2025 Road Trip: Part 2 (The Channels)

Virginia to North Carolina
The Channels Natural Preserve

Day 2
5.23.25

Our second day of the adventure was to include an interesting hike I've had starred on google maps for a couple years called The Channels in southwestern Virginia, which is a unique hike featuring large sandstone blocks with deep crevasses or slots that you can walk through and explore like miniature city blocks. Today's plan was to rise relatively early, head over to The Channels, about 80 miles southwest, and then finish the day at Benny's family's mountain house in Franklin NC in the evening for dinner.

We were up by 6:45 and packed up camp, opting to have a quick snack along the road instead of unpacking the kitchen kit for a full breakfast to save a little time. As always, the distance to our trailhead seemed to take much longer than I had anticipated, however this gave an opportunity to do some cow-spotting, and considering the winding nature of the roads in the area, it took us about two hours to finally get to our parking spot. The Channels seems to be a hidden spot that perhaps isn't too popular, as there are a strictly enforced ten parking space limit here, seated atop one of the most intense paved mountain roads I've ever experienced in my life. This would be VA-80 of course, and the turns are so tight that it seems one might fall off the edge if you lose focus for a mere second. We saw a Jeep convoy headed down as we went up, so it seems to be a popular road for this community, and I second this rating!

Yilin and I got ourselves ready for the hike, packed some brunch in our bags, and headed up the old road that leads into the preserve around 10:30. I had downloaded the AllTrails map beforehand as I usually do, however it wasn't super clear where exactly along the trail the main feature of the hike would be, and I thought it was about 2.5 miles in, with a fire lookout tower at the end of the trail. The trail begins along an old gated road bed, however several cars did drive up past us to some cabins that are hidden up in the mountains here, so they must get special access to drive here if renting one of the cabins.

Trailhead for the Channels hike

Past a rustic cabin property, the trail becomes narrower and only allows foot traffic, snaking its way up the side of the mountain with some switchbacks. We chatted with a couple coming down with their dog and asked where exactly we could encounter the main "channels" area, and they informed us that it's actually a short walk beyond the fire tower, and the tower itself is no longer open. This added some mileage to our original plan, not the greatest news for Yilin who had mentally prepared for a shorter hike based on what I had known about the trail before....oops.

Bench #2 of 3 along the way

It's important to note that hiking is very much more my thing than hers, and she prefers a museum adventure in most cases, so I may or may not have been threatened with some museum trips in the future. Finally we saw the sign for a short spur trail that leads up to the summit area with the disused tower and the channels. Turning the corner, we saw a tower with the lowest set of stairs removed to dissuade people from attempting to climb it anyway, despite no floor on the cabin above.

Fire tower sadly closed and unclimbable :(

Continuing just a minute further, we saw a small sign indicating the Channels, with a small viewing area to the left on the top of one of these stone towers. It was chained off, and rightly so, since the crevasses between the field of towers while narrow, are 30-40 feet deep, and a misstep would be very nasty here. Going instead to the right will descend into the labyrinth of narrow passageways. This was amazing, and definitely beyond what I had expected, even having seen some pictures posted online! It's not large enough that you'll get lost inside the maze, but there are some small arrows pointing to the way out if you do get turned around.

Inside the labyrinth of The Channels

We found a small clearing to enjoy our brunch before winding our way back toward the tower and back down to the trailhead. The way down always seems to feel longer even though it takes less time to descend...we made it back by 3pm and decided that we'd go for the fastest route along the interstate to the mountain house in North Carolina in the afternoon so we wouldn't arrive too late. I had asked Benny to curate a list of things for us to do together in the Franklin area, and he suggested a local fire tower hike that he's done a number of times before when visiting the mountains. Due to my misjudgment of the hike length though, we'd be getting in a few hours later than expected, so Benny suggested we meet directly at the trailhead and then convoy back to the house afterward. He nonchalantly texted me mentioning that the access road would be gravel, which was no concern after yesterday's adventure up the crazy "road".

After snaking our way down VA-80 to Meadowview, we got our second jaunt of interstate on our trip, blasting (relatively speaking) down I-81 toward the Tennessee border. We stopped at the welcome center for a pit stop and free map, and noticed some musical notes painted on the sidewalk every few feet, which I found quite entertaining! It reminds me of a rhythmic training exercise I might do with some of my younger students.

We wound through the Smoky Mountains on I-26, climbing to a pass at the TN-NC border, and enjoying endless mountain views in all directions. I think we spotted North Carolina's high point Mt. Mitchell just to the east in the distance at one point, perhaps a future trip and I can go hike this one. Back into the valley we passed by Asheville, which likely deserves its own visit one day as well, but this of course is the one downside of any road trip - you have to decide what to stop and see and what you may have to skip, since seeing everything is impossible. As the sun got lower, the twisting mountain roads were in and out of the shadows, causing us to constantly adjust sunglasses and the car visors around every bend. Finally, after crossing the Little Tennessee River at Tellico Bridge, we found the winding road up to Wesser Bald Fire Tower, whose trail is actually is short portion of the Appalachian Trail.

