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. 

2nd Annual Hike Off the Pie: Bushwhacking Skinner Ridge

For the second year in a row, we planned an epic hike for Black Friday.  Unlike last year, this year's hike wasn't an epic distance, just an epic challenge:  About five miles of bushwhacking.  Horizontal Tread, WanderMindfully, and another friend and I set out from the Buck Hollow trailhead on highway 211 at 9:30.  We crossed the Thornton River and immediately took a right, leaving the trail, to follow the river upstream.  There was a faint trail that we were able to follow for a while.  Then we lost it and had to make our way through the greenbrier, blackberries, rosebushes, and other plants making up the brambles bent on trapping and maiming us.  We paused a couple of times to take pictures of small cascades on the Thornton River.  The pattern repeated itself several times:  we would find a trail, perhaps a game trail, for a while, and then it would disappear and we would be left to fight through the underbrush.

We had a map with the route on it, but we didn't have any notes indicating a specific point at which to turn south, uphill, towards the top of Skinner Ridge.  At some point, we decided we had probably hiked far enough up the river that it was time to head uphill.  The nice thing about leaving the river bottom was that the number of thorny plants generally decreased.  We found an old homestead with one wall still standing and the roof still visible.  We paused for lunch and then began making our way generally to the southeast end of Skinner Ridge, climbing as we went.  All of a sudden, we came upon an old road bed, which made travel much easier for a while.  It is also likely that it was the intended route marked on the map, meaning we probably turned uphill a little early.  Either way, we were on the right path.

As we got higher, we hit mountain laurel got thicker and the roadbed less and less distinct.  Once on top of the ridge, there was just a narrow path, completely overgrown by mountain laurel, and lined with bear scat.  Apparently, we found the bruin superhighway on Skinner Ridge.  We followed it until we were about 100 yards from Skyline Drive.  Then the path ended, but the mountain laurel didn't.  Unfortunately, it is much harder to push through mountain laurel without at least a faint path.  We made it, but not without scratches, bruises, and much cursing.

On Skyline Drive, we walked north about a quarter mile to the tunnel at milepost 32.  Now, I have driven and ridden my bike through the tunnel many times and not once have I looked at the ridge over it and thought that I needed to hike up it.  That is just what we were going to do, though.  We walked up to the right side of the tunnel, took the little path which promptly died out in the rocks, and worked our way up to the midline of the ridge.  Then we took a left and climbed up to the Appalachian Trail.  It was probably only half a mile in total, but it was the steepest section of the hike and involved using saplings as handholds in places.  In short, it was the perfect end to our bushwhack.  We emerged onto the Appalachian Trail, much to the surprise of the hikers using it to get to Mary's Rock.  After not seeing anyone all day, it felt like we climbed into a crowd.  We walked up to Mary's Rock, took a long break and admired the view and the hiked south on the Appalachian Trail to the Meadow Spring Trail.  From there, we connected to the Buck Hollow Trail, which took us back to the car.

It was a beautiful, warm day, particularly for November.  The bushwhack, was tiring and difficult and spectacular and a great way to hike off the pie.

Note:  Please do not attempt this route unless you have a map, compass, and the skills to use them.  There is no trail on the first half of this route, so route-finding skills are an absolute necessity.

Pictures (click to enlarge):

 Small cascades on the Thornton River.

 Looking down the Thornton River.

 An old cabin above the Thornton River.

 A large vine twisted around a small tree.

One of the wider spots on the bear superhighway.  In other places, we had to push through dense mountain laurel.

Bear scat marked the way.  There were piles like this literally every few feet.

 Goldenrod seeds.

 Looking north on Skyline Drive.

 Looking south from the tunnel.  The ridge is Skinner Ridge, which we had just bushwacked along.

Centauria maculosa (Spotted Knapweed).  This is exotic species and it is, apparently, fairly tolerant of winter.

 Looking southwest from Mary's Rock.

 Bootshot from Mary's Rock.

Looking northwest towards Neighbor Mountain from Mary's Rock.

Bear Tracks, Bobcat Tracks, and Snow!

A little bit of snow fell in the Washington, DC area last week, so we figured a little bit more must have fallen in the mountains.  With holiday baking to do, we did not want to drive a great distance to hike, but we wanted to get out yesterday.  A loop consisting of Buck Ridge, Mary's Rock, and Buck Hollow fit the bill.  As a bonus, with the exception of the Mary's Rock portion of the hike, solitude is pretty easy to come by on this hike and in winter, it is pretty much guaranteed.  We were not disappointed in that regard.

We arrived at the trailhead early and met a trailrunner who mentioned that we would see bear tracks on Buck Ridge.  After packing up, we headed up the trail.  The Thornton River was running a little high and the rocks were icy, but manageable.  The rocks in the river were covered with snow and impressive ice formations.  After a few hundred feet, we turned up the Buck Ridge trail and began the steep climb that the trail is known for.  The first mile of the Buck Ridge trail is one of the steeper climbs in the park.  It is a challenging hike when it is dry.  The two inches of snow on the ground made it more of a challenge yesterday.  The pain is over quickly, though.  After about twenty minutes, the trail gradient eases somewhat into a more reasonable climb towards Skyline Drive.

Shortly after we finished the steepest section, we saw our first bear tracks.  The bear that left them followed the trail for a few feet and then turned off into the brush.  As we climbed towards the drive, we must have seen seven or eight more sets of bear tracks, several of them very fresh.  When we've hiked Buck Ridge in the summer, it always feels like a good place for bears since the trail is lined with blueberry bushes in several places.  Apparently, the bears agree.  We also saw a few bobcat tracks.  One bobcat left a set of tracks about half a mile long in otherwise untracked snow on the trail, before it turned off into the brush.

We crossed Skyline Drive and began the steep climb up the Meadow Spring Trail to the Appalachian Trail.  We were the first hikers on Meadow Spring since the snow fell.  We ran into another set of interesting bear tracks about halfway to the Appalachian Trail.  A tree had fallen across the trail and was covered by a couple of inches of snow.  We noticed bear tracks on the ground near it.  We were startled to see that the bear had walked up to the tree, then climbed up on it, and crossed the trail on it, leaving tracks in the snow on the tree.

We ate a quick lunch at the junction with the Appalachian Trail and continued on to Mary's Rock.  Although it was overcast, there was a good view from Mary's Rock.  Since it was cold (but not windy, at least), we didn't linger long up before returning to Skyline Drive.  From there, we headed down the Buck Hollow Trail.  There were some impressive ice formations on the waterfalls along the trail.  There were also some impressive ice sheets on the trail.  We returned to the car, having done almost 9 miles in the snow.

Pictures (click to enlarge):

  The Thornton River.

Buck Ridge Trail.

Ferns in the snow on Buck Ridge (If anyone knows which kind these are, let me know).

Bear track on Buck Ridge.  My foot is in the picture for scale.

Another bear track, this one more recent than the one above.

The only tracks ahead of us on Buck Ridge were left by a bobcat.

A bobcat track and some bird tracks.

The bear tracks on a long on the Meadow Spring Trail.

Mary's Rock.  It was about noon when I took this picture, but the clouds partially obscured the sun, making it look much later.

Bootshot off of Mary's Rock.

Ice formations on a waterfall.