I captured this image near the top of Little Stony Man in Shenandoah National Park. It was a cool and wet day. The weather nearly caused me to cancel my plans but I’m glad I didn’t.
Continue reading “Hiking In The Rain”Hiking In The Rain
Mysterious Forest
It’s notoriously hard to get a good weather forecast for Shenandoah National Park. The park is over 100 miles long and the closest cities and towns are at least 1,000′ lower than the ridge line.
I checked the weather before leaving home. The forecast for a nearby town was for partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the upper 70’s. There was a slight chance of rain so I grabbed my rain jacket on the way out the door.
As I reached the foothills of the mountains it began to rain. “Not to worry,” I thought. I had my rain gear and the trailhead is 20 miles north of the entrance station. The weather there could be completely different.
I entered the park in a steady rain with temperatures 15 degrees lower than I expected. The drive to the trailhead was mostly inside clouds intent on shedding their moisture as they crossed the Appalachian Mountains.
When I arrived at the trailhead the rain was slow but steady. Having already driven over two hours to hike this trail, I decided to don my rain gear and make the best of it. As they say “there’s no bad weather, only bad gear.”
About 15 minutes into my hike the clouds still enshrouded the mountains but the rain had stopped. The vistas I came to see were clouded in but it was still a good day and left me with a reason to come back another time.
There weren’t many dramatic views that day but the weather gave the mountains a peaceful and mysterious quality.
Tolkien Forest
While hiking on a foggy and rainy day in the mountains I started to feel like I walked into a Tolkien novel.
Forest Silhouette
On a recent trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains I was able to enjoy the darkening sky with family. It was cool but not cold; still too early in the year for the mosquitos but warm enough to sit outside and enjoy the evening for a while.
Melt Off
As I hiked past this puddle of melting snow I stopped to look at the reflections in it. Snow was falling off the trees in clumps and caused ripples in the puddle.
Forest Sunrise After the Snow
Snow fell on Richmond Thursday night. A few inches accumulated but it was nearly all gone within 24 hours. I took the day off Friday and hiked through Pocahontas State Park. This photo was taken as the sun rose over the forest. The park was beautifully covered in snow and I had the place to myself. I hiked for 5 hours and never saw another person the entire time.
Early Morning in the Woods
The sun was just beginning to rise above the trees when I arrived at this small pond.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitary
Hiking through the woods I found this single, orange leaf that had fallen into a sea of brown. It struck me as quite a standout and a good candidate for this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge topic “Solitary”.