Old Settlers Trail ~9n (also Manway 0.5 & ~3.5 my goof)

I arrived at Food Lion at 7:45; Kathy and Heather arrived shortly thereafter and advised me that they would leave early for the Greenbrier meet-up locale. TJ Solnas arrived shortly and he and I set out for Greenbrier in my CRV. Kathy Russell, Heather Crawley, Bill Broome, Tom Wainner, Dale Teague, Bob Bolinger, Scott Collins, Jim & Sue Hung and their daughter. (John Kennerly and Cecil Rowe joined us later.) We put Kathy’s and my vehicle at the terminus of Old Settlers Trail in Greenbrier. We then proceeded in Bill’s, Bob’s, and Jim’s vehicles to the Manway by Noisy Creek off U.S. 321.

In yesterday’s blog I reported that I had done the Eastern portion of Old Settlers Trail from Noisy Creek East to its terminus at Maddron Bald Trail. Other than the fact that John and Cecil had not joined us by the time we reached Old Settlers Trail via the 0.5 Manway adjacent to Noisy Creek, nothing else was eventful. Bill led us West on Old Settlers; after we started an uphill stretch, he suggested that I go ahead and get my aerobic workout. So I led our group (by this time it was just Bill and I, Dale, Scott, & Bob) for 3-4 miles. As yesterday, there were again some fireplace remains from early settler’s homesteads as well as some unique stone fences (1st pic--fence was not as long or neat as those seen yesterday). We came across one unique fireplace (instead of the usual arc it had an inverted “V” at the apex of its opening); the pic that I shot has Scott passing in front of it.

What happened next befuddles me; I evidently got off trail because of a blow down and everyone followed me. We realized shortly that we had lost the trail; I quickly surrendered being in the lead. We ended up outside of the Park. At one church we got some advice from two individuals who did not have license to give directions; at a church-owned motel like structure we got directions from someone who knew how we could get back to the trail. We retraced a bit and found a Manway that Bill had used previously; I went ahead and to my relief saw Tom, Kathy & Heather at the Manway's junction with Old Settlers Trail. Tom advised me that I was ~1 mile from the “V-fireplace”; not wishing to spend a few hours getting that section on some other date, I set out alone to get it for I assumed that I could eventually catch most everyone for I would not stop for lunch. I put it in high gear and when I arrived at the fireplace my pedometer registered 0.84 mi. (it probably was a greater distance for I over-strided in my endeavor to go fast); as I viewed the area I could not imagine how I could have led astray those that were with me earlier. I took another picture of the fireplace in hopes that lighting would be different than first one because of an ~2 hr. time difference. I then put it in high gear; Bob had waited for me and in the last 4-5 miles of the trail we passed most everyone. Although my blunder did not affect our departure time (we needed to wait for everyone to shuttle back to cars), I still have difficulty trying to understand how I could make such a colossal goof.

I took 4 drivers back to their cars at Noisy Creek, and on my return picked up TJ at the entrance to Greenbrier. The best thing that I can say is that yesterday and today I completed the 15.8 miles of Old Settlers Trail; however, because of my goof today I hiked an extra 2.5-3.5 miles.