I had planned a three day backpacking trip around Mount Rogers for last weekend, but the weather had us compress our schedule into 2 days. Our route mostly used the AT, but also included the trails:
Fairwood Valley Trail
Mount Rogers Trail
and the spur trails to the summit & Massie Gap.
I’d recommend this route to anyone interested in spending more time exploring the area around the highpoint. I promised myself I’d be back one day after I first day hiked up Mount Rogers in 2001 (the year I started this hobby).
Mount Rogers is now only the third high point I’ve repeated (IN and TN are the others).
Full trip report and photos:
http://mcfarren.info/adam/outdoor/backpacking/mntrogers2007/
-adam