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.

Old Rag: Two Crazy Spring Weekends

We spent two weekends in April on Old Rag with Old Rag Mountain Stewards. They were both crazy in their own way. The first weekend (April 21) was a fee-free weekend. We arrived at the parking lot at 9:30 a.m. to find a line to get in to the lot, the main parking lot full, and people already parking in the neighbor's pasture.

If you click to enlarge, you can see the cars lined up behind us.

Then, once we checked in and drove up the upper parking lot, we found this: 

Friends don't let friends blindly follow their GPS. This might have been more entertaining had we not unlocked the gate and let them turn around in the upper parking lot.

From there, the day settled down. It was really crowded, but largely uneventful. The first signs of spring were beginning to appear with wildflowers blooming on the lower part of the mountain and it was a pretty nice day.

 Houstonia cerulea (Bluets)

 Geranium maculatum (Wild Geranium)

 From the summit. Not much green up high yet.

 Obolaria virginica (Pennywort)

 The spot where I always take a picture. Very little sign of spring here at 3000 feet.

 There was a noreaster in March that produced incredibly strong winds. The east side of Shenandoah National Park took a lot of damage, which we saw on the way down the Ridge Trail.

 Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot)

 Trillium grandiflorum (Giant Trillium)

Fern fiddleheads near the parking lot.

The second weekend (April 28) was less crowded, but more insane. Our day started with six guys hiking bare-chested down the fire road, wearing American flag shorts, and carrying a yellow flag. No idea what the story was, but that isn't remotely the craziest thing I've seen on that mountain. One our way down for the day, we ran into a group that just defies explanation. They were almost to the rock scramble. They had a puppy off leash (dogs aren't allowed on Old Rag), a radio blasting music, and one guy on crutches. You could smell the party before you could see it. Normally, we would talk to people hiking with a dog, but I looked up and the whole scene and decided there wasn't any point. As we walked by, they invited us to "come party, man!" It was a good introduction to the mountain for our new volunteers. Spring progressed over the course of the week. More wildflowers bloomed and the mountain was starting to green up.

 Asarum canadense (Wild Ginger)

 One of the newer volunteers with us spotted a morel right beside the road. We only found one more. Since she spotted the first one, we sent both of them home with her.

 Another pretty T. grandiflorum.

 A barefoot hiker.

 Much greener compared to the previous week.

 Looking south from the summit.

 Slightly more green at 3000 feet.

 Storms rolling in as we finished the day.

Dentaria laciniata (Cut-Leaf Toothwort)

Odds and Ends: Old Rag, A Perfect Day, and the National Arboretum

I'm catching up on the last few weeks:

We volunteered on Old Rag two weeks ago on a lovely (weather-wise) Saturday. It was absolute madness. We arrived at 9 a.m. and the parking lot was already full. There was a line of 12 or so cars waiting to turn into the parking lot. The neighbor was already charging people to park in her pasture and she had opened up a second pasture so even more people could give her cash hike Old Rag.  We spent an hour in the lot talking to people about the hike and handing out flyers to recruit for Old Rag Mountain Stewards. When we turned on the radios at 10 a.m., we found an incident had just started. We headed up the mountain, pushing past lines of people and spent the morning assisting a hiker who had taken an unfortunate fall. It was about as smooth of an evacuation as we could have asked for and we spent most of the rest of the day on the summit, talking to people as they passed through. In my haste in the morning, I forgot my camera, so all of these are taken with Michael's camera, which is a point and shoot.

The helicopter approaching.

 I already talked about the crowding. That was before we had to close the trail for almost an hour while we worked to evacuate the patient. If you click to enlarge, you'll see the crowd backed up just after we re-opened the trail.

 The spot near the summit where I always take a picture.

 Changing leaves in the valley.

 Looking south from the summit.

The following week, we were contacted by NPS staff about helicopter hoist training on that Friday. Did we want to attend? Of course! It wound up being an amazing day.

To make it to Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park by the training start time, we left the house at 5:15 in the morning and picked up another volunteer at the metro at 5:45 a.m. There was much grumbling all around, but then we got to see this nice sunrise:

 Looking east from Skyline Drive

 Old Rag on the right from Pinnacles Overlook on Skyline Drive

 Everyone taking pictures!

When we were almost to Big Meadows, we saw a mother bear and two cubs hunting for food near the road. This cub was nice enough to pose for us.

All three of the bears. The bears and the sunrise made us forget our unhappiness at having gotten up so early.

Then there was the training:

We spent most of the morning practicing attaching a litter to the hoist on the helicopter. Everyone had to wear fire-resistant clothing for the training.

Then, we got the chance to be hoisted up onto the helicopter while it was in the air, which was amazing. I am the person on the left in this picture. It wasn't actually all that high, but it was still pretty darn cool. Many thanks to the US Park Police and Shenandoah National Park staff for including us in the training.

Last weekend, the weather was kind of gross, so we went down to the National Arboretum.

 The bonsai exhibit is always fun to walk through. This time, there was a special exhibit of deciduous bonsai trees in the process of changing colors for fall.

 The old Capitol columns.

 The path in the native plants area.

Blue Bottle Gentian (Gentian andrewsii) - the last of the season's flowers.

Old Rag: Crowds and Ravens

We spent Saturday on Old Rag volunteering with Old Rag Mountain Stewards. It was a beautiful fall Saturday in October, which meant the parking lot was already full when we arrived to start our day. We got to spend a good part of our day with one of the park rangers, which was a rare treat. Fall is in full swing: the leaves are changing and the forest is shutting down for the coming winter.

 Goldenrod (Solidago sp.) blooming along the Saddle Trail

 A Woolly Worm caterpillar.

This is pretty representative of the crowds all over the summit most of the afternoon. There were so.many.people.

Around 4:30, Michael and I were talking about wrapping up for the day. The crowds were starting to thin and we were thinking of dinner. At that moment, a group came over and asked if we could help a member of their party who had an abrasion on their head. We patched the person up (it wasn't serious) and chatted with them for a bit. In the meantime, a thin layer of clouds had rolled in and we realized that we were nearly the last people on the summit of the mountain. It was quiet, the light was stunningly beautiful, and ravens soared and played on the wind. We stayed for another half an hour or so, just enjoying it. Old Rag can be magical under the right conditions and this was one of those times.

 Ravens taking a break on some rocks.

 The sun streaming through the clouds to the west of the mountain.

 A raven landing on a rock

 Soaring over the valley.

 This raven had picked up a bit of food left by a hiker on the summit.

 Looking west.

 Looking northwest towards Hot Short Mountain

 Looking south.

Leaves turning on the Saddle Trail on the way down.