Thursday, June 7 – Saturday, June 9, 2007
Thursday, June 7
Leaving West Virginia behind us, we made tracks for Sterling, VA, where Jim had found a place that had motorcycle cargo trailers on display. We have been looking for a trailer to pull behind the cycle for a year, but haven’t been successful in finding one we felt we could afford. Well…that ended today, because the shop in Sterling had just the kind we wanted and at a price that met our budget. But…still it’s a big step so we left there without making a firm decision though Dale did say he would bring it to us in Ashland, if we decided we wanted it.
After leaving the motorcycle shop, we followed directions given to us by Laurie Moy (Jimmy’s wife Cathey’s sister)
to Panera Bread near or in Oakton, VA, where she lives with her family. Since Chris was at work and Mack at school, we only met up with Laurie, Mason, and Morgan. It has been quite a few years since we’ve gotten to visit with Laurie so we were really excited to do so. While Laurie was a student at Boston University in Boston, Jim and I visited her once and she was participating in some kind of research for cranberry juice to augment her budget. Since then, when I see cranberry juice, I think of Laurie. Since the schools in PA were lacking in certain areas, 
Laurie home schooled both boys; but when they moved to VA, Mack needed the structure of a school environment while Mason decided to finish up this year being taught by his mom. Morgan, who Jim and I had never seen, is a spitting image of her mom with the survival skills of a
little girl with 2 big brothers! She was more than willing to show the camera how she and Mason had chosen to divide their cookies into various shapes. What fun we had during that short visit. Mason is intrigued with the idea of our having a motor home so we’ve promised that next time we’re in the area, we’ll have them over for a cook-out! Since Mason was dying to have his photo 
taken outside so he could wear his sunglasses, we adjourned to do just that.
Once we left Laurie and the kids, we plowed our way through the DC traffic for miles and miles. We had no idea that we were that close (15 miles) to Washington, but we were and so were thousands of others! What a nightmare! Give us our small New Mexico town any day of the week!
Even with all the traffic, we arrived safely back in Richmond by late afternoon and spent the rest of the day just getting re-organized.
Friday, June 8
Usual do-nothing day except spend several hours walking to and from the laundry room. Finally a trip to Panera (we came home from our trip to no internet…the service was so lousy that the campground decided to change providers) and then a trip to Wally World to pick up a few items for our Mexican fiesta meal we were fixing for Mike.
Once Mike arrived, we ate and watched the movie that everyone has been telling us we just had to see…Because I Said So. I won’t play movie critic here, but parts of it were very humorous and occasionally there were pearls of wisdom. I’m just glad we didn’t pay big bucks to go see it!
After the movie, we decided to call it a night as Jim and Mike needed their rest for the big hike tomorrow. Usually, I try to join the guys in their activities; but, we all agreed that I could be excused on this adventure since I seem to favor falling more than hiking!
Saturday, June 9
Mike and Kelly joined us for our morning devotional before the three of them headed out for the Blue Ridge Mountains. I have a roast cooking in the crock pot and will feed these hungry hikers at the end of the day.
Jim: Today was a day I’ve been waiting for a long time. Mike and I have talked for years about doing some hiking together, but we’ve never had the time together to do it. When he moved to Virginia about a year and a half ago, he started scoping out some area trails to hit whenever we were here long enough to tackle them.
The hike he planned for us to take today was one he had heard about from a co-worker when he was working part-time at a Starbucks here in Richmond. Initially, he and Kelly were going to take this hike, but there always seemed to be a conflict with work projects or vacations, so they just never got around to it. When we said we’d come visit this time, he insisted that we stay long enough that he, Kelly, and I could spend a day one weekend taking a hike up in the Virginia mountains.
Our goal for today was to hike a 3 ½ mile trail along Crabtree Falls, the highest vertical drop waterfall system east of the Mississippi (between 1,400 and 1,500 feet). To get to the start of the trail, we headed west on I-64 for about 90 miles to the point where the Shenandoah Skyline Drive goes north off of I-64 and the Blue Ridge Parkway begins and heads south.
We turned south on the Blue Ridge and drove for about 28 miles until we got to Virginia Highway 56, and then turned east for about five miles. There, at the foot of one of the mountains in the George Washington National Forest, is the trailhead for the Crabtree Falls hiking trail, ascending almost 1,400 feet over a three and a half mile climb to Crabtree Meadows near the top of the mountain.
