Mount Mansfield, Vermont

Casey and I returned from a roadtrip to the Northeast a few weeks ago and I'm now getting around to posting the photos.  We did Mount Mansfield while traveling through Vermont and spent the following night in the adorable town of Stowe.  Stowe was by far one of our favorite stops of the trip and this hike was an enjoyable one as well.  Not half as tough as Mount Lafayette in New Hampshire, it still afforded some magnificent views, and much of the hike was above the treeline.

We took the CCC road (including Eagle's cut trail) to Sunset Ridge Trail to Long Trail and then back via Halfway house trail to the CCC road.  I was glad that we took the Sunset Ridge Trail up - it afforded wonderful views.

emerging from the treeline

wooden paths near the summit

Casey at the summit

Kelly's Knob

I haven't been to Kelly's Knob in years.  However, with the spring weather setting in, Casey and I decided that it was time to get hiking again.  This time, we headed to the trails with some of his coworkers. 

The first notable adventure of the day was that my parking coordinates were sorely off (apologies to those of you who have used them previously).  We drove an extra .8 miles before k-turning around on the narrow mountain road and heading back to the true coordinates.  I've since updated them on this blog.  After a minor fiasco of finding our whole party, we embarked on the hike.  It was just as I remembered it.  Painfully steep for the first several tenths of a mile and then a nice stroll of a ridge hike along a rocky ridge line.  Overall, just a nice place to be.  This particular Saturday was fairly quiet, although we did share the lookout rock with one other group.

The view

our group at the rock

campsite just a few feet from the overlook rock

Mill Creek Nature Park

Normally when I hear the word "nature park," my mind jumps to thoughts of easy dirt walking paths, crying children in strollers, and poorly behaved doodle dogs on flexi leashes.  However, I took a trip to Mill Creek Nature Park at the recommendation of one of the commenters on this blog and was pleasantly surprised.  Although dubbed a "nature park," this system is home to some gorgeous waterfalls, steep trails, and a fantastic single-site campground.  The added bonus?  We didn't see a single other soul while we were there on a quiet winter Sunday.

Although we didn't traverse the entire trail system, the nature park seems to have two separate trail systems; one set of extremely well marked loops (the lower loop was all woods, with no views) and another system that is less well marked, but took us to a campground and some gorgeous waterfalls.  I think that we would have found an overlook if we had wanted to add a few more miles to the hike in the second system.  It's not too far of a drive from Blacksburg either.

You can see a trail map for the second trail system here:
http://virginiasmtnplayground.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/BaseMap.pdf

We hiked from the parking area to both waterfalls via the butternut, waterfall, and catwalk trails.  We then retraced our steps to the juncture of the catwalk and waterfall trails, this time continuing on the catwalk trail until reaching the butternut trail and bearing left. The waterfall and catwalk trails were steep, albeit very pretty

We also did the easy lower loop trail which can be seen on a map here: https://www.hikingproject.com/trail/7036283

First waterfall off of the catwalk trail

Casey at the first waterfall

Casey and I at the first waterfall

The second waterfall was tougher to photograph, but this is a bit of it.

Tinker Cliffs - Long Overdue

I'm usually a little bit delayed in posting my hikes, but this is a bit extreme even for me.  I took some friends and colleagues up to Tinker Cliffs back in September and realized that I never posted about our expedition.  It was steeper than I remembered, especially at the steepest part for a few tenths of a mile, but that's likely a direct result of my relatively sedentary desk job that takes up most of my week.  

Group at the top.  

Sarah, Bryan, and Nyko

Casey and I at the peak

Long Point Trail

When I finished my Master's degree in May, Casey's family was kind enough to give me an exceptional graduation gift to send both Casey and I on a whitewater rafting adventure on the New River.  For as much as I love to hike, I'm not a true adventurer at heart and although I was extremely appreciative of the gift, I was more than just a little terrified.  However, I'm also about as frugal as they come and the thought of putting a gift like this to waste was not in the question, so we booked our adventure with ACE adventure resort last weekend.  When we arrived it felt reminiscent of summer camp as a kid.  There was a lake filled with giant, bouncy, water toys, a long gravel road with a grassy camping area at the top, a dining hall, a ping pong table, corn hole, and a big pavilion filled with picnic tables.  The whitewater trip on the lower New turned out to be surprisingly a ton of fun and I made it through the full day without taking a swim (although everyone in our raft did get plenty wet).

In any case, the resort also coincidentally happened to be just down the road from my cousin, so we met up on Sunday and he showed us around.  He took us to Long Point Trail, an easy 3 mile, nearby hike with an astounding view of the New River Gorge Bridge.  Being an amazing naturalist, he was kind enough to help me learn to identify some common plants.  I'm embarrassed to say that for as much as I hike, until yesterday, I couldn't so much as identify a white oak versus a red oak.

View of the New River Gorge Bridge

Casey, Paul, and I at the overlook

A white oak leaf

Chestnut oak leaf

American chestnut tree leaves

Beech tree leaves

White oak bark

Goldenrod

Red oak leaf

Elliot Knob

This one is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the little town of Staunton, VA.  Casey and I have found Staunton to be a great place to visit.  It's close to a mid-point between our two homes and such a cute little town.  Before we did this trip, we spent the night in the Old Staunton Inn, an adorable bed and breakfast within walking distance of a winery and some fun places to eat.  Once we had filled up on warm breakfast after our evening about town, we hit the road for this hike.

Elliot knob is a longer day hike, but more than doable in a day for a adult or child of average fitness.  Where it lacks in rock scrambling, it makes up for in a variety of sights.  The hike boasts small waterfalls, a few creek crossings, some scenic views, and a neat old watch tower that at least when we were there had a wide-open gate and no signs labeling it as off-limits to climb.

Even more, on our particular journey up the mountain, we met a redbone coonhound whom we named Staunton and then later, his friend, a treeing-walker coonhound whom we named Barkley.  Barkley and Staunton were clearly well-loved hunting dogs with GPS transmitters, so we left them to do their thing on the mountain, but they made for some excellent hiking buddies.

Me at Old Staunton Inn

First meeting Staunton, the redbone

Staunton decided that he would join us on our hike up the mountain

Staunton surveys the trail as we head to check out the waterfall

Mr. Staunton at the waterfall boasting lots of GPS collars

Staunton decided to join us at the waterfall.

And then there were two.  Barkley joined us for a short while before both dogs loped off into the woods after a scent.

View on the trail up

Terrifying stairs up the watch tower

View from the watch tower

Even more terrifying stairs back down from the watch tower

The watch tower from the safety of the ground

Dragon's Tooth

I'm a few weeks overdue on this one, so just some photos for today.

Sarah and I at the top

Sarah at the overlook

The "slot" if you want to climb your way up the rock.  I forgot how rocky this little hike is.  It's got some good little rock scrambling parts.

Pretty view and you don't even have to climb the tooth to see it