Blue Ridge flower hike

Pink mountain laurel in bloom on Bluff Mountain

It was a perfect day and I was hiking my very favorite kind of trail - high rolling open meadow.  45 years ago I started my backpacking life hiking above timberline in the Colorado mountains, and it seems that you never forget your first love.

As in Colorado, this time of year in the mountains is a riot of color.  I decided to photo-document the flowers I passed today.  I ended up spending so much time 'smelling the roses' that I hiked less than ten miles for the day.  But ten glorious miles it was.  The only actual rose I saw was the multiflora rose - a problem invasive native to Europe.

Many of the other flowers I photographed I haven't had time to identify.  Where I know an identity it's in the caption, and I'll add captions in the future if I can take the time to do the research.

Before getting to the flowers I want to share a few more scenic shots from the meadow walk over Bluff Mountain starting with a sneak peak back to Stone Mountain.

And now for the gallery of mountain flowers:

Blackberry

Bluets

Mountain laurel, typical flower cluster

a variety of locust, I believe this remains a shrub

Looks like stars in a galaxy.  Each petal has a dark dot in the middle

Special find - pink lady slipper - an orchid

Queen Anne's Lace

Rhododendron

good old red clover

Flame azalea, red variation

The kind of amazing display flame azaleas can put on

Flame azalea, yellow variation

Finally, I can't forget my obligatory 'hat of the day' shot.

This is Hat Number Ten, and my first trail find during the current MST thru-hike.  Found it on one of the roadside causeways during the hike along Falls Lake.
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Here's the hike route plotted on a map.  For the complete slide show, click on the title line:



MST Day 65 - Bluff Mountain at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Virginia

Hiking Stone Mtn and the Parkway in bloom

It was a cool cloudy day, and my task for the day, as a westbound thru-hiker of the Mountains-To-Sea Trail was to make the transition from the flat lands to the Blue Ridge for some real, sustained mountain hiking.  The venue that the MST chooses to do this took me past some memorable natural  landmarks in Stone Mountain State Park, headlined by the iconic Stone Mountain itself, shown above.

This is no gradual transition.  In five miles the MST climbs 2000 feet.  That steep section of trail doesn't have a lot to show, so I have no photos.  It's grueling but not rugged.  It's relentless but not punishing.  It's eroded.  Many of the water bars have failed - a situation that seems universal on trail everywhere--it's hard for maintainers to keep up.  For the westbound hiker it's a sudden initiation that may come as a shock after 800 miles of almost no vertical element to the trail.

The interesting stuff came at either end.  Stone Mountain Park has not only a smooth granite dome but also a 200 foot vertical waterfall that slides down over the same kind of solid granite that makes up the mountain.  Here are views from below and above the fall.

On the other end, the trail emerges at the Blue Ridge Parkway at Devil's Garden Overlook, where I took the opportunity to showcase my 'Hat of the Day':

Hat number Nine, as with many of the hats in my rotation, was a trail find.  This one I found on the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania, a few miles south of Ashfield Road.  It's a standard Mossy Oak brand camo hunter's hat, but after finding it I made it my own by sewing on the patch - my AT Conservancy life member patch.

In the high elevations along the Blue Ridge the late spring flowers were resplendent.  I encountered the first flame azaleas of my hike, in their yellow and orange variations.

Note the pink rhododendrons in the background of the latter photo above.  The rhodos were waning, and in places the trail was strewn with their freshly fallen flowers.  On the other hand, the mountain laurel was just coming into flower in some of the high meadows.  Here's one on the pink end of this species' pink-to-white range.

And the annual and perennial meadow flowers were showing their stuff.

I feel as though I've come home.  Although I've enjoyed the variety provided by the road walking, and was at times bored with the endless green tunnel of the Appalachian Trail during my 2012 thru-hike, it felt good to be back on mountain trail.  Today's first sampling provided great variety, including some history in the form of the modest Brinegar Cabin, a more-or-less typical self-sufficient homestead from two centuries ago.

So it is with eager anticipation that I march into the coming days, looking forward to sampling more of what the partnership between the Blue Ridge Parkway and the MST has to offer.

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Here's a map of today's route.  If you click on the title line, you'll be taken to a slide show and can also view the rather extreme elevation profile as I encountered it.


MST Day 64 - Stone Mountain at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Kentucky

Semper Fi

This is a dog I do not know.  This is a dog who unconditionally accepted me as her friend with a single sniff.  This is a remarkable dog and a sad dog.  She has a home, but she abandoned it in a heartbeat in order to follow me for three miles down the MST in the vicinity of Elkin, NC.  And all I did was utter a kind word and reach out my hand.

In response those expressive, soulful eyes met mine square on, and she formed an instant bond.

Exhausted, panting, so hot she plunged herself into every roadside puddle and mud-hole along the way, she followed me relentlessly though I gave her no further attention.  She would not give up, even when I crossed and hiked down busy four-lane US 21 into Elkin.  She was savvy about traffic--moving far off the road when she saw or heard approaching cars.

