I was camping solo in an area I have spent 1000's of hours at and camped at 80+ times, so was very famaliar with the terrain and night sky, as I often stargaze and watch planets/ meteors there. I have never seen anything like what i'm about to describe. Shortly before dark (the sun was just about to go over the ridgeline) I was in an open boulderfield in the Appalachain Mtns. The altitude here was about 4000+ ft, and is just 1.5 miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway. There was close to an hour of daylight/twilight left, and I was about to return to camp and build a fire. I was watching the sunset and noticed a silver, metallic looking light. It first appeared to be a plane with sunlight glinting off of it. I thought little of it, and began idly flicking my LED headlamp on and off to ensure it worked before I hiked back to camp. When I looked back up the light had grown closer, and something was odd about it. I realized it was circular and that I was now looking at the bottom of the craft.(Note: I've always wondered if it was attracted by my LED light flicking on/off.) It made no sound whatsoever, was flying at least a few hundred ft over the treeline (trees grow about 100 ft there), and was moving fairly slowly. At this point I sorta froze and knew I was witnessing something strange. It flew just off to my left over the trees, and at this point I could clearly see details of the craft. It had 4 thin pie wedges at equal intervals around the edges that cut into the circle. A cross-like pattern of lights (white and yellow) ran across the bottom. There was also a mechanical look to the surface on the bottom (as it was directly overhead, I never got a good look at the top except from far away). Some areas appeared raised and more silvery, while other areas appeared indented and darker. Whether this was a color difference or just shadows is difficult to say. At this point I was overwhelmed by what I was seeing but remained as calm as possible and tried to remember every detail, as I did not have a camera, and no one else appeared to be around. I really wish I had a camera or cell-phone with me as their was still enough light to clearly see many details of this craft and was flying maybe 400-800 ft overhead. A photo of this would have been one of the clearest and most convincing ever because of daylight conditions, clear weather, and it's low altitude. Because of the strangeness of this object, I had difficulty determining its size, but it appeared slender in height, and perhaps 150-250 ft in diameter. It flew over the trees to my left, towards Price Park off the blue ridge parkway and was gone. I then became a little nervous about camping solo that night, but decided to return to camp, calm down and trust my instincts. I noticed and heard or saw nothing strange so decided to stay overnight. However, that night I did notice a very strange thing. I am an expeirienced camper, solo and with friends, but solo you hear every little sound in the woods at night. You become in tune. I had camped out there the previous night and the woods was filled with sounds of nightbirds, insects, and small animals rustling around. The night I saw the object nothing was heard and I saw no insect activity around my campsite. I also must report I saw no strange lights and saw nothing unusual that night. What was striking was the lack of activity- I've camped there many times in the summer and it's never that quiet. The weather conditions had remained constant both nights too, with clear skies and no rain. Sometimes incoming fronts or rain will cause birds and insects to reduce activity( I assume they are sheltering), but there was no rain during this period of time. I have only seen strange lights one other time (at night), but I have never seen anything like the disk I saw that day. Overall, it appeared like a much smaller version of the craft from Independence Day movie. It was not a plane, balloon, star ,planet, glider, etc. I was not on drugs or drinking at this time either. I have never seen anything unusual in the sky since.(this was 8 years ago,I am now 38) Wish I had more evidence, hope this helps your research. Feel free to e-mail me, but I would like to remain as anonymous as possible.