Day 7:

Roanoke Mountain to Otter Creek

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We started early in the cool of the Morning because we had such a long climb. The leaves are really changing here. This early fall is partly due to the severe shortage of rainfall that we have had over the past 2 months. The plants natural defense is to cut it's losses and drop it's leaves. The rhododendron are actually curling up like they would on a 20 degree day during winter.

Peeks of Otter is where we took our lunch break. Deer grazed behind the picnic tables where we ate lunch. "Lunch break" is a funny way to put it since we eat like it is lunch every time we take a break. We are breaking about every hour now.

After our noon lunch break we climbed to the highest point in Virginia (just shy of 4,000 ft) and then descended to the lowest point on the Parkway at the James River. elevation 649 feet. Talk about a downhill ride! It was great to be clean after 2 days without a shower. We are all looking forward to our first day off tomorrow.

Location	Begin	End	Elevation Gain	* Dead Animal Count	Distance	Energy Miles	Time
Roanoke Mountain to Otter Creek	MP 120	to MP 61	5,545 ft	4 snakes, 1 rabbit, 2 frogs	62 miles	77 E-Miles	6 hours
Totals				15 snakes, 6 mice, 1 crow, 2 moles, 1 skunk, 2 rabbit, 1 racoon, 1 frog, 1squirrell, 2 t-shirts