Hey all! For anyone interested in some Blue Ridge hiking guidance, here are all of the hikes Rob and I did on our annual October Blue Ridge trip this year, ordered chronologically and labeled with our distance and elevation gain. These differ a little bit from the published info (we sometimes combined trails and extended them).
We accomplished a pretty large increase in our hiking distance this year: 79.5mi, up from 55.4mi. I don’t know if my poor aching IT bands could take much more, but it didn’t feel all that crazy!
- Sam Knob (2.5mi, 557ft)
- Cat Gap Loop to John Rock (6.2mi, 1154ft)
- Grassy Creek Falls (1.8mi, 400ft)
- Crabtree Falls Loop (2.6mi, 577ft)
- Trout Lake Carriage (3.3mi, 300ft)
- Rich Mountain Carriage / Deer Park Loop (5.3mi, 756ft)
- Cascades / Tompkins (2.3mi, 272ft)
- Rough Ridge (1.5mi, 362ft)
- Bass Lake Loop (1mi, 20ft)
- Black Ridge Loop (3mi, 574ft)
- Fisher Peak Loop (2.2mi, 233ft)
- Bass Lake Loop Extended (2.8mi, 170ft)
- Price Lake Loop (2.2mi, 72ft)
- Elk Knob Summit (4mi, 971ft)
- Green Knob Loop (2mi, 515ft)
I didn’t get around to writing a timely post about the trip back in October (sad) and it seems a little late now. Instead, some statistics and awards:
- Trips to Southern Soul: 3
- Best breakfast at 6am in the hotel parking lot: Waffle House
- Most disappointing rock to climb in the fog: John Rock
- Deer seen running through field at Crabtree Falls: 7
- Best shortcut: those rhododendron bushes (you know who you are)
- Number of car tires replaced: 2
- Best french toast: Fugasa @ The Village Cafe
- Most pointless trail: Deer Park Loop
- Best escalating-tension midnight hike by the light of two iPhones: Bass Lake
- Best cows: Rocky Knob (sorry Moses Cone cows, maybe next year)
- Best food in Galax, VA that is way better than it has any right to be: Twisted Fork
- Best knob to run down before the sun sets: Elk Knob
- Best treat to break in half with an evil laugh: Starbucks raccoon cookie
- Meat Southern Soul will be out of: everything but sausage
- Chance we’ll soon be back, and in greater numbers: 100%
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