Back in the Mountains

I have some catching up to do on this blog, and will start with a quick post about my first mountain hike in months.  On March 1, I had a chance to head for the mountains for a couple of short hikes.  I was looking for trails that I'd never hiked on in the Southern District of Shenandoah National Park, as I have hiked almost every trail in this section and wish to finish these trails soon.

I hiked two trails: the Stull Brook Trail (northern trail on the map), which was a little more than 2 miles each way, and the "backdoor" entrance to the Paine Run Trail (southern trail on the map), which was about 0.6 miles each way.

The approach to these trails is from the west, rather than from the Skyline Drive.  I tried to find a third trail, but gave up after about 45 minutes of trying to get there. 

There was nothing spectacular about these trails, but it felt great to be back in the mountains, even though both of these were pretty flat.

Here are some photos from the Stull Brook Trail:

The trail is a pleasant walk, kind of an old woods road going from one park boundary to another for about two miles.

Clearly, the trail maintainers have some work to do.

I like the forest in the late winter / early spring.  I heard a few birds, mostly woodpeckers - pileated, red-bellied, and downy - but also a few chickadees and Carolina wrens.

The hike to Paine Run from the west is the only part of a longer trail that I hadn't hiked.  Coming from the west saved me miles of hiking.  I had to do several stream crossings here, which were easy enough to do with my trekking poles.  I camped near this spot a number of years ago.

Not too long ago, a raccoon left proof of his existence in the mud.

This trail was a nice and easy one.

There were a lot of lovely stream views along this trail.

I enjoyed being back in the mountains, and will try to catch up my additional hikes soon.