This hike did not start out as planned. We started out with poor directions from a website for "Scenic Mountain Views Near Blacksburg". After deciding that the name of the road we were looking for had been changed , we did eventually find Paces Gap Rd (now Little Meadow). The "road" ended up being a complete mud hole, but Blueberry (my Subaru) made it though the sludge. We couldn't find the sign for the Nature Conservancy Trail, so again we went out on a limb and tried an unmarked trail that seemed to be in the right area. This side trail did lead to the right trail, but we didn't know which direction to turn when we found it. Our first two guesses of the day worked so we turned right and walked, then just as we were about to give in we spotted this sign!!
Barney's Wall turned out to be a sheer drop off of about 700 ft. It is not the kind of drop off that had little ledges sticking out on the way down, in fact the ledge you stand on it jutting out over the cliff. I'm not too scared of heights but this one made me nervous, especially with the wind blowing pretty good. It is hard to see the degree of the drop off in this picture but I didn't want to spend too much time near the edge, but those toothpick looking trees are not seedlings.
This is a side view of the wall.
The view looking out wasn't so bad either!
I did say I was nervous about the edge, but I couldn't resist another last look. Laying down kept me from feeling like I might just blow off.
On one of the side trails we stood under this pile of layered rock.
Below - Running Ceder
Right before we were about to get back to the forest service road (Little Meadow), I spotted our first critter sighting. Clay was sprinting ahead of me and almost stepped on these guys. (We were pushing to get back home before the VT B-Ball game) Meanwhile, I kept stopping to take random pictures like the two pics above, and at first glance I thought I was looking at one snake, but then realized it had multiple heads. We counted three garter snakes.
Barney's Wall turned out to be a sheer drop off of about 700 ft. It is not the kind of drop off that had little ledges sticking out on the way down, in fact the ledge you stand on it jutting out over the cliff. I'm not too scared of heights but this one made me nervous, especially with the wind blowing pretty good. It is hard to see the degree of the drop off in this picture but I didn't want to spend too much time near the edge, but those toothpick looking trees are not seedlings.
This is a side view of the wall.
The view looking out wasn't so bad either!
I did say I was nervous about the edge, but I couldn't resist another last look. Laying down kept me from feeling like I might just blow off.
On one of the side trails we stood under this pile of layered rock.
Below - Running Ceder
Right before we were about to get back to the forest service road (Little Meadow), I spotted our first critter sighting. Clay was sprinting ahead of me and almost stepped on these guys. (We were pushing to get back home before the VT B-Ball game) Meanwhile, I kept stopping to take random pictures like the two pics above, and at first glance I thought I was looking at one snake, but then realized it had multiple heads. We counted three garter snakes.
2 comments:
I feel like I am gonna fall just looking at it in the picture :)
Woah! That is one STEEP cliff! Gorgeous views, though. :o)
Post a Comment