Noland Trail

On March 18, two days after my latest hike into the Great Dismal Swamp, I led another trail club hike around Lake Maury in Newport News on the 5 mile Noland Trail.  Afterwords, we spent a couple of hours in the outstanding maritime museum there.  I recommend both of these highly.  Only two of us went.  I guess my hike description wasn't appealing enough.  But the two of us enjoyed the day to be sure!  And since we had both been on the Dismal Swamp hike, we kept our eyes pealed for green bears!

Here is a track of the hike, which we did in a clockwise direction.  The starting (and ending) point is at the Maritime Museum, which is indicated by the circle.  We had water views nearly half of the time.

The trail is extremely well maintained, and a pleasure to walk on.

Early in the hike, there is a good view back to the museum, and to the exact replica (on the outside) of the famous Civil War ironclad warship, the U.S.S. Monitor.

Here is an aerial view (arrow) of the Monitor replica.  The museum has an excellent exhibit on the Monitor and its famous foe, the C.S.S. Virginia (AKA Merrimack).

The path winds through forests,

over bridges,

and past lake shores.

At the halfway point, roughly, the bridge is guarded by four large lions.

Jeff and I weren't the only ones enjoying the decent spring weather.

By mid-March, spring is well underway in southeastern Virginia.

In the museum, I focused on the parts of the Monitor exhibition that I had not gotten to on my last visit.  It is amazing that they have recovered so many artifacts from the ship's graveyard off of Cape Hatteras, N.C. - including it's anchor:

Propeller:

and gun turret (shown here upside down in a tank where it is being treated for several decades before it can be put on display.)

The Monitor was perhaps the most revolutionary ship in military history, and probably the most revered - other than perhaps the U.S.S. Constitution - to US Navy vets.  I am glad that they have found its remains and are conserving many of the artifacts.

Where else can you get a hike and a visit to a world-class museum for a buck?  Yes, the Maritime Museum only costs a dollar admission.  It was a most enjoyable day of nature and history!

The Best Laid Plans

My initial plans were to go backpacking in Shenandoah for yesterday through tomorrow.  But starting last weekend, I began to have some lower back pain, and even after a visit to the chiropractor Thursday, I felt as if this were not a great idea. But, thought I, I can still get up early on Friday, my day off, and do a day hike, getting done before the projected early afternoon thunderstorms rolled in.  But I came down with a migraine headache about 9PM Thursday and popped two Excedrin Migraine pills.  That knocked the headache out, but they have a super high does of caffeine, and as a result, I was wide awake by 1:30AM and never fell asleep again.

So my final plan was a short (5 mile) day hike in Powhatan State Park.  On this warm days with temperatures reaching 90 degrees (F), it was just the thing.  I saw and heard abundant wildlife - mostly birds and butterflies - and enjoyed a walk in the woods and fields of this nice park, just a 40 minute drive from my home.  Here is the track, parking at the star and following in the direction of the arrows, with a lunch break at the James River.

Some of the hike is in the deep woods, with grey tree frogs and oven birds, wood thrush, tufted titmice, and wood pewees calling,

and a cool stream or two where I saw this green frog.

This friendly butterfly, which might be a hackberry emperor, landed on my pack, and even on my hand!

Other parts of the hike went through large open areas, where field sparrows and common yellowthroats called continually, and I saw wild strawberries and brilliant flowers.

It was along the edge of the overgrown fields that I spotted this summer tanager,

indigo bunting,

eastern box turtle,

and this tiger swallowtail.

Down by the river, along the aptly named River Trail. is a dedication to my friend Holly Walker, who died of cancer a couple of years ago - way too soon.  Rest in peace, Holly.  Your dedication is at a wonderful spot.

I ate lunch by the river,

thought about Holly and how much she loved and knew about nature, and listened to the birds.  Then I partially retraced my steps to the car, where the air conditioning felt most welcome.

Yeah, my original plans didn't work out, nor did Plan B.  But Plan C turned out to pretty amazing in its own way!

The (Swamp) Path Less Taken?

I had Friday off, and I wanted to scout out one more hike in the Great Dismal Swamp.  I am leading a hike there next weekend, and there was one more route in the northwest part of the swamp

that I could check out.  It must be the path less taken, because I saw not a soul during the entire 9.7 mile hike.  I didn't see any spectacular wildlife, but there were lots of turtles, and I tabulated 14 species of bird on eBird (wood duck, great blue heron, turkey vulture, red-shouldered hawk, mourning dove, barred owl, red-bellied woodpecker, pileated woodpecker, blue jay, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, American robin, gray catbird, and eastern towhee).

