Sky Meadows State Park

 Michael had a date with some friends to go rappelling yesterday, so I decided to go out for a hike on my own at Sky Meadows State Park, which is near the sprawling metropolis of Paris, Virginia. We hiked through Sky Meadows once, many years ago, with our late friend, Anne. That day was frozen solid. Yesterday was quite a bit warmer, if still a bit chilly. It was 24 degrees when I started up the South Ridge Trail and the ground was, thankfully, frozen. The trail had obviously turned into a mud pit the day before. The climb wasn't bad and I had the trail to myself. I stopped now and then to look at birds. 

I reached the Appalachian Trail and turned north. It was as pretty as I remembered up there, with the open meadows and views to the east. Although it was bright and sunny, the wind made it pretty cold up on the ridgeline. I started to see more people once I headed down the Ambassador Trail. The trail also had melted a bit and was quickly turning to mud. I stopped for a few minutes at the Piedmont Overlook. There is a nice bench there and I thought about eating lunch, but it was still too windy and cold there. In retrospect, I wish I had eaten there. The trail got more and more crowded and noisy as I descended through the woods. I finally found a log to sit on to eat and watch the non-stop stream of people sliding down the hill of the Piedmont Trail. I did enjoy the descent down the other side of the Piedmont Trail. The view can't be beat and the trail is really pretty. I will say I was glad to be going down it vs. ascending it. The South Ridge Trail is definitely less steep. 

Once I was down the in the valley again, I took the Hardow Trail, which runs along a pretty little creek. It was still pretty muddy, but it was quiet. On my way back to the car, I ran into a couple out birding who nicely pointed out a Red-Headed Woodpecker, which was my first of the year. All said and done, it was a nice 8 mile day with some solid climbing. 

Definitely get to Sky Meadows early if you want to avoid the crowds.

An Eastern Meadowlark in the parking area first thing in the morning.

The view from one of the meadows 

Hiking through a meadow on the Appalachian Trail

Last season's dried flower stalks

Hiking down the Piedmont Trail

Catching Up Part 2: June Rain and Heat

The weather in early June was pretty terrible. It rained several weekends in a row and then it rained some more. Michael's brother and his family visited us for a week, which was wonderful. And we got a few hikes in.

Pass Mountain: We hiked from Thornton Gap in Shenandoah National Park on the Appalachian Trail to the junction with the Thornton River Trail. It was a 13 mile out and back that covered some short sections of trail that we hadn't done before. On the way back, we picked up a few short side loops just to make it interesting. The hike was nice, the weather wasn't spectacular. It was overcast most of the day and about halfway back to the car, a thunderstorm caught us and we got drenched. It was still better than staying home, but it did mean I didn't take as many pictures as usual.

 Amianthium muscaetoxicum (Fly Poison) - a member of the lily family.

 A butterfly on some thistle flowers.

 Rosa virginiana (Virginia Rose)

Byrd's Nest Shelter No. 4. This is a day use shelter. There are four Byrd's Nests in Shenandoah National Park and this one is, by far, the least used. Even the trails to it are somewhat overgrown. We spend a lot of time in and around Byrd's Nest No. 2, which is on Old Rag.

We spent the last weekend in June working on Old Rag. It was hot - well above 90 degrees. We spent a lot of time explaining to people that, no, two 20 ounce bottles of water was not sufficient. I realized something while we were listening to the park respond to a number of reports of heat-related illness among hikers in other parts of the park that weekend: We are very fortunate that people have to hike up first on Old Rag. In most of the rest of the park, people hike down the mountain first and can quickly hike beyond their ability to walk back up. Especially when it is 98 degrees out. On Old Rag, people who start feeling bad because of the heat can sit in the shade for a bit and then just walk back down to their car.

In spite of the heat, it was a really nice weekend spent outside. Lots of flowers were blooming. We camped out. The temperature even dropped to something fairly comfortable overnight.

 The hazy, steamy view from the summit.

 Lysimachia quadrifolia (Whorled Loosestrife)

 Minuartia groenlandica (Mountain Sandwort)

Looking north from the summit on Sunday, which was slightly clearer and cooler.

Catching Up Part 1: May Swimming and Hiking

It has been a while, so I'm going to do a couple of posts to catch up. This one will cover May. The first weekend in May, I went to the Bahamas for the wedding of friends. It was a great time and a lovely wedding and I got some snorkeling in. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it because it had been so long. I borrowed Michael's waterproof point and shoot for the trip.

 The Atlantic side of Long Island near the resort where we stayed.

 Snorkeling! Yep, I'm wearing long sleeves. I really didn't want a terrible snorkeling sunburn.

 A ray partially buried in the sand.

 Coral and fish on the Caribbean side of the island.

The Caribbean side of the island.

