Everybody Was AT Hiking: Teas Rd. to Mt. Rogers NRA HQ, VA 5/15/21 (and a thru-hike catch-up)

Mark and his tramily of thru-hikers has now made it to the Watauga Lake area in East Tennessee!  They really wanted to go to Trail Days in Damascus this weekend but were about 40 miles short of being able to hike in, so we offered to come pick them up and take them to Damascus Saturday morning (we also offered a ride back to their last point on the trail on Sunday, but they thought they could find a shuttle back, and we haven't heard from them, so I guess they did).  Before we picked them up, I loaded up with a bunch of Panera breakfast food (and coffee!) for a little hiker buffet.

Ben (that's a boring name - ha!) with Cousin Eddie, Ragnar, and Grunts.  Clean and well-fed hikers, ready for a weekend of fun and (hopefully) relaxation

Of course, I'm not driving a couple of hours to an AT trailhead and not hiking, so while we were going to be in the area I picked a hike about 50 miles north of Damascus (we didn't want to be in the crazy of Trail Days with Tigger).  The hike itself was nothing spectacular; it was more of a "point A to point B" kind of thing. It was overall a gentle climb in elevation, but no really steep or prolonged climbs.  Ben said it was a good "return to the trail" hike for him, as he hadn't been on the trail since the weekend when we dropped Mark off at Springer Mountain about a month ago (can you believe how far he has hiked in a month?).  

It was a really nice Spring day, sunny with temps in the 70s.  There were lots of pretty wildflowers that we saw on our drive as well as on the trail.

Our hike also crossed or ran alongside a couple of the different Holston River forks and their tributaries, which made Tigger happy because even the 70s are a little warm for him when we're hiking and not in full shade.

This water will eventually make its way to our new house!

We saw a salamander in this pool just as Tig was diving in.  😖  He scuttled for the safety of the tree trunk.

Unfortunately, Tigger did steal some of the salamander's mud.

Other notable features of the hike include this view of the Rye Valley (I only know that because there was a little sign on the trail):

This gnarly old tree:

And this rusted-out Dr. Pepper can, about which I was really conflicted because (1) I'm conditioned to pick up trash on the trail, but (2) it's historical and stuff.  I left it, as many people have done before me.

Overall, it was a pleasant day.  

368.8 down; 1821.2 to go.