More to come!

Liz had a request for some of my favorite hiking trails. I am in Virginia, so they will be in the northern/central Virginia area. I have to look over some of my photos so that I can post some pictures too.

One that I like to visit (because it is not too long of a drive) is Prince William Forest Park. There are lots of trails that I like to hike, but one of the best is the South Valley Trail. It is quite long (about 9 miles) but I don't hike it all at once. I have picked sections to hike. In fact, this is the trail where there was the beaver activity in the earlier post. The trail follows a creek and it is quite peaceful.

Another park that I like to visit because it is not too far from my parents house is Antietam National Battlefield. I am a big civil war buff and this park is very well preserved because it was farm land then and it is farm land now. There is one trail that I started to walk on my last vacation. It is called the Snaveley's Ford trail. It goes beside Antietam creek, is in the woods, and has opportunities to catch glimpses of wildlife. I did not get to walk the entire trail, because when I was there it was starting to rain and I was afraid that it would turn into a storm.

I have pictures, but I need to find them!

More to come!

Hiking

One of my favorite things to do is to hike. Not hugely long hikes (I like modern bathroom facilities) but just to go walk in the woods for an hour or so makes me feel great. By the way, here is a book tie-in: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. Absolutely hysterical! Bryson and his friend try to hike the Appalachian trail, and they are not exactly prepared.

Lately when I take pictures, I have been fascinated by the most interesting things.

This one is a picture of an interesting fungus on a log near a creek. I took this one with the camera on the cell phone.

This one is a close-up of some ferns on the ground in the national park. I discovered my digital camera has this close-up setting and I have been playing with it.

And here is the handiwork of a beaver. This one was taken months ago.

Thats all for now!

Where have I been?

I have not posted in a while. I have been here and I've been visiting blogs. But I haven't had much to say. We are in a heat wave again and tomorrow is supposed to be 100 again. But as the cliche goes, "Its not the heat, its the humidity." So true! You walk outside and it feels like someone threw a heavy wet blanket on you!

I just finished a book that I thought was good. It was called Cataloochee by Wayne Caldwell. It is the story of the fictional Carter, Banks, and Wright families, their lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina, and how the coming of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park changed all of their lives. The coming of the park mostly just happened at the end, but Caldwell described how life was like in the mountains. It was a really good book, especially since the area is one of my favorite places to visit.