Grayson Highlands with Scout Troop

This past weekend, the Scout Troop did a 3 day backpack trip to Mt. Rogers/Grayson Highlands.  Its an annual event that usually sees us picking and eating so many blueberries that we all get sick.  This year, the blueberries were less than plentiful.  In fact, they were basically non-existent.  I lead the longer trek in from Elk Garden which is west of the state park and we had another long trek that came in from the Backpackers lot along with 2 short treks.  We arrived at Elk Garden on Friday night about 7:30PM.  When we left Mooresville, the weather was warm and clear.  But as we were about 5 miles out from Elk, the rains came and they were pretty heavy.  The group sat in cars until the rain subsided a bit and by the time we put on rain gear and started waliking, the rain stopped.  We only had a mile walk to the meadow and set up camp.  It actually cleared quite nicely for about an hour after we set up.  We were outside talking and staring at some cows in the meadow when the rains came back.  I got in my tent and it rained heavily for 2-3 hours.  The rain falling on my tent kept me calm and soon I was sleeping fairly sound.

Saturday morning we got up, dried stuff off as much as possible then set out for the campsite for Saturday night.  I wanted to try out a new area I scoped out last November when I was with the Venture crew.  It was about 5 miles an we hiked it in less than 3 hours.  We got to the site and there were 2 guys packing up.  One of them pointed out a yellow jacket nest in the best flattest site in the camp.  We set up tents to dry but it was still very cool for August and not sunny at all.  BUT NO RAIN!!  Rather than sit around in camp all day, we loaded up some slack packs and headed off to make a 10 mile loop around the AT and back.  All day, the wind was whipping and it never got to 60 degrees.  It felt good but was cooler than I had hoped for.  We made our way down the Crest Trail to Scales and took a short break there.  We hooked up with the AT at Scales and hiked towards Wise Shelter.  There we ran into 2 guys who were hanging out with at least a gallon of whiskey.  I talked to one of them for a few minutes and learned he owned a bike shop in Charlotte.  They had a really cool dog who started hiking with us but went back somewhere on the AT.  We kept passing and getting passed by a group of Latter Day Saints from Mooresville.  About 3 o'clock we crested Massie Gap and the sun finally peaked out from the mist for a while.  Another hike up Rhododendron Gap and we were ready to pump water from the spring at Rhodo Gap.  We headed into camp about 5PM tired and hungry.  It was hard to really sit around camp as the wind never let up all evening.  Finally a Scout got a small fore started and we were glad to have the warmth.  Most of the group turned in around 10PM.

Sunday morning we rose early and headed out at 7:30AM for the 5 miles back to Elk Garden.  Like always, the sun shone brightly all day.  Who would have thunk it???   Back to the car for a 3 hour drive back to Mooresville.  A quick stop to get a REAL RC Cola at Sparta and we were back in Mooresville by 12:30PM.  Even though the weekend was cold and misty, it was a great weekend.