August 24, 2011 – Stony Man Hike

We woke to another gorgeous day!  Gosh, how blessed we are.   The weather has been incredible – mid 70’s during the day and low 60’s during the night – with beautiful blue skies.   So our first item on the agenda was to sign up for another 2 days.   We have been watching the hurricane news and trying to decide what to do.   If it will be severe here, we will head west.  If it is just going to be rainy for a day, we will wait it out and stay another week.   We figured we have until Friday to make our decision.

We hung out a little later than usual this morning.  Our batteries were getting a little low and generator hours are from 8-10 AM and 4-7 PM so we are taking advantage of those times.   

After we shut down at 10 AM, off we went to do the “Stony Man Hike” – another great hike (I truly have missed being on the trail – thank God for allergy medicine!).  This hike had a guide and posts along the way telling us the history of the area as well as information on the plants and animals.

The start of the trail:

 

Check out this tree that is growing through the rock – WOW:

One of the many American chestnut trees that have died from the fungus – so sad – and still no cure:

We crossed over the Appalachian Trail – this is the highest point of that trail in Shenandoah National Park:

I am in my element – :-))):

 

These rocks, called GREENSTONE, are over 800 million years old and were created from volcanoes in this area:

And the view from the top – WOW!  Isn’t this incredible!   The road in this picture is Skyline Drive:

More views of the valley below – 3000’ below:

Notice the smoke in the above pictures?  I am told that there is a fire in the Great Dismal Swamp and the smoke is covering much of Virginia.

And another little lady greeting us at the end of the trail:

Stony Man Mountain is the second highest mountain in the park so between yesterday and today we have hiked the two highest mountains in the park – not bad for 2 old codgers (although I have to say they were easy to moderate hikes – I am not yet up to a difficult one).

I have found out that they have free Wi-Fi at Big Meadows Lodge so that is where I am now – uploading a few days worth of blogs and doing some email.  If you have sent me an email, please be patient – I hope to get caught up over the next few days.  Plus I am being selfish – I don’t want to spend a lot of time sitting in the lodge – sorry.  (Not doing to bad on the e-withdrawal – LOL.)

Tomorrow I have signed up for a basket making class so stay tuned.

Until then, enjoy today!