Hiking along the Blue Ridge Parkway: Tanawha Trail

Addendum to Day One: The most interesting plant at Moses Cone was Dodder, a golden parasitic vine which looks like silly string, tangling everything in its path. (See eNature link for a description.)

The second day, we planned to hit the Tanawha Trail early in the morning. A bit too relaxed, I guess but we managed to find the trail head before noon after consulting several park rangers. (Don't they hike?) We left one car at Rough Ridge and drove to Julian Price Memorial Park. The trailhead is near the amphi-theater in the campground, near Price Lake.

This part of the Tanawha Trail alternated between lovely cool woods and open meadows which contained an orchard and a family of horses.









We entertained the idea of feeding them an apple but realized that we needed half a dozen, one for each, including a lovely colt. We were also afraid that if we fed them, they would follow us on the trail. They decided to hit the trail anyway and were persistent but gentle. We had to navigate around them and headed off into the woods.

After awhile we began to get hungry, and Nettle spotted the perfect spot, overlooking a steep rock face with views of the woods under a sun-speckled canopy of leaves. We named it "The Hard Rock Cafe."
After lunch, we continued through the shady trail. Shortly, we came upon an abandoned backpack in the trail. Someone was probably in the woods taking a leak. . . . A little further down the trail, we came upon another abandoned pack in the trail. Mysterious. . . . Why would two hikers just drop their packs? To run from a bear? Now we were concerned. The next clue: a couple of two foot long rebar in the trail. Then, more back packs and a pile of hard hats. Who would drop all this gear? The SCA (Student Conservation Corp)! It wasn’t long before we came upon the nicest group of young people, gathered on the Tanawha from places as far away as California.


With them, was a little dog, Buddy, who decided to follow us up the trail. Thank Goodness, he had an identification collar and Nettle had a cell phone. We agreed to meet the owner at Boone Fork parking area. Was he ever happy! After the joyous reunion, we opted to ride back down to our car at Rough Ridge in the back of his pick-up and spent the rest of the afternoon in Blowing Rock shopping.
(What would a women’s retreat be without at least one shopping event?)