ABOVE THE
GARDEN
Andy,
I am bringing
3L of wine!
Joel
I
found this email alarming. Joel, Bob,
and I had been planning a winter backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail to
Burkes Garden since January. The trip
was rescheduled once, due to a variety of complications. Now we were finally going to go, over
winter’s final weekend. But what sort
of trip would it be? If Joel was bringing
3 liters of wine, it raised a number of questions. First, how many days was Joel planning on spending? I had only signed up for a one-night
trip. Second, would Joel make it back
to the trailhead the next day?
Furthermore,
Joel has a reputation for a carrying an unnecessarily heavy pack and moving,
oh, let’s say deliberately, on the trail.
3 liters of wine weights six pounds.
Maybe he was planning on carrying the wine in his Pakteen, instead of
water. If not, would he even make it
out of the parking lot? Fortunately, we
were planning on staying at a shelter, so he wouldn’t have to carry a tent.
Since
Joel has yet to master the art of sending the same email to multiple people, I
figured I’d better clue Bob in. I
forwarded Joel’s message, shown in its entirety above, with my own
comments. My own comments consisted of
the following:
!
Bob’s
response:
Joel,
Is this going
to be a backpacking trip, or a drinking trip?
Well, I guess it’ll just be the six of us, 3 hikers and 3 liters.
I
mentioned the updated plan to my wife Christy, who wasn’t going due to the
recent removal of two of her wisdom teeth.
She just rolled her eyes and wished me luck.
I
picked up Bob and Joel on Saturday morning and we headed north to
Virginia. We took my car, which is the
smallest of the three vehicles we could’ve taken. This ended up being a mistake, but you’ll have to read the entire
report to find out why. We piled into
my Corolla, with the trunk packed and Bob, Saucony, and Joel’s pack sharing the
back seat. A tedious drive up I-77
ensued. The low point of the drive was
a lengthy delay due to an overturned 18-wheeler. By the time we reached Virginia route 623 - a narrow, winding
dirt road - I was ready to make some time.
We raced up the switchbacks to the top of the ridge, and parked at the
trailhead at noon. There were already
two cars in the parking lot, which was a mild surprise. Would we have to share the shelter with
another group that night? It would be
crowded, with 5 or more people, a dog, and all of that wine.
It
may have been mid-March, but it was definitely still winter in the mountains of
southwest Virginia. Temperatures were
in the upper 30’s, but an icy wind made it feel colder. At least it seemed cold, compared with the
70 degree days we’d been experiencing in Charlotte over the past week. We hiked about ¼ mile up the trail to a
short side trail leading to an overlook.
From the cliff, we had a bird’s eye view of the pastoral scenery of
Burkes Garden. Visiting Burkes Garden
is like walking back in time. The
isolated valley is surrounded by mountain ranges and is dotted with farms. As we ate lunch on the rocks, the forlorn
sounds of cattle and sheep drifted up to us from far below. Hawks circled above us, riding the currents
of thermal air rising from the valley.
It
was already 1pm by the time we finished lunch.
We had six rugged miles ahead of us.
We still had six hours of daylight, so Bob and I knew we’d make it to
the shelter. But what about Joel? Would he make it to the shelter before dark? More importantly, would the wine? Fortunately, he carbo-loaded during
lunch. While I swallowed a limp tuna
sandwich, Joel dined on an apple and half a box of girl scout cookies.
The
trail follows the narrow ridgeline of Garden Mountain. From a distance, Garden Mountain appears
flat. It’s not. Instead the trail follows a series of short
ups and downs. We bounced along like a
roller coaster, but were frequently slowed down by rocky footing, deep leaves,
and fallen trees. After several miles,
we began the most strenuous stretch of the journey. The trail descends abruptly to Walker Gap, before rising steeply
to Chestnut Knob. Chestnut Knob is home
to arguably the coziest shelter on the Appalachian Trail, a place we were
looking forward to reaching.
We
passed two dayhikers, and plunged towards the gap. Our descent was rudely interrupted by a steep, unnecessary climb,
before we began to drop again. At the
gap, we found two water sources and crossed a dirt road. The road is open to vehicles as it connects
a single home in the woods with the settlement of Burkes Garden. I got some water for Saucony, before we
began the punishing climb to the summit.
