Hike to Mt Rogers

Saturday, 21 September 2019

Mount Rogers is the highest point in Virginia (5729 ft above mean sea level). The best way to hike to the summit is from Massie Gap in Grayson Highlands State Park. The trail to the top is 4.5 miles one-way, most of which is along the Appalachian Trail. Although long, the 1200 ft climb is relatively easy, but rocky, with a number of relatively flat stretches along "saddles" in the terrain.

The trail starts in Grayson Highlands State Park, but after about a mile it leaves the state park and enters the Mt Rogers National Recreation Area. This is one of the small hills along Wilburn Ridge.

The most challenging part of the trail was getting over this ridge of rock along Wilburn Ridge. The white paint is the trail blaze for the Appalachian Trail.

Mt Rogers is in the distance, with a cloud (fog) over the summit.

The hike is all about the vistas as you climb up through alpine meadows. The mountain in the middle of the photo is Haw Orchard Mountain, the center of Grayson Highlands State Park.

Another panoramic view as we climb the mountain.

The area is known for its wild ponies. They like to hang out around popular camp sites and shelters.

We knew to expect ponies, but were surprised that longhorn cattle are also grazing the high open meadows. Don't want to get too close to those horns!

Proof that we made it to the top!

The top of Mt Rogers is a dense spruce/fir/hemlock forest. It smells like Christmas, but views are non-existent.

Breaks Interstate Park

Thursday, 19 September and Friday, 20 September 2019

We took a short (3-day, 2-night) camping trip to southwest Virginia. Our first stop was Breaks Interstate Park that is jointly managed by Virginia and Kentucky. It features a 1000-ft deep canyon on the Russell Fork River that was a significant part of the economic (coal and timber) and cultural history of the area.

The main feature of the park is a set of canyon overlooks. The Breaks area is sometimes called the "Grand Canyon of the South", but I personally think that the New River Gorge in West Virginia is just as deep, but much longer. This view of Tower Rock and the Russell Fork River is from the Lover's Leap Overlook.

This railroad tunnel, visible from the Tower Tunnel Overlook goes under the "saddle" between Tower rock and Chimney Rock.

The rocks at the Lover's Leap Overlook have an interesting torturous pattern.

Lover's Leap Overlook: The rocks have a basically horizontal bedding, but there's an overlay of circular strata that seem totally out of place.

The trail to the Tower Tunnel Overlook went through a rhododendron forest.

On Friday we took the "Chestnut Ridge Trail", which is a loop trail that combines the Geological Trail, the Laurel Branch Trail, and the Ridge Trail, Here the Geological Trail goes in a crevice where the sandstone has fractured.

Geological Trail. The top of a natural arch has fallen. Lon is at the base of the fallen boulder, which is about the size of a typical pioneer log cabin.

Cliffs along the Laurel Branch Trail.

August Wildlife

Last month's highlights from our game cameras (mostly).

Bears continue to be occasional visitors.

Coyotes come by nightly, but this is the first time there were three in the frame.

It's grainy, but two days after seeing a new-born fawn, a coyote was carrying a fawn it had caught.

I come out nightly to read our electric meter. One evening I was surprised by a sizable black rat snake. We see them from time to time around this house, but having one outside our bedroom window was a bit unsettling!

Spiders

August is "Spider Month". It seems that spiders go hyperactive making large webs in late summer.

I found this spectacular "Arrowhead (or Triangulate) Orbweaver" (Verrucosa arenata) dangling from the brim of my hat. Most of the orb weavers I encounter (quite literally) while walking the paths through our woods are "Spined Micrathena" spiders. This was a new species to me.

An example of the large web of the Spined Micrathena.

Every once in a while, I manage to bump my camera into the "creative" mode and it takes a series of bizarrely colored photos. This time, I liked how it caught the web details. I did, however, change the photo to black-and-white rather than the strange deep blue hue the camera give. (This is the same web as the previous photo.)

I finally got this wren house hung in a tree last spring. Wrens never found it, but a funnel-web weaver spider sure did. Yesterday the large spider was half-way out of the bird house, but today I couldn't coax it out.