Getting Off the AT: When White Rectangles Turn Blue

Running or hiking the Appalachian Trail means carefully watching for:

* trees ready to knock you off your route
* rocks ready to bash your ankles and shins
* mud and tree roots grasping for your feet
* quick stops and face plants on the part of your companions partners
* algae and other rock coverings sure to provide no traction at all
* the regular appearance of white rectangles painted on surfaces along the trail
* rectangles of other colors

Why bother with those rectangles? If you miss a few, you aren't going to slip, twist your ankle or bust your shoulder on a tree trunk.

When your rectangle color changes from WHITE which means Appalachian Trail, to something like BLUE, you're off the AT. Observant runners like Dave and I not only watch for most of the items listed above, occasionally, we also check out the trees and mushrooms, have brief ongoing conversations with deer, grouse, fox,and passing dogs and conduct some fairly absurd conversations about the state of the world and the meaning of life.

Somewhere on the way to our turn-around point on the AT Sunday, WHITE rectangles changed to BLUE. We were oblivious. A quarter mile and 300 feet down the mountain, I said something like, "Dave, those rectangles are blue." Dave commented after thinking about my observation, "Huh. That means..??" I replied, "Not sure," and we continued caroming downhill. A half mile later, a sign saying "Ridge to River Trail" signaled to us that we were headed to the Shenandoah River in downtown Jefferson County, West Virginia. We'd been on the Ridge. With joy at our mistake, we realized that if we finished the run without further detours, we'd be getting in that extra mileage we wanted to make the run close to a twenty miler.

We finally stopped going downhill at the junction of Christ Church and Mission, right in the middle of an undeveloped development. Pretty place. Leaf colors changing. Far from the top of the Blue Ridge. We'd dropped 1000 ft in elevation from the top of the Blue Ridge before coming to rest at the junction which doesn't seem to exist on maps. After a few minutes rest and relaxation, we headed back up to the AT, relocated those welcome white triangles and, in time, found the Blackburn Trail Center.