ferry, and Great Falls, Maryland.
(The view from Bear Church Rock. You can see Old Rag Mountain on the right, peeking out behind the ones in the foreground.)
When I moved to Christiansburg, I joined a few more hiking groups on Meetup, and have been on a handful of group hikes near here. On June 30, there was one scheduled for Mount Pleasant, just off the Appalachian Trail near Buena Vista, Virginia. It would be a 90-plus minute drive for six-mile hike. Now, I had driven from Fredericksburg to Shenandoah National Park many times to hike fewer miles. This time, for some reason, I decided I wanted a longer hike for that amount of driving!
The group was planning to meet at 9:00 in Troutville and drive an hour to the trailhead. I decided to leave early, arrive by 7am, and hike the 6-mile Cole Mountain Loop, which follows the Appalachian Trail for a bit, and loops back along a blue-blazed side trail. I would plan to be back to the trailhead to meet the group at 10:00 to hike the Mount Pleasant trail with them.
I was running a little bit late, so instead of hiking the whole 6-mile loop, I hiked a 5-mile out-and-back route on the AT, finishing about 20 minutes early. I would have time to enjoy an early "second breakfast" before the rest of the group arrived.
(The sweeping vistas at Cole Mountain on the AT! Definitely worth the trip.)
At about 10:10, I checked my phone to see if there were any messages from the group leader, but there was no service. I wandered around the parking area, found one bar, and texted, "At the trailhead." The one bar immediately became none. The signal kept drifting in and out, and by 10:25 I decided to go ahead and start hiking, and if I found a signal again I would let them know.
A little less than a mile in I got a text. "Got lost. Almost there." I texted back that I had already started hiking. I admit I was a little disappointed, mainly because I had been looking forward to meeting and hiking with potential new friends, but also that I could have done that whole loop earlier and then some. I didn't dwell on it though, because the whole point of hiking is getting out and enjoying nature, which was exactly what I was doing!
(Does anyone know what kind of bug this is? Big guy too, about an inch long.)
On the way down, I heard voices on the trail. Sure enough, it was my group and I chatted with them for a few minutes. A very nice group of women. I hope I'll get another chance to hike with them in the near future!
JUNE STATS
Total Miles: 193.4*
Elevation: 27,601
Geocaches found: 19
*Hiking, walking, and running, including on the treadmill at Orange Theory.
I'll leave you with some photos from some of my group hikes I've done since moving here last November!
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