Rockfish to Reeds: Trail Daze - How I Remember It

The ODATC Tent/Display at the June 1, 2013 Nelson County Trail Daze

On Saturday, June 1, 2013, which was National Trails Day, Nelson County held a Trail Daze event at the Devil's Backbone Brewing Company . This was a one-day health and wellness event with proceeds to benefit the Blue Ridge Medical Center. Some of the activities that took place were: guided trail hikes, family fun walks, 5K runs, mountain bike races, live music on stage, plus dozens of outdoor and wellness exhibitors. Local food and craft beers were available. This event also marked Nelson County's designation as an Appalachian Trail Community.

All three area AT maintaining clubs were represented: Tidewater, Natural Bridge and Old Dominion and they also were on the day's schedule to lead guided trail hikes. The Old Dominion Outreach board member was involved in this event (along with volunteers Margaret, Jenni, Dick, Maggie, Theresa & Mark) and he wrote the article below on how he remembers the day. Enjoy!

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Trail Daze - How I Remember It

David G.

Friday afternoon I went up to Dripping Rock to scope out the ODATC hike to Cedar Cliffs for Trail Daze Saturday – perfect little hike for AT beginners – but I went on down the trail in case folks wanted to log another mile or two – I wondered how far it was to Cripple Creek –stopped at the spur trail overlook then down the trail I met a through hiker “Disciple” and his dog – he said the creek was a couple of miles down the trail – I kept on for awhile but realized I was too far in for a beginners hike and my water was low so I turned around and headed for the truck. Disciple was there enjoying a little trail magic before he went on up to Battery Cliffs for the night – I dove into my cooler for a little of my own trail magic and headed on to Sherando to meet up with the ODATC volunteers (Dick, Maggie, Jenni and Margaret).

I was fashionably late – tents had been put up, dinner was about to commence, happy hour was happenin’. Fast forward to dinner’s over and clean up is being figured out – “hey let’s put the coolers in the trucks” – “oh – they’ll be ok in the shelter – we always leave them here for Konnarock” – “OK – but I’m putting the breakfast muffins in the truck”. Fast forward to 1:30 a.m. – CRASH – great, some drunk knocked over the pots and pans and is trying to pick them up – CRASH – uh, maybe not. Out of the tent – flashlight on – big mama and her two cubs are in the shelter – aka pantry. Dick and Maggie are asleep in their RV up the hill – after big mama turns her attention toward the tents it’s “Jenni – Margaret – we need to be backing out of here time!” We got back to the shelter an hour or so later and scraped up the leftovers while somewhere off in the distance, pots were banging and folks were hollerin’ “ git outta here!” Yeah – Leave no Trace applies to Sherando camping too, folks!!

OK - Saturday and we’re rolling over Reed’s Gap at 7 a.m. because we've got 8 a.m. hike meetups to be present for and a ton of stuff to drop off at the ODATC table spot before. It all came off like we had a plan or something – Jenni and I were at the DBBB Greenhouse before 8, waiting for the eager trail newbies along with our comrades from TATC and NBATC – the rest of the crew were busy back at the festival grounds setting up a tent they’d never set up before and laying out trail stuff they’d never seen before – sounds like a classic trail club event! At about 8:30, Jenni and I decide to drive into the Nellysford Farmers Market for coffee because it’s pretty obvious there are no newbies coming out to hike the trail at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning!

10 a.m. – show time! All the clubs are set up, Backpacker Magazine has their ultralight camper open on display and a table with a ton of free sample stuff (I got a pair of “Fitz” hiking socks that look like serious competition for Thorlo and Smartwool!) – Sierra club and other outdoor folks are there too. The stage is just starting to see some life as crews start moving in sound systems and lay cable. People are filtering in – singles, couples – then groups of through hikers! Bill Galligher (aka VAhawker) has been shuttling through hikers from the Tye River and Reed’s Gap all morning and they are almost dominating the crowd at one point – go Bill!! Interesting folks those through hikers – plenty of tales to tell to the local crowd – especially that guy with the rainbow hair – never did get his trail name. We were joined by Theresa and Mark later in the morning – so we had the table covered in spades – which meant we were free to head for the brewery in groups of 2 and 4!

Manning the ODATC Tent

Along the line, we did talk to several near Richmonders that expressed interest in the club and one young women said she wanted to be a sawyer – we’ll see what comes of all that. I guess there were 100 – 150 folks that attended the event, thought I’d see more families with kids since the county was promoting it in the schools. In the mean time, we were handing out raffle tickets to everyone for a chance to win an REI Daypack, headlamps, camp chairs and water bottles – oh yeah, we were handing out 20% off coupons too. Off around the perimeter there were running and biking races happening, but I didn’t see much of those. Somewhere around mid-afternoon my friends from KS – that were staying at my house for a few days, showed up and that set off another round of conversation and moves to the “refreshment truck” – then the music got going. A little slow at first with some solo performers and the sun was just brutal at mid-afternoon. A couple of hours later with a bit of shade creeping out from the stage and the four piece bands dishing out a fine selection of roots music and rockabilly – folks started to settle down on the lawn for some listening. About 5 or so it was obvious the table could fend for itself and we closed out the day listening to a great three women acoustic group.

Shows over – pack it all up – head back over the Mt. to Sherando – we’re all pretty sun burnt and tired so it was a low key supper. You’re dam right we put the cooler in the truck! Slept like a rock and made a leisurely exit on Sunday – not before Margaret took a stiff lecture from some Sherando maintenance dude about the bear scene though – I’d gone up the hill to help Dick hook up his RV – yeah yeah yeah – where’s the man when you really need him?

I drove home by way of the DBBB and when I went by, there was a gang of through hikers sitting on the stage like they were waiting for something. I found out later that the DBBB was cooking a pancake breakfast for them before they took them back up the trail. Nice.

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