Tips for Grayson Highlands with kids in early June?

[Michael Ray]

> I've heard of break ins at Elk Gardens but I don't know about other areas. I believe both the SP and Grindstone are the most secure. I know people have started from their for that reason.

The Grindstone people must pay the local juveniles to pad their revenue. LOL

> The more I think about it the more I like the following idea. I really don't think you want to average 10 miles a day with a 6 yr. old. Grayson has some rough trails and you want time to climb on rocks, chase ponies and spell the flowers.

I wouldn't avg 10 mpd with him, that was the max I would normally consider. I assume you can camp pretty much anywhere rather than only in designated spots (except within the SP most likely). But I like your idea of being able to bail a day early if needed. I try to get the tougher stuff out of the way first.

His trip with me last summer, we did a loop in the Smokies out of Big Creek. Getting to 37 was easy. Then we went up the closed Gunter Fork trail. Since it had been closed for a while it was pretty overgrown in spots so it took us quite a while (< 1 mph), but he kept plugging away. After staying at the shelter, it was just "little" ups and downs (much of it level) to Mt Sterling and then all downhill. That was his 12.2 mile day. His normal avg speed is only 1.2 mph and we didn't exceed that really going downhill. We took many short breaks, too. He was motivated to get to grandparents, so we didn't stay at Mt Sterling. That will be the case this time also, but I'm not telling him that. ;)

I assume you were kidding about chasing the ponies, but I'm sure my son will try. :) Are they ever aggressive?

[Tipi Walter]

Parking at the overnight lot in Massie Gap is not $5 but $2 Mon-Thur and $3 Fri-Sun. Plus, you can park in a secure gated lot for free at the Mt Rogers NRA headquarters located about 30 miles north on Hiway 16. The AT goes right thru the parking lot and it's a great place to leave a car is you don't mind hiking 30 miles in to Wilburn Ridge and 30 miles back.

[Chris Chatman]

@Luke Any chance you could e-mail me a high-res copy of the map/route you created above? Went to e-mail you but it looks like you don't have an e-mail address on your BPL account. My e-mail is chris underscore chatman at yahoo dot com.

Thanks!

[Luke Schmidt]

I may have to recreate them but I'll work on it Chris. These maps are okay but I highly recommend the more detail Trails Illustrated map of Mt. Rogers.

[Michael Ray]

I had found this one in my searching, which seems to be an excerpt of the TI version, that barely covers everything in those Luke presented (I think).

[Luke Schmidt]

Chris and Ray I sent you both a copies of the three main routes discussed. The map Ray found is part of the TI map. It is missing the last bit of the AT to Elk Garden and the option extension to the loop. Otherwise I think it shows evertyhing.

[Michael Ray]

Thanks, Luke.

Chris, what dates are you looking at going? I'm guessing June 10-13 for us. I'm sure my son would love to meet up with some other boys while there.

[Chris Chatman]

Michael,

Right now I'm probably targeting 6/7-6/9 (Fri-Sun). Their last day of school is 6/6 and I'm targeting the weekend because we're doing a 2 week road-trip to hit National Parks in the Southwest so I'm trying to minimize my time away from work. I'll hop on this thread as we get closer to June and confirm dates.

Chris

[Michael Ray]

How ironic. I'm doing this trip with my youngest (and drop him off at my folks) and then will be doing a 3+ week road trip with his older brother to hit NPs in the SW. We are starting at Arches and finish at Yosemite – technically Great Basin, but that's just camping a night on the long drive home.

[Chris Chatman]

Wow, that is ironic. We're starting with a visit with some friends in Phoenix, hitting Grand Canyon, and then driving down into Southern CA and working out way north. I haven't mapped out what we're doing yet other than we're starting in Phoenix and then flying home from San Francisco a couple weeks later.

[Michael Ray]

Hope you don't have any trouble getting permits or reservations. The only one I have left to get is Zion Narrows. Our rough itinerary

[Luke Schmidt]

I was just up at Grayson Highlands with my brother. Lots of snow right now, it felt more like Colorado in the shoulder seasons.

I don't know if this is useful to anyone but the AT and the Crest Trail pass very close to each other on Pine Mtn. Officially there is no connecting trail but you can easily cut across the meadow to connect the two. From the Crest Trail look for a gate on the North/West side of the meadow. That is where the AT heads down. Its a nice shortcut if you want to us the AT to access the high country.

[SoutheastBackpacker]

Just dropping in to say thanks for the details on Grayson.. I got up there this past weekend. I put a short video of my trip in the Trip Report section.

[Michael Ray]

I did a long video of our trip for anyone who cares.

[Luke Schmidt]

Nice video Ray! Was that Massie Gap where you started? Its fun to see all the places I've been on your video. To bad it was overcast. We had one trip like that where it was so cloudy we could not see much. At one point the clouds broke and there was a nice view. I reached for my camera and then the clouds blew over. Then it opened up, and then it closed before I could snap a picture (it was a windy day).

[Michael Ray]

We started from BP parking lot and took AT spur trail. Did not technically go thru Massie Gap though after I checked the map again once done I should have (shorter distance) though that would have had us skipping the rocks he finally did have a blast climbing on that were on the little section of the AT just before the spur junction.

[Brad Fisher]

Nice video Michael.

Brad

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