Team Boone – March 23-24, 2024

By Stephen D. Bowling

Hike Four for Team Boone was a wonderful opportunity to complete one of the longest road walk sections of the entire trail. We now have most of the asphalt trek behind us. There are lots of miles of single-track woodland walks that lie before us.

Saturday dawned with the last of the light rain showers lingering into the early morning. By mid-morning, the mist and rain had moved out and the sun started to poke through the clouds at times. Hikers climbed up to Natural Bridge and headed out to the Narrows as the cloud slowly rolled away. Big Bend Road led Challengers from the Natural Bridge Park to the Flat Rock Church, where Steve and Karen waited with drinks and snacks. A walk down Highway 1036 took hikers to the Limestome Crawl and onto New Virginia Ridge. A quick trip on Highway 52 and a turn onto Highway 299 took hikers to the Lago Linda Resort for the evening.

Sunday morning, hikers enjoyed several miles of road walk from Lago Linda and down the hill (Heidelberg Hill of Death and Doom). A quick walk through the village of Heidelberg and across the blue bridge to Cressmont Road.

A few miles of road walking through the community of Cressmont to a “stopping point” just short of the major dog issue near Levi Todd Road. The weekend walks were dotted with the barks of hundreds of dogs, but no incidents were reported. Here are a few images from Team Boone during the second March hike:

Hike Four was a very nice weekend. Rest and refresh because the April hike is just around the corner. Spring and warmer temperatures are here, and the hiking gets easier with lighter packs as we drop the winter camping items. The heat of summer will be here soon, so enjoy the few cool months that we will have next.

Have a great week. I hope to see everyone on the trail in April.

© 2024 Stephen D. Bowling