Tiny Trail Magic

March 15, 2009. Appalachian Trail from U.S. 220 southbound to first full viewpoint of Carvins Cove and back. 6 miles.

With rain all weekend and grandkid commitments here and there, we snuck in an old favorite and got lucky not to catch any drops during the two hours we were out; this was late Sunday afternoon and the first two dry hours all weekend.

Not that there weren't good evidences of all the rain that had fallen. The lower part of this trail section seems always to be muddy, and on this day it served in spots as a little brook bed. And Tinker Creek, usually languid where the trail crosses it, was in a discolored rush on its way toward Roanoke and the Roanoke River. Higher up, just prior to where the trail attains the ridge line, we heard the sound of water off to the left, over on another piece of Tinker Mountain. A little farther along, we were able to see where the sound was coming from – a 40-foot rain-fed waterfall over an outcropping. In perhaps a dozen walks on this section over the years, we'd never seen nor heard water over there.

At the ridge line, we entered the light fog of cloud cover, but could still see down to the surface of Carvins Cove when we got to the outcropping of "Hey" Rock (not Hay Rock, but the one where you go, "Hey, there's Carvins Cove"). Even though this was a good weekend for the drought-ridden reservoir, the broad band of tan around it was still starkly evident through the mist.

After we were back down the mountain and back to real life, showers returned, and we counted ourselves lucky to have been visited by yet another, albeit tiny, piece of trail magic.