Wild Horses Couldn't Drag me Away . . . · Jul 30 by Kurt Peterson
Fact: complications occur in life.
Some minute detail gets missed or you discover your best laid plans are always subject to change influenced by the intricacies of this ever-changing world. As the Nationwide Insurance TV commercial points out, “Life comes at you fast.”
Well, this past weekend was no exception. I found myself filling in as a guide on one of our Knoxville store’s backpacking trips to Mount Rogers while negotiating the purchase of a house via cell phone on the car ride down from Charlottesville.
But it’s hard to frown on a chance to get ouside for a long weekend, regardless of the situation. The forecast was for thunderstorms. All weekend. A bit of a downer for sure, but I was ready to get wet. Pulling into the Massie Gap parking lot in Grayson Highlands State Park, VA around 12:30pm, I met up with Bryan Francis, a veteran store employee and guide from Knoxville and our clients. This was a scheduled trip for our Backpacking 201 class who were getting the opportunity to test some of their newfound skills—mainly navigation—in the highlands of southwest Virginia. The Mount Rogers High Country is an area renown for three things: great views, wild ponies, and large crowds.
In an effort to get our participants working on their navigation skills, we opted to do some cross-country travel (and avoid the crowds) after taking the Appalachian Trail north a couple of miles. With wide open grasslands, this area is a great starter location for visualizing a topographic map and its real-time landscape. I was impressed with how quickly everyone was able to pick up on the fundamentals of orienting the map and finding where we were and where we were headed. We heard a distant rumble of thunder and got a brief sprinkle, but otherwise, we stayed completely dry. Our first night was spent at a campsite off-trail and completely solitary. You can avoid the crowds if you know where to look.
Day two started out with a threat of showers and storms. As the day wore on, however, we managed to avoid the rain. Making a counter-clockwise circuit of Mount Rogers, we came into camp at Rhododendron Gap just before a light rain began around 4pm. I was pleased to see everyone improving on their orienteering skills.
Besides a roving band of nocturnal ponies bent on keeping us up at night as they munched grass in our campsite, we all slept well. Greeted by a low sun the next morning, we hiked back to the vehicles as the sun slowly burned off the residual mist and clouds to reveal a beautiful blue-sky day.
So much for three days of thunderstorms. Just because a weather forecast calls for something, you can’t always trust it. Ignore the forecast and get out there!
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