Wolf's Den

So last Friday, Mark and I, along with Dawna from his work, and her friend Will, headed up towards Glenwood Furnace/Greenlee, near Natural Bridge, to hike up to and up, the Devil's Marble Yard.

The entrance is at Belfast Trail on VA Rt 781, or you could hike over from the Appalachian Trail along the other end of the Belfast Trail as well. If you come in from the AT, it adds another 3 miles to the hike and takes you along the Gunter Ridge Trail as well. That way brings you in on the top of the Marble Yard. The way we took, we came in at the bottom and climbed UP the Marble Yard. There's a bridge at the beginning that crosses Belfast Creek, and was very pretty, but I neglected to get photos of it.

( A hiking we go... )

The Devil's Marbleyard kicked our asses.

I do believe that makes us Devil's Rejects. *nods sagely*

What a certain type of plant looks like, so you can avoid it...

Well, trust me, you don't.

The damn things are sneaky. Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky.

Sat, I was so busy watching out for Poison Ivy, that I neglected to watch out for possibly Poison Oak. Of, course, I could have been looking for carefully that I completely missed the Poison Ivy.

Yes, yours truly has a moderate case of one or the other. In fact, it neccessitated a visit to the ER as it popped up overnight on my face, near the corner of my eye, which means whichever p[lant it was, it rubbed on my shirt and was subsequently dragged across my face when I took my shirt off. (Sat's clothes are now segregated for washing in extremely hot water as a separate load.) I'm on 3 different meds now- Prednisone, Cephalexen, and Hydroxyzine- and they aren't kidding when they say they'll make you sleepy. All I want to do is sleep. Heh. Better than itching, I guess. And cold packs for the face.

To add injury to insult, I also have at least a hundred damned chigger bites all over my left thigh.

Not enough for you?

Try having a couple bites you can't identify that may in fact be house spider bites and a half healed scratch on my leg, that, yes, you guessed it - now have Poison Whatever in them.

So.

To recap, back of a few fingers, back of right forearm, in the possible spider bites on the left for arm, in the possible spider bites at the webbing of my left thumb and index finger, in the half healed scratch on my left calf, right below the knee, and across the underside of my chin, across the left side of my face, clear up to and including the forehead, nose, and ear. All that and itchy damn chigger bites.


What in the world was I doing, you ask?

Well, we headed up to Harrisonburg to the Heritage Market and on the way back, we stopped off at the abandoned motel/resort complex and 4 square brick house to do some more exploring. Even wore hiking boots this time. Got 125 photos worth. Neglected to wear bug spray- that we even keep in the CR-V.

I'll let you know after I edit the photos if all this was worth it.}:P

Sharp Top over Abbot Lake, Peaks of Otter, Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia

The Sharp Top hiking trail is a 1.6mile strenuous hike. We've not done it yet, but are working our way up to it. Been working on moderate trails for now- Poor Mountain Natural Preserve, Happy Hollows Gardens, Fallingwater Cascades, 1.6 mile, and Johnson Farm Loop, 2.1mile- which was when this photo was taken.

We've been trying to do at least one hike every weekend. The next two weekends though, we'll be on vacation, and while lots of walking will be done, very little actual hiking will most likely occur. I think the plan is to do Harkening Hill, a 3.3 mile moderate, the weekend after we get back. Maybe hit Balancing Rock while we're at it, since it's off the same trail.

I want to revisit Rock Castle Gorge trail, a 10.8mile strenuous, as I do believe that now I know where I lost the trail markers (it appears to back track on itself about 1-1.5 miles, then continues upwards in a loop again). But that will most likely be towards the end of the summer after we've definitely gotten used to hiking again.

And now, I'm off to give Caena a bath, then start getting the house clean for when we leave. It's always nice to come home to a clean house.

Boardwalk leading to the Azalea Trail, Happy Hollows Gardens, Roanoke County, Va. The acre park was donated by the Burgess family to Roanoke County, with the stipulation that it be preserved as a County Park and Wildlife Preserve.

Site of at least 800 Azaleas throughout the entire Park.

Most of which were in full bloom at the time of this photograph- fuschia, pink, white, even a few salmon ones. The only color missing was the orange wild Azalea found up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The sounds of honeybees was a steady drone. Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies- both yellow morph and black- abounded.



More tomorrow after my Daring Bakers post.