The Hiking Hokie: July 2019

Casey and I would tell you that we live in Southwest Virginia, but last weekend, we took a deep dive into Appalachia and headed another 3 hours Southwest of our home in Blacksburg. On our trip, we tackled two hikes that had been on the "to do" list for quite some time. Devil's bathtub is a well known swimming hole near Duffield, VA and the Great Channels is a bit closer to home, near Elk Garden. We started our weekend adventure in Abingdon and enjoyed a bit of the Highlands festival before making our way to Devil's Bathtub. After the hike, we camped near High Knob and embarked on the Great Channels before heading home.

My thoughts:

At the bathrub

Devil's bathtub: really, really neat hike, but the crowds took away a good bit of the appeal. The parking lot and adjacent road was solidly full. We managed to squeeze into a parallel parking "spot" on the side of the road, but not without a good deal of stress. The gravel on the road to the actual lot was loose and deep enough that smaller vehicles with no 4-wheel drive were struggling to get into the lot. One that we observed couldn't make it up and had to backtrack and park alongside the road. The crowds were a bit of a surprise to me given how remote the location seemed to be, but I suppose it was a well known hike on a hot weekend day! Unfortunately, the crowds also meant that there was a decent amount of trash around (not a ton, but enough that we filled a dog poop bag with trash and could have brought a bigger bag). It also meant that we had to enjoy the "bathtub" alongside many others and with the smell of cigarette smoke in the air. With that said, I have never had so many creek crossings on a single hike, so for that reason, the hike was still a blast.
High Knob campground: Nice spot! The water was out when we were there, so the flush toilets and hot showers were not a thing, but fortunately, we had packed plenty of potable water, so we didn't have a problem still staying there. I only wish this had been advertised on the National Forest's website so that we could have known before driving 3 hours to get there. However, the campsites were nice and secluded and the recreation area was enjoyable. The high knob tower allowed us to watch a beautiful sunset.
Great Channels: This was perhaps the highlight of the trip. The hike itself wasn't much to brag about, but the channels were so neat! There were enough people on this hike for it to feel traveled, but overall, it was pretty quiet and we were able to do most of the hike on our own.