The pavement ended and we followed the power lines up to a steep mountain pass with switchbacks for something like 7 miles. Somewhere along this stretch, we passed the largest corkscrew sculpture I've ever seen. Further up, recent rains had even caused half the road to collapse into the abyss in one spot—along with one of the warning cones placed there to warn drivers. I was wondering if I'd be able to get up this road without a Subaru honestly, but the AWD got us up no problem, and at the top we spotted Benny there waiting for us with a picnic bag, surprising us with dinner packed for us to eat at the top!

Who needs the whole width of Tellico Road anyway?

Here began a reunion after a decade, since the last time we had met up was interestingly on my 2015 road trip, where I stopped in at Union College in NY to visit. Once again, we put hiking shoes back onto our tired feet, and tried our best to keep up with Benny as he fired questions at me to catch up on ten years of history since we last saw each other. I guess we should keep better in touch?

Our timing ended up being impeccable, as once we rounded the top, the sun was just minutes from sinking below the endless sea of mountains. Visibility was about as good as it gets, with an orange sky to the west and a deep blue to the east, and small lakes dotting the valleys below. We decided to eat our picnic below the tower due to a chilly wind, exchanging fun stories of our time together at Union, and what had transpired in each of our journeys since then.

Sunset at Wesser Bald Fire Tower

We descended by headlamp, and followed Benny back to the house, where we received a grand tour. Built with timber-frame construction, I instantly took a liking to the style, as it blended the framework of my family's barn with an interior featuring plenty of natural wood, not unlike the cabin I grew up in once moving to Maine, as well as a living area open to the second floor. Benny's family built the house when he was young, and shared some pictures from the construction process hung on the wall, along with a raised topographic map of the area in the stairwell. Many bedrooms lined far ends of the house, with a huge kitchen designed for feeding the usually much larger crowd that visits the house.

The beautiful mountain house!

A screened porch and open deck hung off one side, both of which we made use of the following day to get some fresh air while eating and cooking dinner. For now, we discussed some options for how to best spend our day in Franklin, having opted to spend two nights there. Our general plan was to explore the quaint downtown area shops, check out a local waterfall, and spend the evening cooking dinner together.

Day 2 Route map: 314 miles
Total mileage: 717

2025 Road Trip: Part 1 (MD-VA)

Maryland to Virginia
Shenandoah National Park & Blue Ridge Parkway

Day 1
5.22.25

Beginning another epic road trip a decade after the last one is a monumental event, and as much as I’d like to believe that my experience from the first trip would benefit me in planning for the next, it seems that I needed to start from scratch again. Despite having a general packing list and several tried-and-true systems for my general travel style, camping and cooking on the road, etc., the biggest change for this adventure is that I’m not going solo, and instead Yilin is coming along with me as we chase some of America’s best national parks in the Rocky Mountain region.  And the other big change is Apollo, my blue Subaru Forester, our chariot for the adventure!

While Yilin and I have spent plenty of time traveling on numerous shorter trips, they have usually been only a couple days in length, so spending three weeks together traveling around the country in semi- boondocking fashion will be a new experience for us to adjust to. As comfortable as I am with this type of travel from my 2015 trip and various shorter camping weekends since then, I feel gratitude toward Yilin for being willing to try such an adventure this year, since it’s not her norm by any means, however we both loved the idea of visiting parts of the country that we haven’t experienced before. Yilin will be taking the lead on more urban exploration as we pass through cities along the way, certainly her area of expertise.  There will be some overlap between my last trip and this one, but fear not, as I write this, we’ve already had so many surprises I'm looking forward to sharing here!

As the chronic list-maker between us, naturally I’ve had a packing list as well as a meticulous yet heavily tentative route planned out for weeks, while Yilin seems content to go along with whatever happens. This is such an entertaining contrast and it will be interesting to see how it affects our experience on the road. After chipping away at our list for the last week or so, it seemed like we had everything at least on hand in ready to be packed, however upon further inspection, I was shocked to realize how much we actually planned to bring, and how overloaded the car seemed to be after attempting to squeeze everything in. Coming back from a long day of teaching and proceeding to shovel bag after bag into the back of an already brimming car had put me into an irritable mood that helped no one, however I managed to Tetris my way through all the bags, and got a measly 2 hours of sleep before our planned departure of 4:30am on Thursday before Memorial Day weekend.

Why so early you ask? Well, our goal was to first head to Shenandoah National Park to finally get a complete experience on Skyline Drive early in the morning, to give plenty of time to explore the overlooks and stop where we like. Also, I had no interest in fighting holiday crowds in the parks over the weekend, so a Thursday departure made the most sense. The overall objective for the opening section of our journey was to meander southwest along the Appalachian Mountains toward North Carolina while avoiding interstates when possible, before turning west to visit our friend Emilia in Dallas in a few days.

