Saying good by to Fries and hello to Big South Fork

On Friday morning we left Fries after a good breakfast at the only restaurant in town.  This stay here has really been a great one.  As pictured above you can see just how small the campground was.  The owner was terrific to all of residence.  In fact, we have never staid in a more hospitable campground.

 

After driving 300 miles toward home we were scheduled to stop at the Big South Fork Nat. Recreation Area to participate in a trail run on Saturday.  Jan was to run one of the runs and I was there to work a waterstop on the 17.5 mile run.  When we arrived we setup as you can see above.  We are actually level even though it looks like ready for launch.

Being TV nuts, we tried to get our satellite receiver to hook up but the trees were a little too much for the satellite.  So we tried the antenna.  This out of pure desperation.  Well guess what we got a, singular, station.  And what we had is shown below.

This ends our trip for 2013.  I hope that you found some of it interesting and maybe a little entertaining.

Join us again on our next "adventure".  By the way, at our age it doesn't take near as much to be an adventure as it use to.

Another day off(slightly)

We drove this morning down river to Foster Falls where we finished our bike ride yesterday for our morning walk.  We originally planned to walk down river.  As we got into to the walk we found the trail not as pretty as it was up stream.  So we turned around and back tracked the trail from the day before.  Much better.

Meeting some bikers.  One we met was a disabled vet with an artifical limb.  He was moving on.  Some of the bikers were out for a leisurely ride.  One fellow told me he was going down the trail till he got tired then he would head home.  What could go wrong there?

 

Some of the signs told a little bit about the trail.  We love to learn all we can about any area we go into.  Some of the history we learn is really fascinating.

 

 

After our walk it was lunch time(one 3 favorite times of the day for me).  So we took our sandwichs and chips down to the falls and enjoyed it.  This is probably one of the prettiest lunch places of any.

 

 

 

Fries to Foster Falls

With a knock at our RV door we were off to set up for a bike ride from Fries to Foster Falls on the New River Trail.  Our RV park owner ferried our car to Shot Tower so that we could do a one way trip today.  It took about an hour to do this little setup.  But when I got back to the rv Jan was ready to go.  We put on our packs and dressed for what the radar was showing was going to get us wet.  Being in the hills our temperatures aren't really all that warm(mid 50s).  So we had to dress for both cool temps and the possibility of rain. 

Off we went.  What a beautiful ride.  We met only a handful of folks on the trail.  About an hour into it we had to take off a layer or so.  What a great difference that made.  About the time we found how comfortable we were dressed, we had a few sprinkles to start so we prepared for additional rain.  Good planning.


Stopping at the small community of Ivanhoe to have our luxurious lunch(Spam sandwiches).  This is the first time we have ever used Spam on the trail.  We agreed to give it 4 Stars.  I guess you can determine how good of judges we are(not that we were extremely hungry).

Along the way we passed a couple of dams for local power.

A mile or so passed Ivanhoe we crossed the New River.  For some reason, it is always fun to cross long bridges.  This was no exception.

As we were getting into a smooth pace(slow), we came upon another tunnel.  This one was about 200' long.

Our destination was not far away and then on to Foster Falls(a small community were pig iron was made).  This little community had a beautiful old hotel that has been restored.

About the only thing that disappointed us was what they called Foster Falls.  I would have considered this a shoals not a falls.

Off Day(a change of plans)

When we woke up this morning we decided that we didn't really want to bike or hike today.  So after breakfast, we dressed for the cool 45 degree temps this morn and took off on the New River Trail to walk 8 miles.  With the fog laying on the hill tops we were off and on our way.  This was a great walk.

After we walked and had lunch, we wanted to do something a little different.  We looked on the map and guess what, we are just a few miles from Mt. Airy, NC(home of Andy Griffith and Donna Fargo).  They have a beautiful small museum there that we enjoyed. 

As opposed to our other days this was quiet.  Maybe tomorrow will be a little different.


Below is the town of Fries, VA from the power generator that ran the only industry this little town had.  It closed in the early 80's and was torn down.  Only 3 churchs, 2 places to eat, a Dollar General Store and very little else.  Hardly anyone except for government offices work in here.

To see the Ponies at Grayson Highland SP

Jan wanted to go back to Grayson Highlands to see the ponies.  That was the only reason that we went.  We knew we would have a nice hike before we ran upon them.  What we didn't remember how rocky the trail would be.  There were several places that surprised us such as the hike thru the rock bluff.

After the rock tunnel we came upon a couple of  hikers(from Chattanooga) who told us that several ponies were just out of site "over there".  And that is where they went.  As we walked toward them they spotted us and came to see us.  "We want food", could be seen in there eyes.  Just as soon as Jan opened my pack the ponies were front and center.  In fact the ponies formed a circle and worked for her to share the sugar with each.  One, we called Oreo, was a pesk.  There had to be just a little discussion with "Oreo" to slow her agressiveness.

















































Hiking back after this herd we ran upon where the local horsemen were rounding up the new stud colts and pregnant mares.  To auction at a sale this weekend.  There were probably 8 or 9 colts that had been captured.  Cute was Jan's statement toward them.  As we turned to head back I noticed about a half mile away two folks in orange standing by what appeared to be more ponies.  We set out to where they were.  The closer we got the more certain we were that we were








 about to see the "King" of the ponies here, Fabio.  We were right it was Fabio.  He is one beautiful little stud pony, with his platninum mane and tail.