The falls are thought to be named after William Crabtree, who settled in the area in 1777. They are a part of Crabtree Creek, which flows from the top of the mountain to the Tye River at the base. The falls include five major water falls (one is an almost sheer drop of 500 feet) and several smaller ones. Within a single half-mile stretch, the creek drops 1,200 feet.
Crabtree Falls is also famous for its mention in a television series. Nearby is the boyhood home of Earl Hamner, Jr., creator of “The Waltons.” Several scripts from the long-running series mention Crabtree Falls, usually as a place for a Sunday afternoon outing for John Boy, Mary Ellen, and the rest of the Walton clan.
Thursday, June 7
Leaving West Virginia behind us, we made tracks for Sterling, VA, where Jim had found a place that had motorcycle cargo trailers on display. We have been looking for a trailer to pull behind the cycle for a year, but haven’t been successful in finding one we felt we could afford. Well…that ended today, because the shop in Sterling had just the kind we wanted and at a price that met our budget. But…still it’s a big step so we left there without making a firm decision though Dale did say he would bring it to us in Ashland, if we decided we wanted it.
After leaving the motorcycle shop, we followed directions given to us by Laurie Moy (Jimmy’s wife Cathey’s sister)
to Panera Bread near or in Oakton, VA, where she lives with her family. Since Chris was at work and Mack at school, we only met up with Laurie, Mason, and Morgan. It has been quite a few years since we’ve gotten to visit with Laurie so we were really excited to do so. While Laurie was a student at Boston University in Boston, Jim and I visited her once and she was participating in some kind of research for cranberry juice to augment her budget. Since then, when I see cranberry juice, I think of Laurie. Since the schools in PA were lacking in certain areas, 
Laurie home schooled both boys; but when they moved to VA, Mack needed the structure of a school environment while Mason decided to finish up this year being taught by his mom. Morgan, who Jim and I had never seen, is a spitting image of her mom with the survival skills of a
little girl with 2 big brothers! She was more than willing to show the camera how she and Mason had chosen to divide their cookies into various shapes. What fun we had during that short visit. Mason is intrigued with the idea of our having a motor home so we’ve promised that next time we’re in the area, we’ll have them over for a cook-out! Since Mason was dying to have his photo 
taken outside so he could wear his sunglasses, we adjourned to do just that.Once we left Laurie and the kids, we plowed our way through the DC traffic for miles and miles. We had no idea that we were that close (15 miles) to Washington, but we were and so were thousands of others! What a nightmare! Give us our small New Mexico town any day of the week!
Even with all the traffic, we arrived safely back in Richmond by late afternoon and spent the rest of the day just getting re-organized.
Friday, June 8
Usual do-nothing day except spend several hours walking to and from the laundry room. Finally a trip to Panera (we came home from our trip to no internet…the service was so lousy that the campground decided to change providers) and then a trip to Wally World to pick up a few items for our Mexican fiesta meal we were fixing for Mike.
Once Mike arrived, we ate and watched the movie that everyone has been telling us we just had to see…Because I Said So. I won’t play movie critic here, but parts of it were very humorous and occasionally there were pearls of wisdom. I’m just glad we didn’t pay big bucks to go see it!
After the movie, we decided to call it a night as Jim and Mike needed their rest for the big hike tomorrow. Usually, I try to join the guys in their activities; but, we all agreed that I could be excused on this adventure since I seem to favor falling more than hiking!
Saturday, June 9
Mike and Kelly joined us for our morning devotional before the three of them headed out for the Blue Ridge Mountains. I have a roast cooking in the crock pot and will feed these hungry hikers at the end of the day.
Jim: Today was a day I’ve been waiting for a long time. Mike and I have talked for years about doing some hiking together, but we’ve never had the time together to do it. When he moved to Virginia about a year and a half ago, he started scoping out some area trails to hit whenever we were here long enough to tackle them.
The hike he planned for us to take today was one he had heard about from a co-worker when he was working part-time at a Starbucks here in Richmond. Initially, he and Kelly were going to take this hike, but there always seemed to be a conflict with work projects or vacations, so they just never got around to it. When we said we’d come visit this time, he insisted that we stay long enough that he, Kelly, and I could spend a day one weekend taking a hike up in the Virginia mountains.
Our goal for today was to hike a 3 ½ mile trail along Crabtree Falls, the highest vertical drop waterfall system east of the Mississippi (between 1,400 and 1,500 feet). To get to the start of the trail, we headed west on I-64 for about 90 miles to the point where the Shenandoah Skyline Drive goes north off of I-64 and the Blue Ridge Parkway begins and heads south.
