Amherst County High Point Trip Report
Date: May 5, 2002
Author: Ryan Bowles
Fred Lobdell's directions are great. The following clarification will help.
Mt. Pleasant: There is no gate at Hog Camp Gap. Drive the 0.3 mile to FS 51 and turn right. After another
0.1 mile reach the parking area for the Pompey Mountain - Mount Pleasant loop trail. It is a very pleasant loop,
and both of these mountains are on the list of VA 4000 foot peaks. We did this hike clockwise.
It is about 5.2 miles with 1500 feet of total climb, and took us about 2.5 hours.
Bald Peak: Fred's directions are stellar. May we just point out that the views are excellent from the ridge
and Cole or Cold Mountain. The top of Bald Peak is not bald at all, and somewhat anticlimactic after
dropping 600 feet off of Cole Mountain and climbing 640 feet up Bald. The total round trip is 6.2 miles
with total climb of about 1750 feet.
Rocky Mountain: From Hog Camp Gap, follow Wiggins Spring Road back out to Coffeytown Road and turn right.
Go 5.2 miles to Salt Log Gap (Coffeytown becomes FS 63 somewhere in that stretch). Turn left
at the gap and drive up a fairly decent gravel road to the top of Rocky Mountain. We were in a passenger car.
This was our fifth 4,000 foot elevation peak in an afternoon, so we were glad to be able to drive all the way up.
Just about the time we arrived at the top, the sun dipped below the horizon, so we weren't able to do our
intended one-mile bushwhack to an unnamed 4000 foot peak near Rocky Mountain.
(Note: You could just follow Wiggins Spring Road north and east to Salt Log Gap,
rather than driving back out to Coffeytown, but we don't know the condition of the road.)