Aug 20 Chicken of the Woods

A nice find today, very near the house and quite fresh. Chicken of the Woods is my favorite wild fungus. This one yielded about a half pound. I think the entire thing was fresh enough to eat but I cut the tenderest margins off to cook.

Along with garlic and red onion, saute in a little olive oil and then simmer in white wine for about 15 minutes while steaming some basmati rice. Add the rice and serve with grated Romano. 

Aug 10 AT Beauty Spot

It is a foggy morning ob the AT. Today's hike is a 9.5 mile stretch of Appalachian Trail south of Roan Mt. Specifically, we are hiking from Beauty Spot to Iron Mountain Gap. Beauty Spot, is an open meadow. It is difficult to see how it became known as Beauty Spot. I felt it was a rather nondescript open area. Views were limited and tall vegetation closed in the periphery. 

Nevertheless, this is where we started hiking. The trail roughly paralleled a dirt road which we kept seeing on our left. There was a pretty stout pull uphill early in the hike and then things leveled. We had a few other climbs but the worst of the uphill was over early. 

Dodder Vine begins the slow process of killing vegetation. Russ refers to it as the broken weed whacker cord. 

There is still some Milkweed for the butterflies.

I loved this walk through Spruce. It was like walking on plush carpet. Also, it is quite conducive for constructing campsites.

This brilliant orange fungus, sometimes mistaken for Chanterelles, is a not so edible Jack O' Lantern. I have known of its bioluminescent  properties for some time but have never experienced it. Someday, I will see some Jacks which are located in a spot which can be visited at night to see the light blue-green glow from the gills. 

A truly utilitarian shelter at Cherry Gap. Before ending our hike, we encountered a Mom and her two young sons planning to stay here. Just before reaching our vehicle, we see a maze of old timber roads and one dirt road.  

July 27 Brinegar Cabin Hike

I knew there would be some summer wildflowers along this route. I was expecting Milkweed, Woodland and Tickseed sunflowers. Maybe some Thistle and various mints, but i was not expecting to see Blazing Star. This elusive purple spiked bloom is quite showy and really draws attention.

About half of the 8 mile hike is in open meadow or cow pasture. The pastures are almost fully devoid of flowers but the meadows are loaded. Butterflies were having a feast. One Monarch even made a cameo appearance. Mostly they were feeding on Milkweed which was just beginning to dry and droop.

Its almost as tall as a tree. No.

Great wildlife and wildflower habitat.

July 26 More Birkhead Damage.

Today's hike was planned to be a reconnaissance of the Forest Service's recent trail clearing work. Previously, our Uwharrie Trailblazer group had reported some significant damage along the Birkhead Mountain Trail from Tot Hill Trailhead. Some was in the wilderness and some was not. The Forest Service was able to address the non-wilderness damage using a bulldozer and a crew of sawyers and swampers. 

From the trailhead it was easy following the trail, now that a bulldozer had traveled through. I would have thought a dozer would have made more of a mess, but was surprised to see how lightly it made its presence known.  

After walking through the now cleared damage, I made my way up to Coolers Knob, where the wilderness begins and there is more damage. Here, nothing had been done except it was easy to see "walk around" paths had started to form. After a few minutes, I could see that this was not going to be a significant problem for hikers. It was easy to make your way through the damage. If it were flagged, it would be a no brainer to find your way through.

Between Coolers Knob and Camp 1, there was the occasional tree down. That is par for this section. There have been walk arounds in place for years. Once at the jct with Camp 3 trail, I could see some downed trees. No walk arounds here. I started to make my way through, stopped, headed back to try again. This was going to be a challenge. I slithered my way through a lengthy section of damage, The size of this blowdown is significant. When it was time to return, I decided to avoid it altogether. Dropping down to the headwaters of Hannah's Creek, I went way wide of this area, wondering how we are going to deal with this. Since, I have learned the SAWS crew will make an appearance in September to address this and damage along Robins Branch.

Dozer trail through the non-wilderness damage. FS did a great job here. It is a trail again.

