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. 

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.