Sharp Top Summit and a Special Secret

Our campsite at Jellystone Campground is surrounded by Appalachian Mountains, and is just a few miles (as the crow flies) from the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

As the car drives, it took us 15 miles and 30 minutes to arrive on the closest entry point to the Blue Ridge Parkway. There is a visitor's center at the James River entry point, and we hiked across the bridge for a view of the river. This is the lowest point on the Blue Ridge Parkway at just  649 feet above sea level, so this highway is obviously more than just mountain-top vistas.

As we have seen over and over, there was once a canal that ran parallel to the James River. Just past the bridge is a restored lock still available to see.

For folks like us that were raised away from rivers, we provide a pictorial lesson in how these locks work to lift boats traveling up or down the canal.

Today we traveled from mile post 63 to 85 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The pull-out spots are less frequent here than on the Sky Line Drive section of the parkway that we visited last week. But when we see a forest of red-leaves, we put on the brakes! We have obviously traveled straight uphill since our entry point at 649 feet, as this picture was taken at Black Rock Hill--elevation 3,400 feet.

Our destination today is a hike in an area along the Blue Ridge Parkway known as the Peaks of Otter. We are headed to the summit of one of those peaks--Sharp Top Mountain. So we are prepared for a 1.7-mile uphill trek that is rated as strenuous.

If you don't mind the constant incline, it was a really nice hike. There were scattered boulders and nice autumn tree color. As we hiked away from the parkway, we had only the silence of the trail around us. 

That's when we first realized that we could hear autumn. We had never known that there was an audible sound to leaves falling from trees. As the crispy leaves let go from the branches above, they collide with other dry leaves still on the tree, before they hit the ground in their final light crunch. We could actually stand perfectly still and hear the sounds of mid-air dry leaf collisions, and that final sound as the leaf hit more dry leaves on the ground. If we were moving, we had a different sound of autumn. That would be the sound of crunching leaves under our hiking boots.

On a weekday afternoon, there were few other hikers, but all the people we met coming down warned us about the bugs at the summit. They used words like "horrible" and "Can't stay up there but 5 seconds" to describe the buggy summit. We hope this uphill climb is worth it.

Several of today's hikers brought their dogs on the trail. We had to ask if we could take a picture of this beautiful black dog. That's because she reminded us so much of the dog we had when our sons were growing up. They are twins, right down to their spotted tongues.

We arrived at the top with several other hikers. Sure enough, we were greeted with flying bugs. Mark isn't smiling because the bugs  would fly right in his mouth.

Mark is being very brave in the picture above, because that large gray rock at the summit point was absolutely covered with flying insects. Sorry, but that seems to be the wildlife picture of the day.

But we found that walking on past that stone, and climbing on top of the boulder behind it gave some relief from the insects. Denisa could stand there long enough for Mark to take this picture from a boulder not too far away.

While most people stopped only temporarily at the summit because of the insects, we scrambled up on an adjacent boulder and enjoyed the same view from a bug-less perspective. We ate our lunch on that boulder overlooking the valley below.

Sharp Top was thought to be the highest point in Virginia for many years. In fact, when the Washington Monument was built in Washington DC, the state of Virginia sent a stone from their highest peak. So the monument to their favorite son includes a stone from Sharp Top. It wasn't until more sophisticated measurement devices were available that it was discovered that nearby Flat Top Mountain and other Virginia peaks were actually taller. We could see Flat Top Mountain from the top, as well as Abbott Lake below. You might think those blurry dots in the blue sky are birds, but they are actually the bugs swarming close to our camera.

We also had a picture taken with the other Peaks of Otter in the background. We'll spit out the bugs later.

Incidentally, people wanting to see the view from the summit without the strenuous hike can take an air-conditioned van ride to the top. There is only a quarter-mile walk from the shuttle station to the summit. But this convenient ride makes the view from the top much more crowded than if it was limited to just hikers.

After we finished lunch, we started the long downhill hike towards the parking lot. We love the big boulders strewn along the trail, and we were blessed with a blue-sky warm day. It would climb into the 80's this afternoon. We think it is crazy that we are still trying to get on the trails before it gets too hot in the month of October.

We decided to add an extra stop, by adding a hike on the spur trail to Vulture's Roost. That's where we met up with a friendly couple we had talked to at the summit. We visited for a while, and then they told us about a little-known hiking opportunity off the back side of Sharp Top mountain. They invited us to join them on a hike that a friend told them about some five years ago. They hiked it then, and they were planning to try to find it again today. That sounded like an adventure we couldn't pass by. So we started on a narrow trail that quickly turned into bush-whacking through the forest, as we headed straight down the other side of the mountain.

David and Sherry are from Richmond, Virginia, and they have hiked in these mountains many times. On at least one of those hikes they had found the special secret that they were sharing with us today. They remember that they had almost given up last time before they found it. At one time we wondered if we would find it today as we went further downhill without a trail in sight. Then David shouted that he found it.

We found out that on February 2, 1943, on a low-level night mission, an airplane from Columbia Army Air Base crashed into the side of Sharp Top mountain. The entire crew of 5 young men in their twenties perished that night. We finally started finding pieces of wreckage that had laid on the side of this mountain for 73 years.

We're not sure why it took so long, but a memorial plaque to "the five brave airmen who lost their lives in the service of their country" was finally placed in this remote location in 2001. It listed the names and hometowns of all the crew members. It was interesting in a sad kind of way to see that the 21-year-old pilot--2nd Lt. Paul M. Pitts-- was from Poteau, Oklahoma. We recognized that home town.

We took a picture of David and Sherry in front of the memorial, now adorned with faded flags from others that had made their way to this special place. Sherry is holding their dachshund, Sandy, who impressed us over and over with her ability to climb steep mountains with those two-inch legs.

We continued to find pieces of the airplane strewn about the mountain-side. We were surprised at the size of some of the pieces. It would have been too difficult to remove it from this location, so it became part of this memorial.

It was touching to see tiny pieces of 73-year-old wreckage, still shiny and at home among the mountain wildflowers that are trying to bloom in October.

The only thing harder than finding plane wreckage far down a mountain, is finding a path back up to the top of that mountain. If we thought the trail on the front side of the mountain was strenuous, this one was ultra-strenuous. We bush-whacked up and across the steep slope and lucked into finding that little-worn path that we had started on. We made it back to the Vulture Roost spur trail, and said a fond farewell to our new friends. We had enjoyed meeting David and Sherry, and we appreciated them sharing this special secret hike with us. They also gave us more Virginia hiking advice, and it looks like we'll be extending our stay here.

As they headed down to the base of the mountain, we circled back to see Vulture Roost. When they described it as big boulders to climb on, Mark's eyes brightened. Sandy the wonder-dog had a hard time climbing these boulders, but Mark did not.

We had planned more time on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but we were tired after our mountain hike that included going up the mountain twice. We finished our drive down the parkway, then headed back towards the motor home. While Denisa is enamored by the red leaves, Mark seems to like the yellows and golds best. Somehow the yellow stripe down the middle of the highway seemed to nicely accessorize the beautiful fall colors on either side.

We had been blessed with a delightful day, filled with great weather, memorable sights, and special people. We have wandered into His wonders yet again.