July 25 New River Ride

Another 28 mile ride from Cliffview to Fries and back. It was a stunning day and other riders were taking advantage of it. 

The water level was higher than I normally see. The backwater of Buck Dam was well upriver of the Fries Jct bridge. 

We had a pleasant lunch on the big Fries lawn.Another group we had seen along the trail, were doing the same. 

July 30 My Feud with a Coyote

My trailcam was set on the ground alongside my road. It was hidden among some pieces of wood. One morning the camera was all muddy and laying in the road about 20 feet away. There were a number of images on it. This one and one below look like a Coyote messed with it.

I set the camera back up in the same spot. The next day there were 4 piles of Coyote scat along a quarter mile section of my road. Each was deposited in the very center of the road. Coyotes and other animals do this to mark territory. many times I have seen scat in the middle of a hiking trail or on a rock in the trail. Coyotes want their pack and other packs to know this area is their territory. 

When I got to the spot where the camera was, it was no where to be seen. After a few minutes I noticed it about 30 feet away looking quite dusty. Obviously the Coyote didn't like that camera, or didn't like my scent in their territory. So, I moved the camera and mounted it on a tree.

I got lots of cool pictures of deer, including one with 3 fawns in it. Also, a number of night photos of Coyotes passing by. They are too blurry to post here, but I did catch a small Coyote passing by, below.

Staying up past dark, outside is not something I normally do in the hot humid summer, but I have been doing that purposely as often as possible in hopes of catching a Coyote howl. Driving to the spot where I see Coyote prints in great numbers, I've been sitting out after dark waiting. It is still and comforting but no Coyotes. Until, the next morning when some more scat appears nearby.

Stay tuned.

July 17 Shenandoah Wildflowers

July 16 Luray Caverns

It is a hot day. Forecasts flirt with triple digits. There is relief in the natural coolness of a cavern. This area of Virginia sports a number of limestone show caverns. The most notable is Luray.

The visit was impressive. There are so many interesting formations in a short cave walk. Every turn reveals something impressive. One of my first observations was the number of broken stalactites. When the guide asked what we thought caused that, I knew the answer had to be souvenirs. Up until the 1950s, tourists were allowed to use a mallet to break off a stalactite as a souvenir. I recall the same sort of thing going on in Mammoth Cave. Guides received a tip for writing peoples names in the white limestone using a candle.

I'm always interested in the history of places and this place has an interesting one. In 1878, five locals located the cavern when they felt cool air rising from a small hole in the ground. Widening the hole and sending the smallest guy down, led them to realize they had discovered a true treasure. The cavern being on private property belonging to someone else, they decided to keep their secret to themselves. To their surprise, the owner defaulted on property taxes and the property was to be sold at a court ordered auction. Three of these guys bought it but very soon afterward, rumors arose about a spectacular cavern. There was 2 years of wrangling and the Virginia Supreme Court nullified the purchase in 1881. The creditor of the original owner then sold the property to the Shenandoah Railroad Company. In the next decade, it changed hands another 3 times. A sanatorium was built over the cavern which utilized the cool cavern air as a natural air conditioning. Still the cavern was not open to the public. 

Soon interest in the cavern swelled. The Smithsonian took a look and from that publicity, the owners opened it as a show cave.

One of the most touted features of the cavern is the Great Stalacpipe Organ. Very early guides would play a tune on the stalactites by tapping them with a mallet. In the 1950s an enterprising fellow became obsessed with creating an organ to do the same. The keys of the organ, electrically actuate solenoids placed on dozens of stalactites with small rubber hammers. The organ played a minute long tune during the tour, but I felt it fell short of the hype.

The wishing well is a shallow pool in which guests can toss coins. As you can see above, over 1 million dollars has been donated to various charities over the years. Having dealt with donation boxes myself, I know counting coins is really tedious. So, I asked how they did it. Obviously, no one was tossing paper money here, so everything was a coin. The water is drained off and the coins are shoveled out and then counted and rolled mechanically.