Hoop Hole

Hoop Hole is a lovely trail just west of Eagle Rock, Virginia. We hiked the less-challenging (and far more popular) lower loop on Memorial Day. The stand-out feature of this trail is the numerous stream crossings - some of which are somewhat difficult if you don't want to get your feet wet. This time of year wet feet isn't that much of a problem, but when we last hiked this trail on a cold day in February 2020, we definitely wanted to keep our feet dry.

The trail goes up along Hipes Branch and returns along Stony Run. Both creeks tend to be clogged with debris and rhododendron.

Now that the trees are fully leafed-out, the trail is nice and shady for summer hikes.

One usually doesn't expect to see art in the forest, but someone assembled "Iron Man" (Lon insists that it's "Iron Woman") from pieces of pipe, presumably left over from logging days. Hoop Hole is adjacent to Roaring Run, which has an old iron furnace. The site had iron ore, limestone, water, and plenty of trees (for charcoal) to make iron metal. The local iron industry petered out in the 1920s when better sources of iron ore and carbon (coal) were found nearer to major rivers and the Great Lakes, and Pittsburgh became the iron/steel center of the country. By that time most of the mountains had also been denuded of trees, but over the last 100 years, the forests have returned.

From July 2020: The iron furnace at Roaring Run.

Galax (Galax urceolata) leaves are fairly common along streams in the mountains, but this is the first time I recall seeing galax in bloom.

From February 2020: In the fall galax leaves turn bronze and a visible all winter.

A closer look at the galax flower. This one is drooping at the top, but most stand tall and straight.

I didn't know that there were native sedums - I'd only seen sedum in garden centers. This beautiful ground cover is stonecrop (Sedum ternatum).

Common polypody (Polypodium virginianum) is a small fern that was seen along the trail.

Hemlock Polypore (Ganoderma tsugae). While relatively common on hemlock logs near streams, this fungus is usually much smaller than these plate-sized (12-inch, 30-cm) specimens.

Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) makes an interesting shadow on a mossy rock.

This Pale Beauty moth (Campaea perlata) had attached itself to the underside of a leaf.