Have you ever had a specific plan that went completely awry but because it went so wrong the experience was even greater? Well this applies to the first time I hiked Kelly’s Knob last spring (April 2013). My friend Christian and I decided to drive out to this hike located off US-460 and we wanted to hike the entire trail instead of just one side which is generally how people tackle it. So our plan was to drive separately, park one car on the south end, and then drive together to the north end. Sounds foolproof right? That’s what we thought too. Turns out we were completely wrong. And it was fantastic.
The morning of our adventure had arrived and there was one thing that already threw us for a loop – one of Juan Carlos’s tires had been replaced by a spare the day before. The thing is, with a spare tire on, you’re only allowed to hit 55 mph max. Well, US-460 has a 65 mph minimum speed limit…this was going to be interesting. I wasn’t going to let this stop us from going so we decided to continue with our plans. As we departed my apartment complex, everything was going well. However, I was very nervous to hit 460. We eventually merged onto the major roadway and I hesitantly hit 55pmh and held it there. Cars were zooming passed us. It was really embarrassing. I wanted to rev up to 65mph so badly but I knew that it could result in my car being on the side of the road. I decided to be patient, which is a trait I often struggle with, and be the tortoise of road. Thank goodness Christian was following me and giving me support because I was getting tired of people giving me weird looks as they drove by. I became one of those drivers that I always complain about. It was horrible. There was the occasional honking as well. I just kept telling myself that this happens to people who have a spare on all the time and not let it get to me. Then, my tire light came on – meaning the tire pressure was not what it needed to be. FFFFF. I decided to ride it out until we reached the road we needed to turn on. Thankfully, we made it onto the side road and since the parking lot for the trail was not much further, I decided to continue driving. This provided another problem because we could not find the parking lot for the life of us! We kept doubling back to see if we missed it. Finally, we stopped at a church that was labeled close to the trailhead and asked where the lot was. The lady was very nice and enthusiastic to meet hikers. She told us that the lot was just down the road but many hikers just park in their lot and suggested we do the same. We took her up on her offer and then checked my tires to make sure they were ok. The tire indicator must have malfunctioned due to the spare tire because each tire was fine. PHEW! We parked Juan Carlos at the church and then departed for the other lot together.
You’d think that this trailhead would be easy to find considering it is a more published hike. We followed our directions but came across an unsuspected fork in the road. Straight ahead was a dirt path that led into the woods while a paved road was to the left. We figured since nothing was mentioned about a dirt road that we turn left. Well that assumption was incorrect. We drove for a good while and realized the road name was still the same so we figured we were on the right track. Eventually, after driving way longer than the directions entailed, I pulled out my GPS to see what the heck was going on. Our little blue dot was telling us that we were going in circles. Being very confused, we drove up to a large house and asked for help. The local told us not to fret, many people pull into his driveway for help. Such a great guy. I wonder if he enjoys the constant company. He told us to go back the same direction we had come from and to travel on a dirt path. AHA! Therein lies our mistake. We traveled back to the path (de ja vu) and drove onto the unpaved trail. About 20 yards in, we saw a sign for Appalachian Trail! Woohoo! However, the trail was nowhere in sight. Another sign popped up with an arrow so we continued on. This road was very iffy. There were ruts and fallen trees all over the place. Not to mention no guardrail. That put me on edge. Eventually, we came across two cars parked in a small clearing on the left of the road. We looked to our right and Voila! Kelly’s Knob trail. However, the clearing on the left was only big enough for two cars…we decided to continue driving and that was a bad idea because it went downhill and the road was very narrow so to turn around would be near impossible. After about a minute of driving we ran into some people loading cut trees into the back of their truck. At this point we needed to figure out how to return to the trail behind us. We contemplated turning around very carefully but soon negated that idea because we would fall off the side of the mountain. So Christian worked up the courage to drive in REVERSE up the mountain in his little Honda Taurus. It was a slow process but we made it back to the top! We turned around in the small area in the clearing and parallel parked on the side of the road. FINALLLY we could begin what we came for – the hike!
We began climbing up the mountain and it was SUPER DUPER steep. Oh my goodness they should have bright neon warning signs for this stuff! I was not mentally prepared. It was probably the steepest incline I’ve experienced on a hike since Tinker Cliffs. It only lasted for about 0.5 miles (THANK GOD) and then it started to flatten out. The trail was very pretty because the flora was growing right up along the path. As we hiked, the area started getting clearer but there were no signs indicating we had reached the top. And there was no view. We trekked on. After about another mile I started getting worried that we missed it. It was only supposed to be 1.5 miles from where we parked. We discussed going back and seeing if we surpassed it, but we then decided that there would have been a clear-cut sign. About another mile later we came across a shelter which is located after the view on the map….WHAT! This was terribly upsetting. Sure enough
we had passed the view. We looked in the Traveler’s notebook at the shelter where hikers can write notes or thoughts and someone else had passed the view as well. I believe it said this verbatim: “Where the hell is Kelly’s Knob? We completely missed it.” We contemplated turning back and finding it but that would have added an extra 2 miles to our hike…we weren’t feeling it. We continued the rest of the hike and actually came across some beautiful scenery that made up for it. We walked along a tranquil stream and came across
a very serene and secluded lagoon. Little waterfalls were being created from the rock formations – it was wonderful. During this hike, there was still snow on the ground from a recent snowstorm which made the trail all the more beautiful.
