My lovely wife accompanied me on this hike. We started off on a short trail that lead to a dirt road. The dirt road climbed for awhile and then stops. We hiked a faint trail for a few hundred feet along the ridge line until connecting with a main trail. The main trail takes you to within a few hundred feet to the top of Read Mountain, where there are some nice rocks with views of Roanoke. I then left the main trail to summit Read, which is fairly steep, but not too long.