The following week, we managed to get a dry hike in on Buck Hollow, Buck Ridge and Marys Rock in Shenandoah National Park. May was rainy, seriously, record-setting levels of wet. The day we hiked this, we just accepted that we were going to be in the clouds and wet the whole time. It actually didn't turn out that way. We could see the clouds just north of us, but it was sunny and a bit above 80 where we hiked. Ten miles north of us it was 60 degrees.

 We climbed Buck Ridge first. This is the bottom of the staircase on that notorious climb. Although it has been several years, I hadn't actually hiked it since they put the steps in. It used to be a steep, gravel mess.

 Rhododendron canescens (Hoary Azalea)

 Cypripedium acaule (Pink Lady Slipper)

 A little Box Turtle on the trail.

 Michael at an overlook near Marys Rock.

Looking back towards Thornton Gap.

For Memorial Day, we decided to pick up a gap in the Appalachian Trail that we hadn't hiked: Rockfish Gap to Reeds Gap. A friend came with us. We started at Reeds Gap and hiked north. The forecast wasn't great, but we decided to go anyway. We got some sun, but it was pretty wet at times, too. There were lots of northbound AT thru-hikers on this section at the end of May.

 The view from the Blue Ridge Parkway where the Appalachian Trail crosses it just north of Reeds Gap.

 Polygonatum biflorum (Solomon's Seal)

 Kalmia latifolia (Mountain Laurel)

 It poured on us before we got to this overlook, but we got a break in time for a view.

 Our first campsite. We got in and managed to pitch our tents just before a thunderstorm hit us. We spent the evening in a damp cloud. It cleared by morning, though.

 Michael on some cliffs north of where we camped.

 Rhododendron catawbiense (Catawba Rhododendron)

 The view from Humpback Rocks. This place was pretty crowded.

 The AT symbol on a log near where we ate lunch.

 The creek near the Paul Wolfe Shelter. We camped near the shelter our second night.

Our last day was spent in the fog. This is the W.J. Mayo Homeplace right along the AT.

We hiked north to Rockfish Gap and then into the park to McCormick Gap, where we had left the car. It was nice to get out for a few days. 

Waiting for Spring: Two sections of the Pennsylvania Appalachian Trail

This post will be a double hike bonus post: We have managed to hike both of the past two weekends, but I started a new job last week, so I didn't get a post up about the first one.

Two weekends ago, we went out with two friends and hiked a new (to us) section of the Pennsylvania Appalachian Trail (AT) from Shippensburg Pike to Pine Grove Furnace, with a side trip to Sunset Rocks. We were very lucky with the weather, considering how cold it has been. It was bright and sunny and probably in the 50s with little wind. This winter, that qualifies as a super warm day.

 Tom's Run Shelter. This was near the halfway point of our hike and it was where we had lunch. Pro tip: Make sure you put the memory card in the camera. I took some pictures on the first half of the hike, but the camera didn't have a card in it. Oh well. Anyway, it turns out that there used to be two shelters here, which we've seen elsewhere in Pennsylvania (sometimes one is labeled "snoring" and the other "non-snoring"). One of them was apparently burned down in 2013 by a careless hiker.

 Daffodils popping up near the shelter.

 An old chimney at the shelter.

 Just north of the shelter is the halfway point of the Appalachian Trail.

 We took a side trip up to Sunset rocks. It was a steep climb followed by a really pretty little scramble through some rocks and pine trees.

 Michael out on Sunset Rocks.

 Fold lines on a boulder

 Ferns on the rocks.

At the end of our trip, we visited the Appalachian Trail Museum. The building is an old grist mill in Pine Grove Furnace State Park. The museum opened just a few years ago, but it has a nice little exhibit on the AT. One kind of cool thing: They have a sign from the summit of Katahdin in Maine, which is the end of the trail. It turns out that it is the sign that was on the summit when we hiked it in 2009. It was replaced in 2010.

This was a really nice, interesting hike and was about 11 miles, total. We saw a few people near Sunset Rocks, but not very many and the weather was just great.

Sunday, we returned to Pine Grove Furnace State Park with two friends and hiked the next section of the AT north to the parking area just north of highway 94 for a total of 11 miles. The hike started with a short walk on a gravel bike path along a really pretty spring. The weather was much colder than last week. The highs only reached the low 40s and it was pretty windy, which made it feel colder.

 Rocks along one section of the trail. This is as close as we got to any views on this hike.

 Lichens on rocks.

 One of our friends standing near a coal pit. There were a number of these of varying depths along the trail.

 A pretty stream near James Frye Shelter.

 This was a really interesting tree: a Winged Elm (Ulmus alata). If you click to enlarge, you can see way the bark stands out away from the branches in wings. I have no idea what kind of tree it is. Michael figured out what kind of tree it is.

 Our first true wildflower of the season: Simplocarpus foetidus (Skunk Cabbage).

 The trail along an old railroad grade.

Right at the end of the hike, near a road, we found another wildflower: Claytonia virginica (Spring Beauty).

This wasn't a bad hike at all, but it is probably one I don't need to repeat unless it is part of a longer trip. It is a fairly unremarkable walk through the woods.