Spatter: Virginia

October 28, 2009

Play Week

My friend Leta came last Wednesday for a week's visit. It was a great time and the weather cooperated enough to let us get in a few photo hunts. Our first outing was to hike two miles up Buffalo Mountain...to the highest point in Floyd County at 3971 feet.

The view was spectacular. Even with the haze, I could see Pilot Mountain, NC off in the distance. Well, it's a bit hard to see in this shot...but it's there on the horizon line smack in the middle of the frame. It's the hazy bump that is almost the color of the sky.

We sat and relaxed a while on the "summit". While there, a group of hikers came up who were from the Blacksburg area. They meet up every Thursday and go hiking somewhere. This piqued my interest, so had one of them put her number in my phone so I could call and get on their mailing list. Alas, when I tried the number, it was wrong and now I've no way to contact them. Tried internet search. No luck. Oh well...guess I'll start my own group!

The next day I showed off downtown Floyd and later, our Friday Night Jamboree. Saturday was our neighbor's pig pickin' party, but by Sunday we were ready to go again and we went out in search of waterfalls. The first place ended up being off limits...posted "keep out"...and confirmed by a local that we ought not go in. We decided to heed.

We went on to Bottom Creek Gorge near Roanoke where the trail takes you to a 200 foot waterfall. At first we wondered if we could/should venture in. I mean, what would you think if you read this sign:

In case you can't read the middle sign it says that the trail is very challenging and you should be in very good physical condition before you attempt it. And look at that Caution sign! Being adventurers, we decided to at least start in and see what we'd find. Turns out, the trail wasn't any of these things. Glad Leta took this shot, because we got a good laugh after the fact.

Here's Leta romping through. The trail was hard to keep up with for all the leaves on the ground.

The four mile hike took us through the woods to a lookout where we could see the Bent Mountain Falls...where Bottom Creek forms a stair step series of waterfalls known as the "kettles".

We couldn't see a way to go down to the bottom, so this was the only vantage point we could get of it. Leta took this shot of me taking the above picture. I really like the feel of it.

Now I want to go back in the spring when the water's really running. The trail then looped around back through the woods and through the remnants of an old settler homestead.

No animals to be seen, but nice color here and there like this little gem we stumbled upon...

We felt pretty chipper after the hike, so we decided to go back and onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and hike the three mile Black Ridge Trail at Rocky Knob. Everything started out OK...a well marked trail mostly uphill through the woods. Then at about the half way point, it crosses the Parkway and continues. Only problem was, we couldn't find a marker. The trail seemed to lead us right into a closed cattle gate with cattle grazing the field behind it. Well, that didn't seem right to us, so we were left to return to home base by walking along the Parkway.

We had some belly laughs as we walked, but it wasn't what we had planned and it was a lot longer for all the twists and turns. When we finally did get back, we weren't feeling so chipper any more! I did go into the Visitor Center to ask about the trail. Sure enough, we were supposed to go through the gate and through the field. It would have been nice if he had said something when we picked up the map.

Monday we took a road trip to Galax...where Leta's brother once played at their Fiddler's Convention. After some time browsing around there, we headed for Grayson Highlands State Park, but we never made it. It just got to be too far and time was running out to do any hiking once we got there. So, we turned for home, but took a turn along the way down an unfamiliar road. It was quite the photographer's find, including a running mountain stream.

Tuesday was a rainy day...I think that was a good thing as it forced us to be still. We sat around and played with our photos and computers. That was fun too...comparing notes, tips, tricks, etc.

Like I said, we had a great time...but now it's time to get back to bills, chores, etc.

Posted at 03:59 PM in Country Scenes, Floyd Virginia, Nature, Photography, Virginia | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

February 13, 2009

Flashback Friday - Assateague Boardwalk

Some of you might remember that in the summer of 2007 I enrolled in my first Elder Hostel program...one of their service programs where you actually pay to work. A lot of people thought me a bit crazed, but the experience turned out to be one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. It was worth every penny!

The program I chose was based at Chincoteague Island, Virginia and the primary work of the week was to build a boardwalk in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on the neighboring Assateague Island. Yes, that's the wild pony place.

I'm guessing the boardwalk stretched to be about 500 yards. Here we are working hard laying its foundation...that's me in the blue cap. Before this, we had spent the previous day clearing out a path for it.

Once the foundation was in place, the boards and rails were put down. My primary job was putting in the screws. I figured I must have put in over a thousand of them...