RATtreks

Sunrise From Grassy Ridge – 9-16-2020

After 8 months of a global pandemic since my last hike, I was finally able to strap on my hiking boots and head to some of the highest mountains near me. I chose to do a night hike to Grassy Ridge on the mighty Roan Mountain to get there in time to watch the first light of the sun come up behind the Grandfather Mountain Range in the distance. It is always a gamble when it comes to sunrises and sunsets but, after not being able to hike for 8 months, I would be happy no matter what the results were as, just being in Nature would be plenty reward enough to me. That is, IF I could even make it all the way to Grassy Ridge !!! I had no way of knowing how my now overweight and much out of shape body, esp. my knees would handle this ‘right off the recliner’ hike !! After all the staging was done, I left the RAT`s Hole around 3am hoping this would allow plenty of time to make the drive and the climb to the top before first light. It is a 40 minute drive for me so I was there before 4am and was surprised to find the parking area already half full and on a Wed. ! I had been hearing and seeing pictures of the new ‘Covid Crowds’ that are now flocking to all the known trail heads and overflowing the parking areas and parking on the sides of and in the road for up to a mile in either direction but, I was now seeing that for myself. I wasted no time in grabbing my pack and heading up the mountain in the pitch black dark.