We eventually reached some open farmland and had to climb a few wooden staircases in and out of people’s property. The hills were cascading upon each other and you could see for miles. The only way it could have gotten any prettier was if the grass was green instead of brown. The trail continued through some farmer’s land and I was wondering how this was okay with the owner. I guess the trail was there first? We finally reached the church parking lot and our adventure came to a close. Well, not quite. We still had to retrieve Christian’s car form the starting point which was on that gravel road from earlier. Juan Carlos with a disability was not happy. He struggled a little to get up the hill while avoiding the potholes. In the end, we made it safely and returned to Blacksburg.
The morning of our adventure had arrived and there was one thing that already threw us for a loop – one of Juan Carlos’s tires had been replaced by a spare the day before. The thing is, with a spare tire on, you’re only allowed to hit 55 mph max. Well, US-460 has a 65 mph minimum speed limit…this was going to be interesting. I wasn’t going to let this stop us from going so we decided to continue with our plans. As we departed my apartment complex, everything was going well. However, I was very nervous to hit 460. We eventually merged onto the major roadway and I hesitantly hit 55pmh and held it there. Cars were zooming passed us. It was really embarrassing. I wanted to rev up to 65mph so badly but I knew that it could result in my car being on the side of the road. I decided to be patient, which is a trait I often struggle with, and be the tortoise of road. Thank goodness Christian was following me and giving me support because I was getting tired of people giving me weird looks as they drove by. I became one of those drivers that I always complain about. It was horrible. There was the occasional honking as well. I just kept telling myself that this happens to people who have a spare on all the time and not let it get to me. Then, my tire light came on – meaning the tire pressure was not what it needed to be. FFFFF. I decided to ride it out until we reached the road we needed to turn on. Thankfully, we made it onto the side road and since the parking lot for the trail was not much further, I decided to continue driving. This provided another problem because we could not find the parking lot for the life of us! We kept doubling back to see if we missed it. Finally, we stopped at a church that was labeled close to the trailhead and asked where the lot was. The lady was very nice and enthusiastic to meet hikers. She told us that the lot was just down the road but many hikers just park in their lot and suggested we do the same. We took her up on her offer and then checked my tires to make sure they were ok. The tire indicator must have malfunctioned due to the spare tire because each tire was fine. PHEW! We parked Juan Carlos at the church and then departed for the other lot together.
You’d think that this trailhead would be easy to find considering it is a more published hike. We followed our directions but came across an unsuspected fork in the road. Straight ahead was a dirt path that led into the woods while a paved road was to the left. We figured since nothing was mentioned about a dirt road that we turn left. Well that assumption was incorrect. We drove for a good while and realized the road name was still the same so we figured we were on the right track. Eventually, after driving way longer than the directions entailed, I pulled out my GPS to see what the heck was going on. Our little blue dot was telling us that we were going in circles. Being very confused, we drove up to a large house and asked for help. The local told us not to fret, many people pull into his driveway for help. Such a great guy. I wonder if he enjoys the constant company. He told us to go back the same direction we had come from and to travel on a dirt path. AHA! Therein lies our mistake. We traveled back to the path (de ja vu) and drove onto the unpaved trail. About 20 yards in, we saw a sign for Appalachian Trail! Woohoo! However, the trail was nowhere in sight. Another sign popped up with an arrow so we continued on. This road was very iffy. There were ruts and fallen trees all over the place. Not to mention no guardrail. That put me on edge. Eventually, we came across two cars parked in a small clearing on the left of the road. We looked to our right and Voila! Kelly’s Knob trail. However, the clearing on the left was only big enough for two cars…we decided to continue driving and that was a bad idea because it went downhill and the road was very narrow so to turn around would be near impossible. After about a minute of driving we ran into some people loading cut trees into the back of their truck. At this point we needed to figure out how to return to the trail behind us. We contemplated turning around very carefully but soon negated that idea because we would fall off the side of the mountain. So Christian worked up the courage to drive in REVERSE up the mountain in his little Honda Taurus. It was a slow process but we made it back to the top! We turned around in the small area in the clearing and parallel parked on the side of the road. FINALLLY we could begin what we came for – the hike!
We began climbing up the mountain and it was SUPER DUPER steep. Oh my goodness they should have bright neon warning signs for this stuff! I was not mentally prepared. It was probably the steepest incline I’ve experienced on a hike since Tinker Cliffs. It only lasted for about 0.5 miles (THANK GOD) and then it started to flatten out. The trail was very pretty because the flora was growing right up along the path. As we hiked, the area started getting clearer but there were no signs indicating we had reached the top. And there was no view. We trekked on. After about another mile I started getting worried that we missed it. It was only supposed to be 1.5 miles from where we parked. We discussed going back and seeing if we surpassed it, but we then decided that there would have been a clear-cut sign. About another mile later we came across a shelter which is located after the view on the map….WHAT! This was terribly upsetting. Sure enough
We eventually reached some open farmland and had to climb a few wooden staircases in and out of people’s property. The hills were cascading upon each other and you could see for miles. The only way it could have gotten any prettier was if the grass was green instead of brown. The trail continued through some farmer’s land and I was wondering how this was okay with the owner. I guess the trail was there first? We finally reached the church parking lot and our adventure came to a close. Well, not quite. We still had to retrieve Christian’s car form the starting point which was on that gravel road from earlier. Juan Carlos with a disability was not happy. He struggled a little to get up the hill while avoiding the potholes. In the end, we made it safely and returned to Blacksburg.
After this trip I vowed to return so I could actually see the view! Since that day, I went back with a few friends and located the outlook. The sign wasn’t very apparent so I can see why Christian and I missed it. The view was spectacular! I actually didn’t think it was going to be very good since it’s a shorter hike and no one really speaks of it. Mission accomplished.
