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It’s a bright August morning, and every
seat on the Virginia Creeper Trail shuttle
is filled. The van wends its way up
Whitetop Mountain, slowing to hug
each curve on the old logging road that
winds to the summit. We pass weath-
ered log cabins, fields of perfect, cone-
shaped Christmas trees and miles of tall
oaks. Three teenage girls—maybe 16 or
17—
sit in the front seat, chatting like
old friends with the driver and swapping
memories with each other. They recall
the first ride down the mountain. The
plunge into a trailside creek after bik-
ing right through a hornet’s nest. The
double-dip ice cream cones enjoyed at
the base of the mountain.
Seated behind them, the girls’ fathers
and uncles laugh and tease about the
hornet misadventure. And one passen-
ger—a little older than the girls—sits
quietly, taking it all in. It’s his last trip as
“
one of the kids,” I learn. He will enter
the military at the end of the summer.
mICHAel AmIrI
Virginia Creeper
Trail Club President
Wayne Miller (left)
and trail co-founder
Dr. French Moore Jr.
(
TOP AND leFT ) Tyler everT/AP ImAges
The view fromWhitetop
Mountain looking down on
the valley where the Virginia
Creeper Trail begins.
(
right) Lauren Rowan and Benjamin
Hammer use Damascus, Va., as the
launch point for their trip on the
Appalachian Trail.
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