The on down the hill to the car.

Fries and the New River Trail

We allowed ourselves to sleep till we wanted to get up, what a rarity.  After a wonderful breakfast we went to the New River Trail and put 6 miles under our feet.  This a great trail.  The river is so wide and the sound of it is a great background sound for exercising.

After lunch we were taken to Galax to ride our bikes back to Fries.  This was a total of 18 miles on the trail.  Since we did the Virginia Creeper Trail last year, we have great comparison.  Since comparing the two is so natural, we both agree that this trail is so much better.  Even on a great Sunday afternoon the traffic on the trail was very limited.  There were a few horseback riders, hikers and bikers.  Everyone was exceptionally nice.

 Chesnut Creek Falls

 One of the elite members of our team.

I be you can guess this is the tunnel described.

The trail started out following Chestnut Creek to the New River.  We crossed many small bridges and passed some pretty falls along the way.  Just before we came to the conflunce we passed through a tunnel about 100 yards long with a slight bend in it.  What made it interesting was the we could not see from one end to the other.  There was a short time that neither end of the tunnel could be seen from the trail.  At the confluence we crossed a really long steel bridge.  And at the end of the bridge we joined another section of the trail.  From here it was only 5.5 miles to our RV up river.  Up river on this trail is not as strenuous as one would think.  Again the noise from the river was so soothing.

Rain from Cookeville to Fries, VA

When you go to pick a day to drive and RV for 250 miles this is not the day to choose.  We awoke about 4:00 this morning looking forward to our trip to Fries, VA.  No sooner than we got out of bed we noticed that it was raining.  Yeah, that is what I wanted to see.  Optimistically, I thought that if we got started we might be able to drive to the leading edge.  We left the place before the "sun" was rising in RAIN.   The interstate was vacant.  That was a good thing and it stayed that way until Knoxville.  About 1/2 way across Knoxville we heard a noise that made us think that we were having a downpour on us.  It was raining still but not a downpour.   Off and on this noise continued, except as we drove past the downtown area we heard a pop and all of a sudden we had no power in the engine.  I could only drive about 30 mph.  Luckily, we were about a 1/4  mile from an exit.  As we exited we saw a truck repair place open.  That was good, nearly.  They did not want to help us so they directed us to another place 2 1/2 miles on down the road.  This was just the place to go.  They were the service company for our engine.   As I told the service manager what happened, he told me that he could get us into one of the service in a short while.  He did just as he said he would.  Their first thought was to look for a hose that might have come disconnected.  In a short time there it was a hose disconnected.  We could just think WOW we will be on our way in short order.  NOT.  When they first hooked back we took it our for a test drive.  About 2 miles later there was the noise again.  Back to the service center.  The hose had worked its way back off.  This time they spent a little more time sliding the hose on and tightening(with an air powered wrench).  Back to the road for a test drive.  This time SUCCESS! 

After a 3 hour delay back to the road.  STILL RAINING.  We still had 4 + hours of driving left.  NO problems during the rest of the trip.  The last 20 miles were mostly on 2 lane roads and the last 8 were on a narrow curvy road to Fries.  What neat little town.   As and old company town most all of the home were the same, and were set in a planned community.  The New River flows right beside the community.  It is about 250 yards wide and probably no deeper than 3-4'.  Our RV park is set in a beautiful little canyon with a small stream through it.  The owner is unbelievably nice.  He presented us with some muffins that his wife had made for us.  Looking forward to then in the morning.

The rain finally stopped.  After supper we walked through the town back the RV.  The sky was beautiful with some great colored clouds.

Lots of pictures were made today but the inept photographer forgot to bring a way of downloading them.  This fellow will find a solution soon and you will find photos of our day.

The first two photos here are of Fries, VA.  You are looking at the entire town in these two shots.  third is the sky after the rains left.

To Fries, VA

On Saturday, we will drive up to Fries(freeze), VA.  This is a small town(less than 500 pop.) in the hills of Southern VA, not far from Grayson Highlands State Park and located along the New River.  There is an old rail line that has been removed an made into a trail along the river.  It is about 54 miles long and our plan is to bike as much of it as possible. 

I am writing this to learn if the blog "The Lowe Down" still works.  I you receive notice from the blog I would appreciate you letting me know.  I can't find out if it still sends out notices of updates.  Maybe we can update this over the trip to show you some of things we see and do.  It is not my intention to bore you.

Last year we went up to Grayson Highlands SP and hiked to the top of Mt. Rogers(highest point in VA).  Along the way we got to see 3 small herds of wild ponies.  They were suppose to be "wild", however, they were like all ponies that wanted attention, pesky.  This year if we get to make the hike Jan is prepared to visit the ponies with sugar.  I am not a fan of this.  My background with ponies is not too good(I was raised working with horses not ponies) so I'll keep my distance and use the camera to record this visit.