July 31, 2012 Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

We finished Skyline Drive. Finished our two and a half month trip, about 600 miles up the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline drive through Shenandoah National Parks.  Camping in forest service campgrounds. Back to the city life for a while.

The last basket I finished with its new lid, with a pine cone handle.  The basket I am working on now.

both baskets. A walking stick bug on our tire.

We woke up in the clouds this am. We drove thru some fog on the way. It lifted along the way. Here are some motor cycle riders, one with training wheels on her bike. Lots of motorcycles on these drives.  Above are two bicyclists. Lots of bicyclists too. They are pretty brave on these roads, there are no shoulders.

Boo hoo, the entrance station to Skyline drive. Or the end of our trip thru these  national parks.  Welcome to West Virginia.

John at the low point in West Virginia, the confluence of the Shenandoah River and the Potomac.  It was on private property, so I stayed up on the road.  A street scene in old Harpers Ferry, at the confluence of the two rivers.

John Brown with his 21 soldiers came here and captured the armory and was going to give the guns to the slaves for an uprising.  They holed up in this fire station, which became known as John Brown’s fort. The small army was captured and sentenced to death. It is the incident that started the Civil War. The town, with the armory and a couple railroads was a  key site in the war, it was captured and recaptured many times. The union finally burned down the armory so the confederated would not get the guns. This confluence is the point where Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia all meet.

The town has flooded many times, the markers on the left of the door show the levels of the flood water during the different floods. The Appalachian trail goes right through the Historical Park too.

The Appalachian trail crosses the Potomac river on this foot bridge on the rail road trestle.  The Shenandoah river is in the middle, the Potomac on the right, they merge and go left. There are remains of old railroad trestles.

John at the right place at the right time to catch the train.  Old hand cut steps to St Peters cathedral, worn on the middles .

The building next door must have washed away in a flood? The bus at the KOA. What a shock after all those forest service sites to be this close to our neighbor. Most commercial RV parks are close, but not usually this close.  John says we had dueling awnings.

July 30, 2012 Mathews Arm, Skyline drive mile marker 23

We left Big Meadow Campground and headed to Mathew’s Arm campground. Mathew’s arm is a ridge that is perpendicular to Skyline drive, or the the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The big meadow at Big Meadow. The rig at Mathew’s arm campground.

We hiked to Overall Run falls. It drops 93 feet, the tallest waterfall in the park. Very steep hike, down. There was not much water in the Overall Run river, so the falls were just a dribble, and you can’t see them because of the trees. This is the view. We could hear a small fall. We had lunch at the overlook. This is the view.

John on the trail on the way back. Very steep.  5.7 miles, 800 something vertical.

I think this is a fossil, but I don’t know of what.  We got back and we had the whole loop of the campground to ourselves.  Guess people use these campgrounds on the weekends.

Mushrooms and bugs from the hike.

More mushrooms and bugs. The flower in the top is a bouncing bet and I don’t know the other one.

July 28, 2012 Hawksbill Mountain, Skyline Drive

The day before my birthday. We hiked to Hawksbill summit, the highest peak on Skyline Drive, 4,051 feet

Drinking fountain in the campground. All of them were in big rocks. A cruise America RV. They usually are rented by whole families of Europeans, including Grandma. They come to America for like 6 weeks and try to see all the National Parks. They say we are so lucky to have them, no where else does.

Hawksbill  peak.  On the summit this group of high school/ college kids arrived. They were saying, why do we always beat the grandparents up here?? John told them to remember that day 50 years from now. The grandparents arrived and grandma-younger than us probably was rounding up the kids for a photo. Lots of families, esp.  grandparents and grandkids together camping  together for family time.

Byrd's shelter, built for the Appalachian trail hikers to overnight in. John hiking on the CCC built wall along the road. The hiking guide said to  watch the signs on the trail carefully at the intersections or you would end up in the wrong parking lot and have to hike a mile on the road to the car. We parked in Hawksbill gap lot. The trail signs all said Upper or Lower Hawksbill lot. We didn’t know which we were in. We could not figure out if the upper was more north, or at the higher mile marker on the drive- which is south. So were not even sure which way to go once we came to the lot. . .So we went to the upper, and we were parked in the lower.  What a bunch of tourists we are, not checking where we left from. . .

Orange fungus on a log,  butterfly on a wild onion blossom, blue flowers and an orange bug on Queen annes lace. Sue with the black bear in the lobby of the historic Big Meadow Lodge.

Big meadow lodge, built in the 1940’s, right after the park was formed. The great room in the lodge. We went in to use the internet. But most people in there were doing manual entertainment, reading books, playing board games, the woman in the foreground by John is fast asleep and snoring.

The great room had a whole wall of windows, looking over a cliff, with rocking chairs in front of the window and chairs on the deck. The dining room, where John took me to dinner to celebrate my birthday.

Birthday girl on the deck having a glass of wine. John at our table by the windows in the dining room

after dinner we walked to the top of Blacktop mountain, a 10 minute walk from the lodge.  Evening light from Blacktop.

At the campground we walked on the Appalachian trail to a viewpoint to watch sunset. John has the birthday cigar.