Here's J the first time on the AT. We literally parked the trailer and headed out onto the trail, just to say we'd been on it. I would ask the kids if they wanted to go to Maine or Georgia, then we'd head north or south depending on their answer. Our first time we headed towards Maine. Later that same day, NB and I headed to Georgia.
On our way to Georgia, we came across a spring. How do we know it's a spring? It's labeled. And just so I don't mislead you, this is maybe a quarter mile from the campground. Thru hikers are way more impressive than we are, but we've now been on the AT in North Carolina (or were we in the TN part of the Great Smokies?) and Virginia. We'll hit it again in Maine.
Our first real hike in the park was Dark Hollows, down to the falls. It's a steep descent, which means a steep ascent on your way out. It was a good hike, but it tested G's breathing. He's thinking he might actually start treating his asthma. This is just one of many falls trails, but we wanted to make sure we hit at least one. Which, it turned out, it was good we did this our first day since it rained pretty hard the next two days.
Since it was raining on Thursday, we hit the Skyline Drive, headed north. It was also COLD, and we had left our really cold weather gear in CO. Brrrr..... We spent the time checking out the cool views and looking for bears. Everyone else was spotting them, but not us. Sigh.
Searching in vain for a bear. The ranger at the Dickey Visitors Center told us that a lot of folks had seen bears in the Pass Mtn area, so we took the short hike over there. A beautiful walk, so I'm glad we did it, but the bears did not join us.
Friday we had to change spots off the AT since the premium spot was reserved starting that day for a week. When we got up and started getting ready, Bill called my attention to the clouds moving through the mountains. This is one of my memories from staying in Shenandoah 20 some odd years ago. Love it!
We took advantage of the need to change sites to go ahead and dump before setting our trailer back up. Across from the dump station, this pileated woodpecker was going to town on this log. It was really cool to see. He was quite cooperative and let me get a ton of pictures, even a little video!
The rain was still falling, so we drove about some more. On sunny days, water does not just pour off the tunnel, but it did this day! It was cool to see all the waterfalls that come out when the rain comes down. But we needed to get out and do something.
Saturday we hit the town of Staunton. K had picked up a paper on
Sunspots Studios, where you can check out glassblowing seven days a week. No reservations, no fees, just check them out doing their art. Pretty cool. There's a storefront as well, with some incredibly beautiful items. Oh my. It was fun exploring parts of Virginia I'd never really seen before.
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