Here is the track, essentially a big rectangle with an out and back portion.  I hiked the rectangle counter-clockwise, starting and ending at the Jericho Ditch parking area (red circle).  The first leg of the rectangle, and the out and back portion, is the Hudnell Ditch Trail.  The short leg going north is the New Ditch Trail, and the top of the rectangle heading west is the Williamson Ditch Trail.  The final short leg, heading south, is the Jericho Ditch Trail.

I've marked the distances of each leg.  The out and back portion was actually 1.65 miles but I rounded up.  At that point, the trail is no longer maintained, and it becomes thick with vegetation.  Can you spell "ticks?"  So I turned back.  You could do a hike of just over six miles by just walking the rectangle.

Hiking in the Great Dismal Swamp is always fascinating.  But for this route, there is almost always thick vegetation between the pathway and the water that lines both sides of the track.  So you usually can't see the water.  You can hear turtles, ducks, and other wildlife diving into the water or taking flight as you walk along, but you can't see them (usually).  So that was one thing I didn't like about this hike.

One of the first things that I saw was these four turtles, yellow bellied sliders or red cooters, I think, catching rays on this very spring-like February day.

Speaking of spring, here is one more sign.  Spring has come very early to these parts of Virginia.  It is actually kind of crazy.  We have had 8 days this month in Richmond where the temperatures have gotten above 70, which is unheard of.

On each side of the pathway is a strip of water, but at least in this part of the swamp, the vegetation is so thick that you can hardly ever see it.

Along the way, I saw some butterflies, like this question mark, and this tiny hairstreak:

Remember that 1.65 mile out-and-back spur?  Here is what the trail looks like as you walk along:

and here is what the trail looks like at the turn-around point.

I reversed course and got back to the southeast corner of the rectangle, and had a lunch break.  While there, I spotted a log in the water with six turtles on it, and crept up for a photo.  All of them plopped into the water except this one brave one.  I am having trouble identifying him:

Another creature I found was this salamander, which I think is a southern dusky salamander.  I found a total of three salamanders on the hike.

When I got to the junction of the Williamson Ditch and Jericho Lane trails, with less than a mile to go, I got a surprise.  The trail was totally cut out.  At first I thought I would have to wade through the muddy ditch, but there was one dry area, so I slide down, walked across, and clambered up the other side.

Beats wading across something like this, eh?

This is the first hike (out of five total) that I've done in the Great Dismal Swamp where I didn't see at least one of these - otter, bobcat, or black bear - although I did see lots of bear and coyote scat.  But I still saw plenty of wildlife, and enjoyed a gorgeous spring day well away from the office.

Back to Bear Church Rock

Other than a 5 miler at Dutch Gap, I have not been hiking in six weeks.  Weather, vacation, work, and life in general conspired against hiking lately.  That changed yesterday when I led a group hike to Bear Church Rock, a large rock with great views up in Shenandoah National Park.  The hike is billed at 4.5 miles each way, but my satellite tracker pegged the entire trip as 10.5 miles, so I think about 10 to 10.5 miles total sounds about right.  Elevations are between about 2,800 and 3,600 feet, and you will gain and lose 2,900 feet doing this hike.  The hike out is more downhill than uphill and the hike back is more uphill than downhill.  Here is the elevation track for the return hike, so imagine reversing this for the hike in - starting about 3,200 feet and ending at 2,800 feet.

The hike itself is very pleasant as it moves along through a mature forest.  There are great views at Bear Church Rock, but not any real views other than that.  Perhaps late in fall and in winter there could be.  Here is the track of the hike, beginning on the left and turning around at the purple arrow.  It goes though rugged mountainous terrain in the SNP back country.

Five of us joined for this hike, and it was great group of people.  A couple of us, myself among them, are dealing with some knee and ankle issues so that slowed us down, but then again, it wasn't a foot race.

Here are some photos from the day, starting with mountain laurel in bloom along the trail.

No bears this trip, but we did come across this eastern box turtle.  We also heard oven birds, eastern wood peewees, hooded warblers, towhees, wood thrushes, some type of vireo, and we saw a turkey vulture soaring effortlessly over the gap where the rock is.

This coyote scat was loaded with hair, likely from a deer.

Our merry band relaxes after lunch on Bear Church Rock.

Mountain laurel in bloom at the edge of the forest and the rock.

There are great views to be had at Bear Church Rock.

Here we are, getting ready for the long slog back.

Lina checks out a great campsite on the hike back.  Great if you don't mind carrying water into camp.  We did not see a drop anywhere on this high altitude hike.

It felt great to be back in the mountains, and I resolved to do it again soon.  Hey, I have Friday off....