After
breakfast today, George, Zone and I drove over to the Douglas Falls trailhead.
A few years ago, George and I had ridden mountain bikes from camp to the
trailhead and hiked over to the falls. This time, we decided to drive the
several miles of gravel road and start hiking from the trailhead. Our plan was
to hike the 9 mile round trip up to the Craggy Gardens Ranger Station and back.
The trail is
mostly level for the first half mile to Douglas Falls, although the trail
surface is covered in thick tree roots and large rocks. Even though it is late
summer, there was still plenty of water coming over the 60’ high falls. It is
fed by a tributary of Waterfall Creek down slope from Craggy Pinnacle, which
ultimately flows into the Ivy River.
The trail
does a good job of mostly following the contour lines, which makes for
generally level hiking. However, since the start of the hike is at around 4200’
elevation and the ranger station is just under 5600’ elevation, there are some
sections where you have to do some climbing.
We took our
time getting to the top, where we took advantage of the cell phone reception
and made a few phone calls as we stood beside the Blue Ridge Parkway. Then, with distant thunderclouds looming on the
horizon, we turned around and headed back down the trail.
The thunder
was following us, and Zone did not like it. She kept trying to run into the
woods to hide. Eventually, the storm bypassed us and we continued our descent.
At one of the
stream crossings, Zone plopped down into the water and demanded that we stop
and rest a while.
After a full
day of hiking, we returned to camp and had a great dinner of filet mignon
grilled over an open wood fire. Then, it was time to prepare for my early
morning drive back to Herndon and my flight back home.
Many thanks to George and Roxanne for a most
enjoyable visit!
Next: Return to VA in a couple weeks for baby
arrival
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