Canoeing and Hiking in Virginia

[bsacks05]

I turned 48 on Saturday, June 29 and that was the day my son and I planned to fly to Roanoke, VA to do a little hiking and canoeing. It has been kind of soggy here lately as is much of the east coast, but we were fortunate and had high ceilings and a tailwind for our 8am departure from Perry-Houston Airport (PXE).



Patchy ground fog burned off as the morning went on and we enjoyed a friendly tailwind at 7500 ft. A rough calculation upon topping off at ROA showed us burning about 6.5 gph and averaging around 145 kts gps ground speed. That’s an RV9 for ya!



We rented a car, had lunch, and then drove to a spot on the Appalachian Trail and James River. The trail took us across the James on a footbridge then along the river for a couple miles before turning away from the river and up a mountain for some photos of the river from altitude. Along the way we saw numerous small trickles of water which fed small streams, then to bigger mountain streams and finally into the river which ends at the Chesapeake Bay. The total hike was about 7 miles and we were ready for a rest when we got to the hotel.










The next day we drove to Buchanan, VA to go canoeing. Twin Rivers Outfitters drove us 9 miles upriver where we put in and had an enjoyable and peaceful 2.5 hour float/paddle down the river.







Continued....

[bsacks05]

Our plan for this trip was to continue on from Roanoke to Luray, VA to see the caverns, then on to Frederick, MD to visit with my father in Bethesda. The weather, of course, had other ideas and I soon realized that if we didn?t leave ROA by Monday afternoon we were going to be staying there at least 2 more days before we had a chance to leave. Frederick (FDK) was not looking any better. The decision was made to go back home instead of being stranded.

By 1pm on Monday the clouds had broken and lifted in the area of ROA enough to allow us to fly through the mountainous area and give us ceilings of around 3500ft for the rest of the trip to PXE. Climbing on top was not really an option since we would be dodging build ups the whole way and there was just light turbulence at 3000ft. so that is where we stayed.




This stack is huge! - 1000ft AGL just west of KMLJ



This was just my second long trip using my Nexus 7 tablet running Garmin Pilot and a GDL39 for traffic and weather. It is a nice, inexpensive way to go and I am impressed with the amount of weather data available. En route ceiling info was very accurate and helpful as was the TIS-B radar. Spotting traffic out the canopy which was depicted on the tablet screen is fun, too.

[tkatc]

Looks like a great little trip!