I
counted one switchback on the final ascent.
Much of the climb was steep, but the icy wind kept us from getting
overheated. We finally emerged from the
woods, and wandered through a delightful meadow towards the stone shelter
situated near the very top of the mountain.
The views from here are exceptional.
A series of mountain ridges marches away to the southeast and southwest. To the north, the length of Burkes Garden
unfolds. I paused to admire the view before
checking out the shelter.
We
found a single college-aged couple within the 4-sided shelter. Oddly, they had set up their tent inside the
shelter in search of maximum warmth. I
felt a little bad interrupting their romantic outing, but we didn’t have many
options. Bob had brought a tarp in case
of an emergency, but we had no tents.
The way the wind was howling across the ridge, there was no way we were
sleeping outside. Ultimately, the
couple decided to re-pitch their tent in the woods just below the meadow. I was relieved that they didn’t feel like we
were running them off though. The spent
the evening and the next morning at the shelter, cooking and socializing.
Bob
and I had arrived a little after 4pm.
Originally we had planned on hiking two miles south to a small pond for
water. That’s a long way to go for
water, but the pond is a pleasant attraction in itself. In addition, more open meadows along the way
provide excellent views. We got a bit
distracted at the shelter though. The
view from there was great, and I didn’t see much point in rushing off to the
pond and back. We found a small spring
just downhill from the shelter (to the left of the trail along an old jeep
road), so the extra hike wasn’t a necessity.
Plus, it was getting colder, and if anything the wind had picked
up. We bagged the extra hike and
settled in to wait for Joel.
The
wine arrived at 5pm, just in time for happy hour. We were relieved to see that no mishaps had befallen the wine, I
mean Joel, on the hike in. We spent the
rest of the afternoon enjoying the view, which segued nicely into a pleasant
sunset. Then we retired to the shelter
for dinner. The wine turned out to be a
pleasant 2005 Australian chardonnay. It
was one of the better wines I’ve ever had out of a box.
The
college-aged couple joined us, and we found out that they were in fact in
college. They were on spring break from
the NC School of the Arts in Winston-
Salem. They were on their first day of
a 3-day trip, and seemed to be enjoying themselves despite the cold. They spent the evening in the shelter with
us before retiring to the tent for some privacy. We went to sleep shortly thereafter, drained from the hike and all
that wine. Before bed though, we spent
a couple minutes outside admiring the stars.
The moon hadn’t risen yet, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It may have been the nicest view of the
day. We couldn’t admire it for long
though. Temperatures were dipping into
the teens, and the wind continued to howl.
We hurried back to the shelter and the comfort of our sleeping bags.
We
were up early the next morning. This
was partially because of Joel’s snoring, partially because of the sunlight
streaming in the windows, and partly because of the alarm on someone’s cell
phone going off. The someone, it turns
out, was the college kid who’d left his pack in the shelter. After a breakfast of oatmeal and hot cocoa,
I had a refreshing visit to the shelter’s new privy. It was particularly refreshing because it’s an open-air privy
facing west into the prevailing wind.
On the upside, the privy does have one of the better views you can hope
for from a toilet.
Bob
and I gave Joel a head start, but still left the shelter by 9:15. We returned by the same route. We passed Joel shortly beyond Walker Gap,
but took our time afterwards. The hike
out was fairly uneventful, but pleasant, despite the continued cold
weather. We returned to the trailhead
at 1pm, and began the long drive home.
The drive would’ve been uneventful, except for an unpleasant incident
near Elkin. We were cruising along,
when Saucony barfed. Unfortunately, she
was sprawled across Bob’s lap at the time.
For an encore, she delivered some projectile diarrhea across the back
seat, narrowly missing Joel’s brand new pack.
I pulled off the highway to let Saucony out of the car, and we spent the
next 20 minutes in a futile effort to clean the car. Needless to say, the remainder of the drive was unpleasant. I’m not sure what happened, but I can only
speculate that Saucony had too much wine.
Back to Virginia
Back to Hiking and Backpacking Trip Reports
Please remember to Leave No Trace!