Today, we went over two ridges: Green Ridge and Greenbrier Ridge. The snow is still impeding progress, but not as much. It's almost gone on south slopes, but on the north there are still several inches. Almost all our miles today were off road. At the end of the day the trail was difficult with lots of fallen trees, and some logging. But, as you can see, we had sunshine again. The temperature got to about 37 degrees in the afternoon.
In some places we were on bridle trails. This horse camp made a nice place for a break with a place to sit.
The trail over Greenbrier Ridge is named for Jim Sprague. Jim was one of the first people associated with the Buckeye Trail to fully support the North Country Trail following the same route for many miles. I wish I had a picture of him to share, but I don't have one with me. I believe he's still alive.
The view from Greenbrier Ridge was awesome. We ate lunch at another horse camp, taking it all in. The camera just can't capture it. For about 180 degrees we were surrounded by hills of various shades of blue.
Best find of the afternoon? I saw the seed pods of an orchid. I'm not quite good enough to just look at the seeds and identify most of them yet.
But I dug under the snow, and the leaves are persistent. I thought at first it might be a new species for me. I thought there were two kinds of these orchid with the white veins. But, it's only my old friend, Goodyera pubescens, Downy Rattlesnake Plantain. Still, a great find in the winter. Botany forever!
Our knees were tired at the end of the day, but we did great given the conditions.
Miles today: 10.3. Total miles so far: 865.3.
 | See Pike State Forest |
2 comments:
Snow walking is sooo tiring. I got 2 new kneeslate this summer and I'm exhausted after just a mile. You will have quads of steele
Wow, temps all the way up to 37. That's almost a heat wave :)
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