Scholars on the Road

While I mull over what I will do with this blog, I think that I will write a post about a fairly unique set of hikes.  This opportunity kind of fell into my lap, but the bottom line is that I was asked to lead hikes in Shenandoah National Park for about a week in June and July for the Road Scholar program.  I really enjoyed this.  My general duties were to (1) lead a hike each day of a distance from 4.5 to 9.5 miles (2) make sure that my participants - up to a dozen at a time - were safe, stayed together, and didn't get lost (3) answer as many questions as I could - birds, wildlife, history, flowers, general plants, geology (4) interact with the hikers and keep them engaged and involved and included (5) give a talk one night to the participants (my talk was on common wildlife - mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians - of the park.)  In return, I got to go hiking every day, got a room at Big Meadows Lodge for the week, got three squares a day, and got paid some money.  Plus I got to enjoy the company of some really fun and wonderful people from all over the place!

The hikes were led by two of us.  Each day, one of us lead a shorter hike and one of us led a longer hike, and we switched every day.  The hikes were in the Big Meadows area, generally along the Appalachian Trail, but we threw in a bonus hike or two along the way.  The general schedule was: Monday - Big Meadows Falls loop; Tuesday - Hike from Lewis Mountain north on the Appalachian Trail until either Bootens Gap or Milam Gap; Wednesday - hike north along the AT from either Fishers Gap (longer) or Hawksbill Gap (shorter) to Stony Man; Thursday - Camp Rapidan (a 4.5 mile out and back or an 8 mile loop).  Here is a high level view of the trails.  The arrow points to the general location of the Big Meadows Lodge:

For the two weeks, I hiked about 30 miles each four day session.  We had wonderful weather almost all of the time, even in July.  98% of the people were great and a lot of fun to be with.  I'll be going back in October for one more week.  In June, the wildflowers and birds were great, and in July, we continued with great wildflowers and also butterflies.  Here are some photos from the two weeks:

JUNE -

Bumblebee approaching flowers

Fly poison, so named because earlier settlers ground the toxic plant parts and mixed them with surag water to poison flies in their cabins.

Dark Hollow Falls

Cave family cemetery in the park

View from Bear Fence Mountain

View from Hawksbill, the highest point in the park:

Views from Stony Man, the second highest point in the park:

"The Creel," one of the cabins at President Herbert Hoover's camp:

Cottontail rabbit:

Sunset from Big Meadows Lodge:

JULY:

Dark-eyed junco nest on ground in the base of a hollow tree:

Monarch:

Question mark:

Unidentified mushrooms

Syrphid fly on flower:

Eastern tiger swallowtail:

Silver-spotted skipper:

Dark form female, and male, eastern tiger swallowtails:

Orange fungus on dead log:

Indian Peace Pipe:

Turk's cap lilies:

Beetles on milkweed:

Turk's cap lily:

Yellow and green:

White-tailed deer:

Yours truly on Little Stony Man cliffs:

The sun sets on the week:

Polyphemus Moth:

I enjoyed my two weeks helping to lead hikes for the Road Scholar program.  It was great fun with wonderful folks on beautiful hikes.  I look forward to going back in early October.