August 22, 2013
by David Ryan
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A Hiker at Tinker Creek (Part 2)

This post is a continuation of the previous post, A Hiker at Tinker Creek (Part 1)

After checking out Annie Dillard’s former neighborhood, it was time for Petey and me to hike the Appalachian Trail to see some of the places she mentions in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek up close. To do that we drove to Four Pines Hostel near Catawba, Virginia, a few miles southwest of Roanoke, to park our car. From there we got a shuttle to where the trail crosses US Highway 220, to the northwest of Roanoke. Our plan was to hike about twenty miles from US 220 back to our car and to spend a night on the trail.

A quick note about hiker hostels, there are many of these along the Appalachian Trail. For the long-distance hiker, they are a place to shower and to spend the night for very little money. For someone on a shorter hike, like us, they can be a safe place to park the car and to get a shuttle. Information on hostels and other hiker services along the trail can be found in a Thru-Hiker companion guide. Companion guides are available from outfitters or the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

Our chosen route would take us across Tinker Creek, up to the top of Tinker Mountain, over Tinker Ridge, by Tinker Cliffs, and then over McAfee Knob. Many hikers consider this to be one of the more scenic sections of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia.

Although it is very busy, US 220 is a paradise for a long-distance hiker. There are shopping centers, motels, and restaurants only footsteps from the Appalachian Trail. It is a perfect place for a long-distance hiker to take a well-earned rest day.

As soon we left the highway we stepped into the woods and soon approached the easternmost extension of Tinker Mountain. The mountain was between us and Annie Dillard’s neighborhood.

In less than a mile we crossed Tinker Creek several miles upstream from her neighborhood. (The trail uses a bridge from an abandoned road to cross the creek.) On page 102 of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard tells us that the source of Tinker Creek is on the north side (the side hidden from her house) of Tinker Mountain.

Tinker Creek from the Appalachian Trail. Continue Reading →

August 10, 2013
by David Ryan
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A Hiker at Tinker Creek (Part 1)

A little northwest of Roanoke, Virginia, the Appalachian Trail crosses Tinker Creek. About forty years ago, in a home not too far from Hollins College outside of Roanoke, Annie Dillard would have been finishing up her 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning classic Pilgrim at Tinker Creek; the same Tinker Creek crossed by the Appalachian Trail.

The book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, is a very personal narrative that is not about the author. Annie Dillard does not tell us about her life or what she thinks about the burning issues of the day. She only offers an almost lyrical weaving of facts and her actual observations to present a sometimes startling portrayal of the natural world around us and our role in it.

On the very first page of the narrative she writes of an old tomcat that would come into her bedroom at night, knead her chest with his front paws, and then leave bloody paw prints on her chest that looked like rose petals. Four pages later she tells us of a giant water bug injecting a frog with an enzyme to dissolve its tissue and then actually seeing the frog disappear right before her eyes as the water bug sucked the life out of it. The book doesn’t quit there; it keeps that pace all the way to the end.

If you look back at the summer of 1973, America’s involvement in the Viet Nam War was coming to an end and the unfolding Watergate scandal was dominating the nightly news. Yet like all burning issues, these have faded away like a blip on a radar scope, only to be replaced, many times over, by a new burning issue. Yet if you were to pick up a copy of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek today and read it, it would still be fresh and ring true.

I first read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek many years after it was published and a couple of years after I completed the Appalachian Trail. By the time I reached the second page I realized that Annie Dillard was writing about an area near the Appalachian Trail when she said, “I live by a creek, Tinker Creek, in a valley in Virginia’s Blue Ridge.”

As she continues the description of the area, she literally identifies the Appalachian Trail one page later. “The mountains – Tinker and Brushy, McAfee’s Knob and Dead Man – are a passive mystery…”  The Appalachian Trail goes over all four of those mountains.

Tinker (Dead Man’s) Mountain from the east

Continue Reading →

August 2, 2013
by David Ryan
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Wandering on Public Stairways in Lynchburg, Virginia

While doing some casual Internet surfing a few months ago to see what towns might have public stairways, I ran across a PDF document (Click Here) prepared by the City of Lynchburg, Virginia. It was a planning document regarding the development of a network of pedestrian walkways in downtown Lynchburg.

The document mentioned that new and existing stairways could be incorporated in the proposed walkways. The document went on to say that Lynchburg could be known as the “City of Stairs”. That was enough for me to put Lynchburg in my mental filing cabinet as a place to check out when the opportunity arose.

A little over a week ago I was in Virginia, and my dog Petey and I took advantage of the time to visit Lynchburg to see what we could see. Although I had printed off the planning document, I had not really studied it as I had no reference as to what was where. We were going to let what we saw guide us on where we went.

While in Lynchburg, we learned that it is more than the home of Jerry Falwell. Lynchburg is an older city of around 75,000 people on the James River not too far from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Because of the river, a canal along the river to improve navigation, and a network of connecting railroads it became an important manufacturing center in the South. It was an important supply point for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Lynchburg was where Robert E. Lee and his army were headed after the collapse of Richmond and Petersburg in April 1865. Lee hoped he could resupply his army in Lynchburg and continue the war. When Grant’s forces cut off Lee’s escape route, Lee was forced to surrender at Appomattox Court House less than twenty miles east of Lynchburg. For all practical purposes the Civil War was over.

My first impression of Lynchburg was its highways. They all seemed to be built up to near expressway standards. The town seemed to be spread out without too much to see from the road. I finally reached an exit for the historic city center and found a completely different story. There we found a compact city of diverse architecture and much to see.

With Lynchburg’s proximity to the Blue Ridge Mountains and its position along the river, it’s hilly. The central area of Lynchburg is built on a series of terraces starting at the riverside. The combination of hills, terraces, and development before automobiles became commonplace are a perfect recipe for public stairways. And Lynchburg has them.

Our stairway wandering adventure started when we turned off of Main Street onto Ninth Street and saw a set of steps immediately in front of us leading to the old Court House that was built before the Civil War. We parked the car and started walking.

The Court House Stairs are a memorial to Lynchburg citizens who lost their life in war. Each landing honors a different war. Continue Reading →