June 1, 2007
This trip is coming to its end - I'm heading home for some family events over the next few weeks.
Here I am with my trusty GPS which helped me find the turnoff to Loft Mountain Campground in Shenandoah National Park.
Taking a break
Later ...
May 29, 2007
Later the same day, I walked for hours through a riot of pink rhodies and flame azaleas. I almost forgot about my tired feet.
Rhododendron Tunnel
May 29, 2007
Climbing up Pearis Mountain out of the New River Valley - at around 3,000 feet I entered the rhododendron forest. From up in the sunshine, the rosy blooms can be seen, but down here at trail level, it's a shady tunnel.
Holiday Weekend
May 27, 2007
It's Memorial Day weekend, and the campground is packed full of horse trailers, pickup trucks, horses, and their people. On the right side of the rail fence, only tenters are allowed, because the drinking water well is over there - so that's my tent on the lawn!
The horse people ride on fire roads, and the AT hikers have their own separate path for foot travel only, so I'm the only person who intersected both groups. Riding my bike, I had to wait for some horses that had apparently never seen a mountain bike before.
Water features
May 26, 2007
A watery day - the bridge across Kimberling Creek is a US Forest Service standard suspension foot bridge, the second one I've been over.
And then moving northward, I followed Dismal Creek for several hours. The Falls of Dismal are a major attraction, a chance for through-hikers to cool off. It's not actually very big, but a nice slatey ledge set among rhododendron jungles.
I've settled into my Trail Name - Eeyore - for my deliberate pace - some of the folks I meet go totally by their Trail Names, it's a different reality out here.
End of a long day
May 24, 2007
End of a long day of biking (first) and hiking (second) in Sinking Creek Valley and on Sinking Creek Mountain. Sunset at 7:30 pm over Kelley Knob.
New River Valley hikes
May 23, 2007
I've been camping in the US Forest Service White Rocks Campground right on the West Virginia border for the past few days, having a fun time. I've seen a great number of through-hikers (this is exactly when most of them pass through this area) and spent one night back-packing among them. All ages from 20s to 60s, majority male. Some are in a hurry but others are out to smell the flowers.
Here is the beginning of a hike, from Sinking Creek through pastures and over stiles which cross the barbed wire fences, heading for the mountain in the distance (Kelly Knob). Then at the end of the walk, I jump on the bike and ride down in 15 minutes the elevation that took me hours to climb up! And I arrive back at the car having made a hike-and-bike loop.
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