Hiking Decisions.

I'm poring over my hiking maps and various Internet sites to figure out a couple of good dayhikes in the Peaks of Otter area for this coming week. One place I've hiked near but never have seen (except from a distance) is the Devil's Marbleyard. It's an enormous talus field in the James River area. I've never figured out why the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia sometimes exhibit talus fields, whereas I've never seen them in most of the southern states where I hike.

I'll be very close to the Appalachian Trail, so I could do some hikes there. Although I generally don't like to hike the AT because of crowds. However, as this will be in January, I might be able to find some solitude even there.

We'll see.

Typical view in the high mountains of Virginia.

Tough hiking.

I don't see much of this kind of thing in Georgia, Tennessee, or North Carolina.

The top of the talus field on Torrey Ridge.

I wouldn't want to hike long distance in this kind of stuff, but it was fun to venture out on it for the views.

Looking back at the talus fields from another ridge.