We began at mile 105 and headed north. Unfortunately, although we had waited an extra day because of weather problems, the view was still not very clear. I have been on Skyline Drive several times and don't remember experiencing this cloud/fog problem, but I think I was always there in the fall.
The 2178 mile long Appalachian Trail runs along Skyline Drive and crosses the road many times along the way. Right after I took this picture of Ron at one of the overlooks, we met two of those intrepid AT hikers.
Tina and Julie started in early May at the southern end of the trail in Georgia. What I found most impressive was that they were older than I would have expected. Not as old as we are, of course, nobody is that old, but single parents on an incredible adventure. They have a website. If you'd like to read about their trip, click here. They are two very admirable ladies.
The fog was worse in some places than others and you can see why I don't have any good pictures.
Soon we gave up stopping at every overlook and just headed for the campground at mile 80.
We found a great site and, after setting up, decided the fog had dissipated enough to try a hike. We took the car and backtracked a few miles to Blackrock Summit Trailhead. The trail was only a mile round trip and promised 'outstanding views and interesting geology.'
Well, maybe the fog had just fallen. While we were in sunshine, the valley still looked cloudy. But it was a nice little hike and the rock slide was interesting.
Although we saw lots of wildlife in the park - deer, rabbits, turkeys, and even a little bear - this was the only thing that held still for a picture. Isn't he pretty?
Inspired by our little jaunt, we decided to take a 3.4 mile (round trip) hike to Calvary Rocks and Chimney Rock. This turned into more like a 4 mile hike since I led the wrong way for awhile. Ooops.
Along most of the trail, the view looked like this.
But at the end, we hiked around some interesting big rocks although we never did see one that looked like a chimney.
On our return trip, we found this colorful fungus growing on a downed tree.
And these alien looking plants. Any ideas?
We can now say we've hiked a few miles of the Appalachian Trail. This post that I'm holding up is one of their trail markers. Pretty nice, huh? If you look closely, you can see the symbol is an 'A' and a 'T'.
Well, a few of us went out to hike the AT today, but rain didn't cooperate. Instead we took 4 AT hikers down to town to the hospital since one had gotten sick. They were on their 4th day of what was supposed to be 2 weeks.
ReplyDelete