LONG TIME SINCE LAST POST

Crazy me with a mountain cabin that I sometimes enjoy renting in the background.

A group of Trail Patrol trainees.

Robert Kim fresh back from Everest helping on National Trails day.

 

 

Louise, my better half, plant biologist, naturalist, lab manager, adjunct professor, .......



 

Mr. Copperhead.   I seldom see these during the day but see them quite often in the early evening as they begin to move about to hunt.

This is the same Copperhead a few seconds after the first shot.   Notice the tip of my hiking pole in the bottom right.   It is holding a leafy plant out of the way so as to expose a better picture of the well camouflaged Copperhead.

Mrs, Bear  just off Old Rag Saddle Trail had a cub with her but they  wandered out of sight before I could get a picture.

A hollow road leading to the cabin I like to rent.

Mountain Laurel in bloom.

Sunset and rain clouds.

Downpours over Nicholson hollow seen from Old Rag summit.

Rain falling into Weakley Hollow from Old Rag summit.

Enjoy the following pictures from Old Rag summit.   A kaleidoscope of changing views.    Over the changing seasons and changing moments I have been continually profoundly nourished,

 

 

 

Shoulder Season

 

Various Trips Mid Feb 2013 till March 31, 2013 

 

There is lots of history to be found in the hollows just outside the SNP.   The next four shots feature the Post Office of Graves Mill Virginia which was open from 1800's until just a few years ago.      It must have been one of the smallest Post Offices in the United States.

 

Note: Click on pictures to read text or see a  higher resolution.

 

Around two weeks ago I had the opportunity to help a young hiker with a sprained ankle.

The next picture is of a dog being reunited with its owners after going missing on Mt  Robinson and being found by two good Samaritans on Old Rag.

The good Samaritans.

 

 

At the end of March 2013 we had 3 inches of snow on a Monday morning.

Dusk on the lower Old Rag Ridge Trail.

The Old Rag Contact Station was opened for 2013.

My friend Louise and I had rented a cabin in early March.

During the Winter and Early Spring Old Rag trails can often look like this when there is no snow to be seen at lower elevations.    Have fun but be safe.

Sat.,Sun,&Mon June 23-25, No Old Rag Friends and Relatives

No Old Rag this weekend pictures for now text later.

 

 

Louise Casey Clukey Louise Casey-Clukey Louise Casey   

Louise Casey Clukey Louise Casey-Clukey Louise Casey   

Louise Casey Clukey Louise Casey-Clukey Louise Casey   

Louise Casey Clukey Louise Casey-Clukey Louise Casey   

Sat-Tue May 12-15,2012 VINING CABIN

The Vining Cabin is one of many (40 plus) cabins available for rent by either the public or members of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC). 

These cabins are made available at very low cost because of the tremendous generosity of prior owners and the on-going mostly volunteer stewardship of PATC volunteers.   For more information about PATC visit their website located at:

http://www.patc.net/PublicView/About_PATC/PublicView/Custom/Fee_Events/More_about_PAT/About_PATC.aspx?hkey=e87e2ee3-faf0-4e8e-8a2b-0331e6a8f518

What is now referred to as the Vining Cabin is part of what was called the Mutton Hollow Farm and it adjoins a large 600 plus acre tract of land and cabins that was generously donated by Dr. Vining and his family.    For those who enjoy adventure and joy of of discovering special deeply historic connections you will be interested in knowing that there is a bath tub which was used by Winston Churchill,  Bertrand Russell, W H Auden and many many other famous people which is available for the common man to take an open air bath or use to chill his beer under the canopy of the seemingly timelessness of the ancient mid-Atlantic woods the following two links provide first and insight to the aesthetic nature of staying at a primitive PATC cabin and then a view of a the bathtub once used by many famous people:

 

The following is a good blog posting about someone's stay at  the PATC Morris Cabin which is one of the cabins located on what PATC calls the Vining Tract:

http://lucentmoments.blogspot.com/2008/09/morris-cabin.html

 

The following link is to a good video about PATC's  Mutton Top Cabin which is also on the Vining Tract:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3ld70CUh2A

 

The following link brings up a picture of the Churchill Tub in the woods near the Morris Cabin:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/medildo/3323667887/in/set-72157614650373459

CONNECTIONS:

Dr. Vining who was a professor at UVA found out that he could obtain some recycled bathtubs from the faculty club which had hosted many many very famous people and it just so happens that a tub which was used by lots of famous people who had visited UVA was headed for the dump.   Well one of those tubs which had hosted and comforted many famous peoples naked bodies is now located out in the open air of the Appalachian woods on the Vining Tract.    WHO WOULD HAVE EVER GUESSED?!   How many unassuming trails have hosted the intimate presence of prior dignitaries of today's or prior worlds!?

MUTTON HOLLOW FARM

As written up in the PATC newsletter, The Potomac Appalachian of January 2004

ATC has leased the 675-acre Daniel

Vining family farm located in Greene

County, Va. The farm, previously owned by

Daniel Vining’s parents, Dr. and Mrs. Rutledge

Vining, adjoins PATC’s Vining Tract, which

was obtained by purchase and grant from the

Vinings in the early 1980s. It is a classic example

of a 19th century Appalachian farm containing

a log cabin, numerous barns and other

out-buildings, and pastures surrounded by

stone and rail fences. The farm is located at the

end of Mattie’s Run Road (State Rte. 635) in a

valley at the bases of High Top and Daniels

Mountains (PATC Map 11). Known as the

Mutton Hollow Farm, it consists of extensive

pasture land bisected by Mattie’s Run and is

surrounded by rapidly rising forested hillsides

that ascend nearly 1,000 feet to where the property

adjoins PATC’s Vining Trail

Cabin Will Enter System Soon

With the lease, PATC members gain access to

the entire property for hiking and the cabin,

which will enter the rental system once minor

repairs are completed. The cabin consists of

the original chestnut log structure, estimated

to be more than 100 years old, and a stone

addition constructed by Dr. Vining. The first

floor of the cabin contains two large sitting

rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. A large

bedroom is above the sitting room in the log

portion of the house. Well water is pumped

into the house to a toilet, shower, and bathroom

and kitchen sinks. The cabin also has

electricity for hot water, cooking, lights, and

baseboard heat. Fireplaces in both sitting

rooms provide additional heating. The cabin

will sleep six people.

The farm contains many roads and trails that

will provide opportunities for hiking and

exploring the area. Several of the trails extend

to existing trails on PATC’s Vining Tract and

to the Goose Pond/CCC Road that bisects the

Vining Tract. Once the trails are reopened,