Newer Videos

Here are a couple of more newly created videos of older hikes. One to a virgin forest on the slopes of Mackey Mountain here in North Carolina, and another featuring hikes to see some isolated corners of the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia.

Falls at Camp Creek State Park, WV.

A gorgeous virgin forest high in the North Carolina mountains.

Catawba rhododendron beginning to bloom.


Great hiking and waterfall wandering in VA and WVA.

Random Photos

Some shots from rambling around West Virginia and Virginia.

Catawba rhododendron opening up on Big Walker Mountain.

I wasn't supposed to be up there. I disobeyed the signs.

View from Walker Mountain.

We were headed home and I didn't want to go.

The Seven Sisters Trail on Big Walker Mountain was once part of the Appalachian Trail. This section was abandoned as a piece of the AT when it was rerouted due to the fact that there was a lack of reliable water sources along this ridge. I liked the music my footsteps made on the flaking stone of the trail.

Looking Forward

Roughly a year ago I was in the mountains on the Virginia and West Virginia border. It's a breathtakingly beautiful area. It's packed with gorgeous scenery, a great system of clean waterways, lots of wildlife and plenty of outdoor recreation opportunities. Because we opted to take a really big step and splurge on a very expensive vacation in August (Yellowstone/Grand Tetons), we've had to put off our normal excursions to various locations in our native southern high country. I really miss the mountains, and every week I miss it a bit more.

In two more weeks I will hit this same general area when I go backpacking with a couple of friends. Unfortunately, I don't think that I'll get another chance to find a way to the southern mountains before that, and only a few chances after that. In the meantime, I'm pining for the mountains of Southern Appalachia.

For the time being, here are representations of memories from last year:

Overlook near the summit of Walker Mountain.

Afternoon rain returns to the skies after a brief downpour along a road cut.

Pausing for a self-portrait at Monster Rock on Walker Mountain.

Moss along a trail.

Camp Creek Falls on the Virginia/West Virginia border.

Zoom

I love climbing up on a really high mountain and looking down and across and not being able to see a single sign of the hand of Man. Here in the eastern USA this is a very difficult thing to be able to do. There are a few canyons where you can do that and a few mountain valleys that I've found, also. And probably a couple of places where I've hiked in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

But by and large wherever you can climb to the top of a mountain you are going to look off and see roads and houses and businesses and even factories. I recall a few years ago climbing to the peak of what I thought was an isolated summit in the Pisgah National Forest. And once at the top I looked down to see a factory. Ugh.

Recently I managed to summit a relatively high mountain in Virginia. Once on the top I could look down and far off. Almost everywhere I looked I saw indications of human beings. Mainly I was looking at farms and fields and pastures. But I could see a lot of roads and even houses. This wasn't so bad, really. It was still rural area and there were no subdivisions and no shopping centers and little of what I would describe as urban sprawl.

Sometimes it doesn't gall me to see humans squatting on the landscape.

From Walker Mountain I looked down and saw a pale smear far below. With my telephoto lens I took this photo and realized it was a small farm with a couple of houses sitting close together. Likely an extended family? Hard to say, but I think so.

Then I zoomed in as much as I could. At least two houses. Looks like it. Classic farm stuff. Sheds. Trailers. Storage buildings. What looks like a recently plowed garden plot. I even saw some humans, like tiny bugs crawling across the green. It was okay.

Rocks and Green.

I very much enjoyed my hike on Big Walker Mountain. Since it's a high mountain trail that follows the heavily forested ridge, there's not a lot to see in the way of long range vistas, as is the norm with many Appalachian area trails. No low country, so there weren't any streams or waterfalls to view. I happened upon a few small springs that likely went on to form creeks and cascades, but that would be far below the places I was hiking.

Since the summits were so heavily forested, there also weren't a lot of views. There were some overlooks, but even these were limited to a few degrees without obstruction by greenery. In a place that is part of one of the most botanically diverse on the planet, there's a lot of opportunity for big trees to fling their trunks and limbs into the sky, blocking the panoramas one might find in other mountainous terrain. Don't go hiking in the Southern Appalachians expecting tremendous views. You'll find them, from time to time, but they're the oddity rather than the norm.

So you have to find beauty in other ways. It's always there, of course, when you're hiking in the southern high country. The flowers, the trees, the ferns, the mosses--even just the broken rock. The Appalachians have been shattering and eroding away for at least a quarter of a billion years. They must have been really high peaks to leave behind even the 6,000-foot monarchs that form the tallest that greet us in modern times.

And that's what I did that day on Big Walker Mountain. I hiked about and looked upon the bones of the Blue Ridge and the trees and plants that cloaks that arthritic stone.

Hiking Big Walker Mountain, Rocks & Green Stuff

I'd set aside the 15th for nothing but hiking and taking it easy. I'd decided on a relatively casual stroll along the Big Walker Mountain Trail. Easy because the trail terminus begins just a few hundred vertical feet below the high points along the mountaintop. So all I was looking at was a stroll through the rolling topography of the ridge line.

This part of the mountain is solidly in National Forest lands and is relatively protected. Yes, it can still be cut as timber, but you won't see any paved roads cut through these acres, and there won't be any subdivisions landing here.

Here's a map view of the trail. I started near the Big Walker Mountain Tower. The tower's a private property affair. It's an impressive site located at around 3400 feet elevation, but the owner's charge $5 to climb the 100-foot tower. If I'm going to bust my ass climbing, I don't feel like paying for the experience. Not when there are plenty of free spots to catch views of the nearby peaks.

Sign at the trailhead just behind the Walker Mountain Tower and Country Store.

Moss along the trail.

Closeup shot of the moss.

Super closeup shot of the moss.

A rock formation along the trail, not far from a place called "Monster Rock".

Me, under the rock overhang. I think it would be a safe place to hang out in a thunderstorm.

Another species of moss.

Closeup of the other moss.

Super-duper closeup.

Beseeching the mountain gods for a nice hike. I guess they had their beseeching ears on that day. It didn't rain until I'd finished my hike.

Another pretty blossom that I can't identify.

This is probably one kick-ass beautiful fully bloomed rhododendron today. Not quite ready the day I was there.

First view from near "Monster Rock". I don't know if "monster" refers to the size of the rock, or if monsters live on, around, or under it. I didn't see any monsters.

The entire ridgeline was packed with vast numbers of huge expanses of enormous rocks and boulderfields.

Considering that the only things I encountered on the entire hike were rocks, growing things, and views, this was one of the most peaceful hikes I've enjoyed in quite some time. I'll post more photos from this peak later...