The day began discouragingly with steady rain in Catonsville, making me second guess my judgment of attempting Skyline Drive this day, however after charging through early morning DC commuter traffic on 95, both the rain and the traffic seemed to clear out as we neared Front Royal. We were treated to a constantly evolving sky throughout the day, including beautiful crepuscular rays during sunrise, cloudy tendrils hanging off the valley trees below, and some unusual sun-showers by the evening.

North Entrance to Shenandoah NP

At 105 miles in length, Skyline Drive snakes its way along the ridgeline of Shenandoah National Park in three sections, intersected by US-211 and US-33 which wind their way up the slopes from the east and west, though we continued straight through, stopping at many of the 75 overlooks or when wildlife would cross our path. We saw several deer, including a fawn who was too fast and evaded both our cameras, as well as a turkey. The early morning drive allowed for a very quiet drive, and we took about 5 hours to arrive at the southern terminus at I-66, at which point the road transitions to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I have previously been on only the northern portion of Skyline Drive in 2019 for a fall hike with my friend Bowen, and parts of the BRP as far as Beuna Vista, VA for two hiking trips in 2021 and 2022, so it was quite fun to see some of these areas in a new time of year.

Skyline Drive (north section)

Dewy morning flower

One of many overlooks on Skyline Drive

On a windy rock

Yilin took the wheel for the BRP, which allowed me to look around and take some more photos, which was a welcome change from a solo trip where photo opportunities are limited due to the act of driving. I took us down into Beuna Vista, where we stopped for gas, took a short stretching walk by the Maury River, and planned out our afternoon route. I had seen Natural Bridge State Park in my VA atlas, and I was curious to check this out since it was not far from the BRP, however we decided to omit this as the ticket price seemed too expensive for what they offer, and we planned to see similar geology further west anyway, so instead we headed to nearby Blue Hollow campground to eat a picnic lunch. I discovered along the way that this is an official Dark Sky Viewing Area, due to its higher elevation and a cleared meadow without much light pollution nearby.

Blue Ridge Parkway

We ended up on US-11 around here, whose second name "Lee Highway" I had casually announced to Yilin in the car, but it was instead misinterpreted as a Chinese name Li Haiwei, which could potentially mean "rose under the sea". I feel I may be destined for this name should I need a local Chinese name when visiting in the future...we shall see.

After our lunch stop, I asked Yilin to direct us via the atlas to the camping area we were aiming for, Walnut Flats near Pearisburg, VA. The back roads here are extremely narrow with tight winding corners, and lots of cows, goats, and sheep, or occasionally a dog running into the road. This ended up being a lovely portion of the drive, though after awhile one does tire of turning so much. We passed the trailheads for McAfee Knob and Dragons Tooth, both of with I did back in fall of 2022, and discovered a newly built pedestrian bridge to accommodate Appalachian Trail hikers crossing VA-311.

A meadow between the ridges

We found this intense unpaved mountain road crossing over one of the many ridges that makes up Virginia's southwestern geography, which was much less improved than my atlas indicated. Nonetheless, we continued cautiously up and up, arriving at an epic valley view and descending the north side only to be stopped by a large blowdown blocking the path. This was no problem however as we packed a handsaw with us, and I eagerly exited to begin sawing away!

With the path cleared, we once again found pavement, and twisted our way 45 miles further to the turnoff for Walnut Flats, which is a free camping area I had found in my research. It was here that the rain fell at just the right time while we had the late evening sun and saw a super bright double rainbow! Unfortunately, due to our meandering speed throughout the day, we were arriving later than we should have to secure a spot, and everything was full. So we continued along the forest road, passing a number of full camping spots, even a horse camp nearby was full. By about 7, we were able to find a nice clearing off a side road next to a creek to set up camp for the night.

Rainbow from the evening sun-shower

This would be our first time setting up in the wild, though we practiced with the newly acquired two-person tent and a super comfy air-mattress by ExPed in my backyard before leaving so this would go smoother for us. I had been hoping to rely on a picnic table for cooking dinner, but alas, we had no such amenity here, so we made due without. Yilin managed to cook herself a luxurious Asian noodle and veggie soup, while I opted for some sautéed broccoli mixed with ham and mashed potatoes. Ignoring the ground placement of the Stansport stove I have, we were very happy with its performance.

Campsite, day 1

Yilin's camp dinner!

We managed to keep all the bugs out of the tent, and made a cozy blanket nest in the tent, as the temperature was quite mild due to the spotty rain that day and into the night. As I often like to do, I brought my atlas to bed to get organized for the following day and make a rough plan of where to go. Our next stop would be a fun one, as I had recently connected with an old college roommate Benny from when he and I were studying at Union College, and his extended family shares a house in the mountains of western North Carolina, and had agreed to meet us there and host us for a couple days on our way through. I will save that for the next post however, and close out this post with our trip details for Day 1:

Daily mileage: 403

Total mileage: also 403 (obviously)

Day 1 route map (403 miles)