Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

Today we walked through the towns of Elliston and Shawsville and stopped on the outskirts of Christiansburg, Virginia. We walked about 12 miles. The day started at 45 degrees F and ended around 70 degress. The skies were clear with mild winds.

The day started at the border of Montgomery and Roanoke Counties where the Roanoke River crosses Route 11.  Yesterday ended with a down hill trek to the river.

About 8 miles of today’s walk went through a small valley. God created this little valley and He hid it here in this little pocket of southern Virginia. The morning started walking along side a railroad track. A freight train passed. It was so long that both ends disappeared around long bends. I haven’t seen such a train in years.

The trees here already have turned red, yellow, and orange. On some hills there was a dividing line running vertically where the master painter splashed those autumn colors on one side, but took a nap and has yet to splash the other side.

There are horse farms in this valley. Long, white wooden fences border rolling pastures. The color of the grass holds all the water and life of the valley. The homes are immaculate as they sit next to stables and barns.

The towns here are not the Main Street towns seen elsewhere. U.S. Route 11 is here a four-lane divided highway. A town is a group of several dozen houses in close proximity with a gas station and a Post Office. Shawsville is about triple the size of Elliston. It has three gas stations and more businesses. Shawsville also has an “Oldtown Road.” A half-mile road set halfway up a hill that parallels Route 11. There are four or five older and larger brick buildings on that road. They are all abandoned. Perhaps they were built on the hillside to stay away from possible flooding in the valley floor.

A poet once wrote that only God can make a tree. Let’s add that only man can build power lines above and through a tree and then dispatch a crew to butcher the tree so it doesn’t foul the power lines. For much of this little valley, the power lines run away from Route 11. This allows the trees to grow and shape the way the maker intended. Place these trees next to the aforementioned pastures and speckle them with colors.

If you ever want to walk about ten miles of beauty, visit this valley. This is my favorite stretch of rural road so far.

A surprise for me is that both Elliston and Shawsville have Wikipedia pages. I added photos to those pages.

I knew I was leaving the valley when I started climbing a hill. I walked uphill for at least an hour. My estimates with a GPS and topogrpahical maps is that I climbed 600 feet. We stopped at the intersection of Route 11 and Interstate 81 just north of Christiansburg.