* * Hiking the Appalachian Trial to Angel's Rest in Giles County

Our peak leaf season is a week or two past.  That makes this one of my favorite times of the year to hike the nearby trails. 

The Appalachian Trail has more miles in Virginia than in any other state.  While I have never hiked the trail in its entirety, I often pick off short chunks of it in backpacking trips.  I have hiked in New Hampshire, Vermont, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

This week, we had quite a bit of rain.  On a clearing morning, I took a hike on the Trail to an overlook called Angels Rest which is on Pearis Mountain near Pearisburg in Giles County. 

The trail ascends rapidly to the crest of Pearis Mountain.  It took me about one hour and 40 minutes to go from the base of the mountain to the top.  It was a cool and with wet leaves, it was extremely slick walking.  From the overlook, I got a nice view of long straight section of the New River near Pembroke.  I walked on the trail westward for a few additional miles on the crest.  One the return trip, I stopped for lunch at an overlook with a nice view of the Wilburn Valley to the south.  The few trees that still had leaves were bright yellow and very pretty.  I slipped and fell twice and have a purple bruise on my left thigh.

Most of my week was spent writing and editing my second book, my novel called Union, WV.  This week, I will return to Union for more research.  I will stop to see several friends, people met doing the research for The Spine of the Virginias, including Pete Ballard of Peterstown, Fred and Barbara Ziegler of Greenville, and Rod Graves and Craig Mohler of Union.