Sometimes you need someone to blame. In the endurance game when;
the going gets tough
the energy tank is depleted
the cramp or sleep monster
approaches
thoughts of a nice soft couch, or
really almost anyplace other than where you are at, it’s commonplace to find something else to point a finger at
other than yourself. For this, we’ll
blame Ed McKeown for posting about Jay Finkle’s 7 Summits in one day run from a
couple years ago (RVTR page reference on 8/29/17 – also see the Roanoke City
Parks and Recreation page for the event at - https://www.playroanoke.com/roanoke-7-summits/
I don’t normally stray from my training plan, but following
the Iron Mtn 30 miler I didn’t have anything on my agenda. So a few weeks of recovery later and not many
free weekends in the near future I decided to try to fit this adventure in on
9/22/17. My usual training partner and
adventure buddy James Decker couldn’t make so I did a little head scratching
and texted the ever ready Johnny Robinson.
He’s been training for the Cloudsplitter 100, which is 2 weeks out so it
fit right into his plan. His first
response was “adjusting my schedule now.”
What more could you ask for, no questions, just action. The plan was a go.
For the next 10 days we worked the plan little by little,
with each text, call and voicemail the adventure became more of a how fast can we do this project and
started to lay out the details. Since we
were leaving from Johnny’s we decided on a summit order of;
Poor Mtn – 3.47 miles
and 846ft of climbing
The 7 Summits site says this – a 3.8
mile loop that travels in a lollipop in a clockwise direction, down to the
creek to the cascade overlook and back up to the overlook. We decided that going down to the water at the
cascade overlook and touching the bench at the other overlook were necessary to
complete this summit.
Neither Johnny or I had been here
before, so we didn’t know what we were in for.
It was going to be 4:30am and we were worried that the darkness would be
a problem. We had a few rats in a maze
moments but we made it down and the big climb back up in good time.
McAfee
Knob – 7.83 miles and 1850ft of climbing
For this we were trying to verify
if there was a USGS marker and came up empty handed. The normal reference for turning around is
the sign at the top. That didn’t satisfy
us since turning around there made you miss the best part, the great view and
time on the ledge. We decided that the
route would be the AT all the way up, staying straight at the top, to get to
the actual peak, and then heading out to the rocks, circling back to the sign
and then heading back on the AT.
We made to the top just before the
sunrise and had a bit more of a challenge heading down in the dark. Someone had a dying headlamp from too many
hours reading, while camping the weekend before (not me). That made for a little slower going until the
sun was up and we could resume full speed.
Dragon’s
Tooth – 4.45 miles and 1362ft of climbing
Here the plan was to climb up to
the top and then drop down to the Tooth.
Touching the Big Tooth makes it official and then you head back to the
parking lot. Dragon’s Tooth really puts
a hurting on muscles you don’t normally use.
So many big steps, lunges and climbs to get to the top. It really is a great trail but tough to do
under the pressure of the clock.
Tinker
Cliffs – 7.31 miles and 1936ft of climbing
To get to Tinker Cliffs you head up
the Andy Layne Trail to Scorched Earth Gap and then head up, or south on the AT,
to the Cliffs. The official top of the
mtn is designated by a USGS marker on one of the overlooks. I’d say it’s the 2nd or 3rd
rock outcropping and the marker is right at the point of a rock.
That climb up from Scorched Earth
Gap is a steep one but we were motivated by the fact it was our halfway point
of the day. From there we soaked up the
view and started the long 3.6 mile descent back to the car.
Read
Mountain Preserve – 4.71 miles and 1079ft of climbing
I had only been here one other time
and I think that Johnny said the same.
The route here was to do a counter clockwise loop, up the Buzzards Rock
Trail, an out and back to Buzzards Rock, a ridge run and big drop off the
mountain on the CCC Trail, returning by way of the Rocky Way Trail and then
Buzzards Rock Trail back to the parking lot.
We settled on the turnaround being the overlook at or just beyond the
last blaze. There is a trail that
continues along the cliff but for turnaround purposes the big overlook
suffices.
The descent off the ridge on the
CCC Trail is where my hamstrings started to talk to me. It has been awhile since we had been able to
open up our gait and loosen up and the drive time between the summits was
tougher on the muscles than I had expected.
Heading back to the car on the Buzzards Rock Trail was nice and we were
able to stretch things out and feel like runners again.
Sharp
Top – 2.91 miles and 1224ft of climbing
Probably my favorite local trail. I rank it as having the highest effort to
reward ratio. 1.5 miles of huffing a
puffing to the top, that has a rare 360 degree view and great scenery. This route was simple, touch the rock at the
end of the trail and retrace your steps.
As we headed off of route 460 there
was a sign that stated there was some road work ahead and cautioned travelling
wasn’t recommended for motorcycles. We
thought about doing a 180 and taking an alternate route but decided to forge
ahead. About halfway to Sharp Top we
were greeted by a stop sign and told it would be about 10 minutes. We didn’t get the exact time but I’d say were
where there about 25 minutes.
At that point we saw the truck
picking up the pylons and opening up the road.
The construction was done. Had we
been 25 minutes later in our arrival we wouldn’t have even been stopped. Bummer, we hadn’t counted on construction
slowing us down. Oh well, the spot we
were stopped at gave us a great view of Sharp Top.
Getting out of the car at Sharp Top
was rough. I felt like a rusted up tin
man. About .5 mile in to the hike things
loosened up and things felt good again (thank goodness). The descent has some sketchy rocky sections
that could have been ugly but we both made it down unscathed. One more to go.
Mill
Mountain – 4.49 miles and 876ft of climbing
Finally, we tackled Mill
Mountain. The listed route has you
running up to the Star, then down ridgeline, where you cross over the paved
road to Sidewinder and then finally back to the parking lot on Woodthrush and Lower
Woodthrush.
From the Star Trail parking lot it was a short drive back to Johnny’s where we clocked in with a final time of 11:44.
Here is a breakdown of the day;
We left Johnny’s at 4:02a.m. and finished at 3:46p.m
Google had our driving distance at 127miles and a drive time of 3:47
Strava recorded 9173ft of climbing
Garmin gave a mileage of 35.17
We left Johnny’s at 4:02a.m. and finished at 3:46p.m
Google had our driving distance at 127miles and a drive time of 3:47
Strava recorded 9173ft of climbing
Garmin gave a mileage of 35.17
