Oliver Mountain Trail

A little-traveled gem of a trail can be found near Lake Moomaw. While we just hike the first two miles up to the forest service road (and then return), the trail actually continues for several more miles. There are no views, but the woods are pleasant, and there are usually a lot of wildflowers to be seen.

Online information about this trail is mostly inaccurate, but the trail is accurately mapped on USGS topographic maps. You'll need both the Falling Spring and Rucker Gap maps. I use the iOS app, "Topo Maps for iPad", which is also available for the iPhone. Once you get the app, you can download as many maps as you need for free. (These are the un-updated "historical" maps.) It also has some GIS capability. The only tricky part of this trail is finding the trailhead, which is marked, and behind the second stretch of guardrail near the southern end of the Fortney Branch boat ramp parking lot. The Forest Service charges a fee to park here.

The first bit of the trail is along a small creek and can be quite wet. Last year it was soaked, this year it was quite dry. The trail was lined with large patches of wild ginger (Asarum canadense). The flowers were past prime, but I don't recall seeing so much ginger in one place.

We found lots of cancer-root (Conopholis americana) all along the trail. The plant parasitizes tree roots, especially oaks. It is a vascular plant, not a fungus!

The colorful green-and-gold (Chrysogonum virginianum) was common. 

Lots of mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) were along the lower stretch of the trail.

A closer look at the mayapple flower. In a few weeks there will be a yellow "apple" here. All parts of this plant are quite poisonous, but the ripe fruit is apparently edible.

The bicolor form of the birdfoot violet is common here. Its distinctive coloration and un-violet-like leaves make for an easy identification.

Pine-oak gall rust (Cronartium quercuum) on a Virginia pine. When the rust gets to the point where it encircles a branch, that branch will die. The life-cycle requires an intermediate stage on oak leaves.

Without a doubt, the highlight of the hike was finding a hidden veery nest only a few inches from the trail. We never would have seen it if the bird hadn't tried to distract us with an "injured bird" move away from the nest - both on the way up the mountain and on the way back down.

Five speckled eggs were visible in the nest.