Rainy Season

The Rise of the Flowers

"Life is short but sweet for certain." -Dave Matthews band


From this day, and all of the spring forth, they will rise up from the earth. Their goal, to cover field and forest alike. Wild. Uncontrollable. Sometimes edible, sometimes medicinal, exploding towards the sky in unabashed beauty and fervor. We watch the waves of color, with the rise we are in awe, from the spring...

Above, the Coltsfoot flower looks powerful, and it may be. Steeping dry Coltsflower leaves for a tea, or taking and extract from the fresh leaves have the reputation of the cure for the common cough. Just don't pluck them in the park where all flowers are protected!


Pluck away out here, this purple ground cover flower is known as a weed - and it's threatening to take over the field!




Another powerful plant, the Bloodroot, opens and closes with the day and was once used for war paint and insect repellent. Today the plant is still used medicinally.




Sweetleaf shrubs/small trees are not normally found in Shenandoah but are readily found in Virginia's Seashore state park at VA beach. Since I love plants that look like they belong in Dr. Seuss books I had to put it up.





More signs of the spring!

Surprise!

It's spring and the Raven chicks are hungry! Or maybe the Raven chicks are not quite born just yet. Either way momma Raven is near by, and we are doing our best not to disturb her.




Hiking and rock climbing season are upon us and although sometimes it might be a little brisk, the views and the friction are the best this time of year.

Whether you want to practice anchor building on vertical faces...



Slab climbing with plenty of air beneath your feet...



or top-roping one of the parks classic crack climbs. Spring is the season!

And if you happen to get hurt on the Old Rag trail, or one of its many cracks or crystal pinching climbs, the Old Rag Mountain Stewards have been hard at work training for those ragged mountain rescues. In the unfortunate event of an accident, the Stewards will do their best to give you a splint and a hand, to put you on the level and send you on your way.









And then... Surprise! It's winter again, Beautiful and frightening the hoarfrost snow and ice come in.




It covers the rock climbs, pine trees, and milkweeds alike, but lucky for us it doesn't hang around long this time of year.








Before we know it we are back admiring the early blooming Spicebush and climbing some rarely touched rocks before we realize we have come to close to a Ravens nest and decide it's best for us and the birds that we move on.







Along with the dog we admire a walking tree. The willow tree is budding and although it's cold today we know that the summer is not far off and spring might be back tomorrow.

Stigmata Chaga

A Chaga is a rare parasitic fungus. It grows even more rarely at this latitude. On a recent heritage hike we found one of these slow growing mushrooms on the side of a Birch tree at one of the park's historic church sites. The graffiti cut into the other side of the tree reads "Jesus Saves." Well, since the 16th century Chagas have been touted all over the world for their medicinal qualities. Recently a number of studies have shown an epochal effect in several types of cancer. As one of our guides has a family member with cancer I broke off a legally harvestable chunk of the growth to be sent to the family member. As we stood observing the interesting pattern in the center of the chaga a red drip formed and started running down the mushroom. I didn't think to get a picture but as we talked about it later a lady from the trip said "I'm not even Catholic but that gave me the willies."


New spring life comes to the old home sites in Shenandoah with the perennial daffodils.




Celebrating a monumental birthday during our heritage hike the birthday girl lay down for a SHORT rest near the historic park cemetery.




This beautifully curved hand-dug spring has been running since well before the park was established.




And this arrowhead was manmade far before the spring was dug, a recent rain washed it up so that we were lucky enough to see it. We left the artifact where it is most valuable to the archaeologist, right where we found it.




150 foot rappels? Yea, we do those.




Vultures dry their wings after a spring rain.

Keep On The Sunnyside

Late winter days are like county fairs, sometimes they just seem like the same old Ferris wheel. Then you find a deep fried Oreo, and it's spectacular!

During one of the less interesting recent rainy hikes I was checking ice conditions on the shady side of the mountain and happened upon this extremely precarious car sized boulder. My strong desire to climb any boulder I happen upon was overcome by my desire to live and I didn't even touch the haphazard block.




This time of the year is perfect for one of the Heritage hikes we lead to some of the many historically significant sites in the park. We saw this tea pot near the site of the older of two churches which once graced the Old Rag Community before the land became part of the park.




Although the old Highland Baptist Church is very hard to find someone did not want the message to be forgotten. So here it is, the godly graffiti marking the site of the old church, C W and R W apparently wanted it to be a little easier to find.




On a recent rappelling adventure the north side of the mountain looked like this.




Which is why we chose to rappel off the sunny south side of the mountain.
What a beautiful day and a great adventure.
I think we found the deep fried Oreos!

Tree Climbers Anonymous

This one goes out to the tree climbers. This is the post for those who don't want to climb ice, why would you? Ice-climbing requires expensive and pointy equipment, plus, ice is always cold. Tree climbing is a sport for all seasons, and the gear you need you were mostly born with. First tree ascents are plentiful! And if it's not a first it is almost always taller for the second ascent! So here's to the tree climbers, get out there and grab life by the limbs. Enjoy your view from the top but don't forget about your roots.



You never have to travel far for a good tree climb, but if you want to, the option is there!
(photo Jesse Von Fange)



An enticing tree along the side of the Skyline drive in SNP.



Tree ice climbing? = dumb
Normal tree climbing = fun!


This people-huggin hippie tree loves you tree climbers too.

Winter Color and Grey

The cold tree ghost looks out from the grey enshrouding the Bolen cemetery, off of the Little Devil Stairs loop.



Rock art formed long ago by Jasper(red rock) intrusions in the Greenstone Basalt (I think that's what is going on). There are a number of these beautiful formations near the base of the Jeremys Run trail.



The next few are of the greens of winter as seen from a number of park locations.









The Fountain, a stunning, deadly, and unclimbed pillar that is about one foot wide, hollow in the center, and may quite possibly be the fountain of youth.




Another interesting ice formation, but this one is on a smaller scale.




One of the nice big ice falls at White Oak Canyon.