Water Park Shenandoah

Last week was hot, really hot, and since we were out all week we hit the swimming holes, a lot. Everyone had a blast, it kinda felt like the above picture.


I have to put a couple pictures that are not from swimming up, don't know why but here they are (we will get back to swimming soon, I promise).

Fly poison is one of the coolest flowers in bloom right now, it's poisonous (duh) so they used to grind it up and mix it with sugar water to kill the flies, cool huh.



A Zebra Swallowtail on a Hay-Scented fern.


Now back to sweet water pics.





Ahhhhahhh, now that's refreshing.








And after all the good times in the water holes, show em how the week ended.



And here's how we felt!

Sweet Summer Treats

Summer berries are in season! Those two ripe ones in the picture went missing, but the rest are just coming in and the black raspberries are in full force!



Uuummmmmm sweat, there's plenty of that to go around so I don't mind if this small Red Admiral butterfly has a little while I'm on belay.



It's always a treat to see a Rattlesnake in their natural habitat, unless of course you get too close. This one had 14 rattles but he didn't have to use them, we kept our distance.




This Black Vulture is thinking; "Will you be my sweet treat for lunch?" "Just step a little closer to that cliff edge, you will be fine." Meanwhile we were thinking, "man, so graceful in the sky, but they are so ugly up close."

The Feeling of Summer

"Well there's a feelin' in the air
Just like a Friday afternoon
Yeah you can go there if you want
Though it fades too soon
So go on, let it be
If there's a feelin' coming over me
Seems like it's always understood this time of year" - Better than Ezra


A local opossum out for an evening stroll in the waning light before he starts his nocturnal foraging.



This Spicebush swallowtail thought she would pose for a picture, I was like, "alright, since you match the climbing rope so nicely."




A spiders' orb web catching the morning fog.


The next three pics are some more Shenandoah friends who posed for pictures, hope you'll come along and see some for yourself.









Its the nervous feeling before the jump into cold stream water, or trying to decide to watch the stars or the lightning bugs. It's noticing the wind whip waves through the deep summer grasses and following a box turtles trail because he has matted the grass down. Its the cool breeze and the steam rising after the storm. The summer is here and we hope you love it too.

Floral Arrangements

I've been lazy about posting the last couple weeks, sorry, but here are some flowers to get us back on your good side. I'll start with some Mountain Laurel after Saturday's rain and as you go down the pics get older till the flowers at the end which are already long gone for the season.



Indian Cucumber Root




Blue-eyed Grass




Jack-in-the-pulpit




Mountain Laurel, mountain fog, Scrub pine, and boulders- Old ragged beauty




Wild Columbine




Japanese Honeysuckle - Yes I know it's invasive but it's definitely a love/hate relationship. I mean it's beautiful, smells great, taste like Honey! Respect!




The bloom from a Tulip Poplar tree is usually way up in the canopy so you don't see them till they fall but if the tree's not in a forest they will bloom down low as well.




A ladybug on Barley. I put those last three pictures in cause I like em, now we'll go back inside the park and see some more stuff you might see on a hike.




Tiny Bluet flowers with an even tinier beetle!



Wild Clematis




Not a flower, but check out the bright blue sweet bee. Cool!



Two Painted Trillium and some nice shadows.



Another Painted Trillium without such harsh light




Pinxter Azaleas - Maybe the best smelling of all SNP flowers




Pink Lady Slipper Orchids




Mayapple




Large Flower Trillium

EHART 2010

notice the smile...

This is 10 percent luck, 20 percent skill, 15 percent concentrated power of will, 5 percent pleasure, 50 percent pain, and 100 percent reason to remember the name ... - Fort Minor... EHART


- Eastern High Angle Rescue Training 2010 had another fantastic year of rescue training last week. Shenandoah Mountain Guides was again honored to be part of the instructor cadre for this incredible week of National Park Service rescue training! Held in the high elevations of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina this year's training conditions varied widely, from sideways snow and 70 mph wind to sunny and warm, but either way it was a huge success!


Here is what the students' (mostly NPS park rangers) looked like in the stinging snow while the the instructors in the first picture rappelled off the mile high swinging bridge at Grandfather Mountain. The weather was so brutal that the students' training was postponed for a night due to safety concerns. There were only a few instructors who demonstrated what the students would soon do in the more pleasant conditions of the next night. When students rappelled off the whistling bridge it was balmy, just above freezing, just 40 mph wind gust, a beautiful starry night.


Some perfect training conditions at the Devil's Cellar area of Table Mountain.

Over the course of the week students who started with various skill levels learned everything from basic knots to the complex details of rigging and using a raise/lower system in an emergency technical rescue application. After five chock-full days of training you can be sure that if you live on the east there is a competent rescue technician park ranger working in a park near you.


Here's a look at some of the local flora at table mountain, Mountain Rosebay is a nice spring bloomer, and was plentiful on the cliff-sides.



Taken from the same spot as the last picture, here's a look at the local fauna of the area. He's a little hard to see but there's an Eastern Fence Lizard in focus on the left side of the photo through some of the brush.



The haul team working from a safe sitting position and raising a patient (out of view) up the cliff.



A great sunset seen from Grandfather mountain.

Fresh as Spring Chickens

Yes, this is what it feels like to hike in Shenandoah! Yes, we will make special accommodations for your family if you want to get the little guy started young.

Nice hikes and fantastic training are getting us into the full swing of the season. Last weekends Old Rag Mountain Steward (ORMS) training was awesome. The training was a full weekend of first aid, LNT training - and hilarity, good food, great times, and a real rescue we got the opportunity to help the park service out with!


Ferns showing a Dr. Seuss like sign of the season.


A cloud masked sunrise as seen from the top of Hawksbill peak Saturday morning before the ORMS training weekend began. Old Rag is in the lower right hand corner.