After those three miles we reached my van and she willingly hopped into it as soon as I opened the door and made a few encouraging gestures and sounds.  She found and settled on the mattress in the back as if she had done it a million times before.  So I shot a few photos and then drove my new friend back to her home.

Wow.  This is unconditional faith.  Semper Fidelis.  Forever faithful.  Look how willingly she posed with my 'hat of the day'  Hat number eight.  (We'll cover hat number seven in a bit.)  I have to believe that my new trail friend will remember her sojourn with me for the rest of her days.  I know I will.

What's uncanny about this is that she was not the first, not even the second, but the third dog to bond with me and follow me for multiple miles down the road today.  And before the dogs it was the cattle.  These guys followed me along the fence line for a quarter mile, mooing and lowing and hustling along as if I was their messiah.

What's up with me?  Was it the hat?  Humans see me with this hat and also form an instant bond.  "Semper Fi."  I've heard it from strangers over and over every time I wear this hat.

The hat was a roadside find, on Shaw Highway near Holly Shelter Game Land while I was scouting a defunct old route of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail about 15 months ago.  The adjustable strap was broken, so I repaired it.

I live near Camp Lejeune - a massive Marine Corps Base.  Marines are a big contingent of the population.  I'm sure it was one of them who originally owned this special hat.  I, on the other hand, never served in the military.  So in some sense I feel like an imposter when I wear it.  But I rescued this hat from permanent oblivion so that it can proudly display its message again.  I settle with this: it's not about me, it's about the Corps.  By wearing this hat I am thanking them for their service and dedication.

Now, about the hike venue and setting.  This report covers two days of hiking, nearly 20 miles each.  The first hike took me to Elkin, where I hiked their urban off-road trail and was taken through their bustling, energetic, historic downtown.

The second hike took me from Elkin to the front gate of Stone Mountain State Park and the end of all significant road walking on the MST.  From here it's almost all off-road trail.  This is a major milestone.

So lets go back to the first hike, which I accomplished wearing 'Hat number Seven'.  This hat is also a trail find--it sat beside NC 58 between the MST and the beaches of Emerald Isle for many months, gaining a distinctive sun-bleached pattern on the bill.  I found it this month (May 2014) while on a side trip which included a connecting hike from the MST at Buck's Corner Road to the barrier island.  Here's 'Hat number Seven' perched on the upright ears of the Easter Bunny somewhere east of Elkin:

And adorning a roadside gatekeeper horse and a meditating Hindu.

As far as nature's contributions to this pair of hikes, I can offer a Great Blue Heron fishing the downflow of a dam in Elkin ...

... my first sighting of my favorite blue flower - purest blue by my arbitrary judgment - the Chinese Dayflower ...

... and the first comprehensive view of the Blue Ridge:

Tomorrow the Blue Ridge will be under foot.  I've arrived.

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Here's the map of the route covered in these two hikes.  The title line is a link to a much more comprehensive slide show.


MST Days 63 and 63 - Elkin and vicinity at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in North Carolina

The Adventures of Hat number Six

It began with this forlorn little bear with a broken-off right ear sitting in the ditch beside the road.  He was more than happy to pose with his deformity hidden by my hiking cap.  So he became my first subject for today's sixth installment of the ongoing 'hat of the day' series.

Hat number Six was a gift from my kids.  Though I worked at NASA for a quarter century, I never felt any need or desire to 'flaunt' my NASA-ness to the rest of the world.  So it wasn't until around the time of my retirement that my kids decided it would be a good idea to NASA-ize me.  So now this cap is part of my rotation of twelve hiking hats, and is the sixth that I'm featuring on this blog.

When you're walking roads (as opposed to trekking through the woods), as I was all day today, you find lots of willing subjects capable of doing justice to a good hat.  Today they ranged from an angelic cemetery guardian, through a classic cigar store Indian, to a nefarious looking local 'stuffed shirt'.

Hat number Six also provided a backdrop for my lucky find of the day and added color to the Ararat River.

Otherwise today consisted of hot and sweaty walking on very quiet country roads.  But I wasn't able to enjoy the peaceful rural corner of southern Surry County as much as I might have.  I had a visit from a local lady sheriff who checked my ID and informed me that there had been several break-ins in the area and so 'everybody's calling in anything suspicious'.  Some people in this area do seem to have a tendency to break and enter, if this seriously disrespected gate is any indicator:

So for a few hours after that I felt unseen eyes leering at me from behind every drape and curtain.  Fortunately by the end of the day I seemed to be out of the target area and was able to fully enjoy the historic little town of Rockford, with its Civil War era tavern and the quirky general store where the Indian in the photo above resides.

And as the day waned, so did my views of Pilot Mountain.  Here's one last parting shot:

Road walking doesn't seem the best venue for viewing wildlife, but today I helped two box turtles get safely across the road, and encountered a juvenile Black Rat Snake enjoying the warm pavement as well:

With more road walking ahead tomorrow, I just hope I don't continue to be 'profiled'.  It's no fun being considered guilty for 'hiking while male'.

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Here's a map of today's hike route with a link to a slide show:


MST Day 61 - southeast Surry County at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Pilot Mountain State Park