Open invitation to anyone who wants to go backpacking in June: my uncle & I and a couple couple of other people are planning to hike part of the AT in Southwestern VA--from Mount Rogers into Damascus. The distance is 41 miles plus or minus; we'll probably take 4 to 5 days. No, we haven't fixed on a firm date yet; probably we'd start on a Thursday or Friday of whatever week. Anyways, all of us who are going right now will be driving up from Knoxville (about 2 hours away) in some way, shape, or form, and we all carry enough trail mix to satisfy even the most desperate of chocolate cravings.

Mount Rogers is the most beautiful part of the Appalachians that I know of. The trail gentle slopes across open meadows and weaves through rock outcroppings. Though it's several thousand feet too low, the whole place has an alpine feel. There are also herds of wild horses (or ponies, since they're all shorter than me) which come skittishly begging for food. And since we're hiking down from there, it shouldn't be all that difficult of a walk.