I had been looking for a reason to travel south and kick off the Appalachian Six-Pack, and it turns out that an opportunity popped right up. My partner Tim is from Blacksburg, VA — within a few hours of three Six-Pack hikes — and we traveled down there this week for his grandfather’s 92nd birthday. The next day five of us woke up early to drive the 90 minutes to the Elk Garden trailhead to kick off the Six-Pack with Mt. Rogers. Tim and I have been hitting the Peloton a lot recently, so we’re in decent shape (finally!) and ended up doing the hike at a faster clip than the rest of the group. While we didn’t see any of the famous wild ponies, we did see plenty of cows (the first half mile of the trail goes through cow pastures) and scenic mountain vistas.

It’s the Appalachian Trail, so we saw a lot of other hikers. Thru-hikers wouldn’t be in Virginia this time of year, but we came across a bunch of section hikers who were planning to be on the trail for as long as a month. AllTrails rated this trail “difficult,” but we’re pretty sure this was only because of the 9-mile length. The slope was gentler than we expected, with no scrambling. It was sometimes pretty narrow and/or rocky, but nothing really hard. It also wasn’t too hot, which we had been concerned about.

The weather is pretty variable in the Appalachians especially in the summer, and we got nervous when we heard thunder at the summit. Thankfully, the rain didn’t start until we were safely back on our way home. I subscribe to OpenSnow, which has year-round mountain forecasts, and I highly recommend downloading it and checking it often. (I think someone on the Six-Pack forums initially gave me the tip that it’s good for more than just ski forecasts, so thank you!)

Next up I head out on solo side trips to High Rock and Smith Mountain. Looking forward to them!