Beth and I were in Virginia, staying for four days in Buena Vista while visiting her alma mater (Washington & Lee University) in nearby Lexington. Today was going to be a relaxed day, so I asked if I could run out and do a couple of highpoints in the early morning, while Beth slept in, which Beth was agreeable to. We had been putting up with a steady mix of rain and cloudy days, with some nice days thrown in. Today was fixing up to be one of the wetter days; that prompted me to look at a couple lower-elevation highpoints a bit further out from Buena Vista. On the list for this morning: the Appomattox County highpoint at Kyles Mountain, and for a chaser, the Prince Edward County highpoint a few miles south. Leaving Buena Vista before 6 a.m., I drove east along US-60 down from the mountains and onto the gentler, lower elevation foothill ("piedmont") regions. The weather was drizzly but not terrible. The scenery was quite lovely and very rural. I enjoyed the drive very much.

Eventually I worked my way toward the Kyles Mountain area, leaving US-60 at Virginia State Route VA-24. I entered into Appomattox County, then drove up a lesser-paved road a couple of miles to put me due east of the little hill. This area is low rolling hills, most of it heavily forested. I seemed to be apart from any residences, which was good, although I didn;t sense access was restricted much, if at all.

The route to Kyles Mountain follows a dirt logging road, and runs about one mile each way. I started hiking at 7:45 a.m. in foggy, misty conditions. A new-looking gate spans the dirt road from where I parked, but despite its new-ness, the gate had some minor vandalism damage. I suspect this is a popular hangout for the bored local kids.

Moving quickly, I followed the road as it descended about 60 feet to a low-point, then bent slightly left to where the road met with another road, this one along the main "ridge" and going north south. Most of this stretch of hiking was open, the region having been logged within the last couple of years. The new saplings were still fairly small and immature. But now on the main ridge, I started to enter into more mature stands of growth. I simply hiked north about another half-mile to the highest hill, the summit of Kyles Mountain. As expected, the summit is wooded with no views, but it is fairly well-defined and I spent maybe a couple minutes here inspecting the area. The one-way hike had taken just 20 minutes or so.

On the hike out, I came upon a "Posted: No Trespassing" sign. It was facing the other way and I would not have seen it coming up. Well, a lot of good that news does me now, right? It was still early in the morning on a foggy weekday, so I was not expecting anyone to come by or hassle me. I made the walk out in about 20 minutes, my total time apart from the car less than an hour. It had been a reasonably nice little morning hike-stroll. The fog hindered views, but probably helped keep me invisible. The usual bane of rural highpoints, barking dogs, did not sense me in the fog. I heard no barking.

After the hike I drove into the town of Appomattox, where the surrender of the Confederates took place to the Union Army in 1865, ending the Civil War. However, lazy me, I just drove by the buildings. I stopped in town for some gas and snacks, the drove south to Lyle Mountain, the Prince Edward County highpoint.