We turned south on the Blue Ridge and drove for about 28 miles until we got to Virginia Highway 56, and then turned east for about five miles. There, at the foot of one of the mountains in the George Washington National Forest, is the trailhead for the Crabtree Falls hiking trail, ascending almost 1,400 feet over a three and a half mile climb to Crabtree Meadows near the top of the mountain.
The falls are thought to be named after William Crabtree, who settled in the area in 1777. They are a part of Crabtree Creek, which flows from the top of the mountain to the Tye River at the base. The falls include five major water falls (one is an almost sheer drop of 500 feet) and several smaller ones. Within a single half-mile stretch, the creek drops 1,200 feet.
Crabtree Falls is also famous for its mention in a television series. Nearby is the boyhood home of Earl Hamner, Jr., creator of “The Waltons.” Several scripts from the long-running series mention Crabtree Falls, usually as a place for a Sunday afternoon outing for John Boy, Mary Ellen, and the rest of the Walton clan.
We began the hike with a short walk up a paved slope to the Lower Falls, the point at which Crabtree Creek starts leveling out to flow into the Tye River. From there, it got interesting in a hurry! The trail was easy enough to navigate (it is rated as a moderate climb and we had to pay attention to what we were doing), but difficult enough to put a strain on the legs and get the heart pumping. Most of the trail is well-marked and worn, but there were some places where we
had to scramble over rocks or crawl over fallen trees to get to a new section. In a couple of stretches, steeply ascending wooden steps have been built to get between the sections of the switchback trails. There are several lookout points along the way, especially at the five major falls sites. By taking our time and stopping at the lookout points, we managed to get to the highest falls without incident or excessive huffing and puffing.After stopping at the top of the falls for several minutes to rest, have a snack, and take some pictures, we moved on up the trail another mile toward the point where it intersects with the Appalachian Trail at Crabtree Meadows. We went only a few yards when we saw a man and woman standing beside the trail looking at something. As we got close the man said, “You’ll want to step carefully – there’s a rattlesnake.”
Sure enough, we were within 4 feet of a rattlesnake (about 2 ½ - 3 feet long) that was moving along the trail and headed into some cover. It seemed to be completely ignoring us as it slowly moved a couple of feet toward the woods, crossed over a log, and then crawled back into a patch of leaves and grass just off the trail. We watched it for several minutes and tried our best to get some photographs of it, but they way it was moving, we could never get a clear shot of the entire snake. Moving on up the trail, we made our way to Crabtree Meadows, where we staked out a spot, spread out a little cloth, and enjoyed a picnic lunch that Kelly had packed. I don’t think any of us realized how hungry we were until we sat down to eat. I think that may have been the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich I ever ate!
After about a half hour of resting, we once again shouldered our packs and started back down the mountain. We knew where we were going and what we were facing, but that didn’t make the descent much easier (but the views across the valley were still spectacular). I’ve always found that going downhill is much more treacherous than heading up, and it sure did put a lot more strain on the calf muscles and the ankles. Just to play it safe, we still took some breaks along the way to rest and take some more photos.As we headed down the final stretch of the trail, we met a woman and her daughter who were planning to go up to the falls. The mother asked if there were any snakes along the way (something I never even thought about until we saw one). Kelly answered that yes, we did see one way up the trail. Noting the expression on the lady’s face, Kelly immediately tried to downplay the situation by saying, “It was friendly though…I think I even saw it smile.”
That didn’t do anything to make the lady feel any better about it. She looked at Kelly like she might be the craziest person she had ever seen, muttered something, and walked slowly over to the lower falls before turning around and coming back to the parking lot. Meanwhile, Mike and I were cracking up and wondering where in the world that line came from.
We arrived back down at the trailhead at 4:00 pm after about 4 ½ hours of hiking, a little weary, but very satisfied with the experience. From there, it was back to the Blue Ridge and on to I-64 toward Richmond where we arrived at the RV park to Barbara’s wonderful “pot roast with all the trimmings” meal that was waiting for us in Big V. As we ate, we all shared our experiences of the day, plus Kelly’s by now famous snake quote; and Mike started planning other hikes for the future. What a great way to end a beautiful day!
Barbara: Since the blog allows access to photos quicker and easier, I am attaching some collages I made. This makes the blog a little different from the attachment; but...I like photos and especially these photos...
(Note…middle: snake head on rock; bottom left: rattlers and tail of snake; bottom right…snake on the move)
Mike and Kelly
Dad and Mike
Jim and Barbara
“My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of a churchgoing.” …Aldous Huxley
