You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
Early October, two of our favorite walks amid packing up for our trip
This doesn't count as a favorite walk -- we're just strolling over to the Gypsy Hill Park, and a demonic rainstorm is about to catch up with us.
We'll just make a quick circuit of the Gypsy Hill duck pond and then . . .
. . . skedaddle.
A subsequent stroll round the Wharf District in Staunton, and a look at the vintage rail cars
The Augusta Springs Wetlands 'Uplands Trail'
This is a regular favorite for us, just 20 minutes west of Staunton at the foot of the mountains, an easy 45 minute or hour bit of healthful exercise.
From 1817 into the 20th century, there was a well-known resort hotel here, with clientele from all over and a regular stagecoach out from Staunton for the guests. It had its own theatre, casino, dances, carriage rides, sports, and what not, and served as a hospital for Stonewall Jackson's men in 1862. All of that is gone now, but the story is an interesting one, and we've recounted it several times after earlier visits; our most useful version, though, with period photographs, is probably this one from 2020.
This map shows the basic round-the-pond path, a third of it on boardwalk, but the 'Uplands Trail' is only shown by a hiking icon going up on the upper left and coming back down on the upper right.
We're off, 5 October 2024.
In September of last year, crews with some heavy machinery were removing nearly all of the vegetation from these fields, as they'd become dominated by an invasive species called Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata), and now we can see their careful restoration efforts.
Careful replanting makes that old mess really stand out.
They've done some work on this path as well, and it now looks more convincingly 'wheelchair accessible' than it had heretofore.
Whatever they've planted in the invasive's place, it's certainly aggressive in its own right.
Giving credit where credit is due?
[Ducks Unlimited, the US Forest Service, and the Virginia Dept of Wildlife Resources]
We've left the pond loop and started up the Uplands Trail. Usually, the past few years, we've left this first part of it, because it can often be rather muddy, and discovered a then-unmarked path that follows up the spine of the ridge to meet this one when it tops out and starts down the other side.
Today, however, no mud whatsoever, we've taken the original trail, in for about 20 minutes and now starting up to cross over the central ridge.
In Kristin's bag, what looks like lunch is actually just a book; I've got the latest New Scientist mag (cover story: 'Reclaiming Reality') tucked away in me pocket.
Topping out on the ridge, and then . . .
. . . descending down the much steeper path, very unpleasant for some of us. Now we're back on the floor-level path back out, with . . .
. . . just a quick glance at one of the 5 or 6 period cars that were dumped up in here back when there must have been some navigable way to do that. (Maybe this whole forest wasn't here at the time.)
This is the main spring, or the main remaining one, still channeled . . .
. . . down to the main pond.
This is our favorite reading bench in this place, reasonably comfy and sunlit, and with . . .
. . . a circumscribed view of the main pond. Out of season, it's a better view, and the shoreline can be better approached once all the green stuff has died off.
The Lake Sherando 'Cliff Trail'
It's still in season here, 6 October 2024, so we've paid in our $4 per car (it's normally $8 but we've got the geriatric pass) -- in any case there are very few people around.
Just one large, loud group of picnickers in the picnic area far over to the left, who at the moment are pouring lighter fluid onto their grill, with meter-high flames, and laughing hysterically. We won't be going over that way today anyway.
The visitors' lodge, with changing rooms, and rest rooms (which moments ago were described to us as 'disgusting'), and a gift shop that we have never seen to be open.
It's true that we're mostly here in the off-season, but the 'Closed' sign is the same faded handwritten piece of work.
But as this is the beginning of the Cliff Trail, we'll soon find the quiet environment we prefer.
-- Ready!
It's about a 20 minute casual walk up this gentle track to . . .
. . . the high point, identified on the map as a 'scenic viewpoint', but this is the view from the top of the scraggly cliffs. The lake, quite a ways down and off to the south, we've found to be much more satisfactorily viewable from here in winter.
(We did encounter a quite-heavy extended family group dawdling their way up the cliff's zigzags to see the famous view. Few of them looked happy, but with frequent rest stops, at least they can descend by the gentle path to the lodge.)
Kristin thoughtfully awaits us whilst we explain to the group's leader that the view is much improved in November.
Down through the cliffy zig-zags now for a while
Only once have we endeavored to reverse our normal course, last January, and plod back up from this end.
The so-called 'cliff', fortunately, is broken up into lots of wee little tiny cliffs, so management's clever path can zig-zag quite safely all the way down.
Except that we did come across a snake on the path once. But it was tiny and benign.
There's the little step that always gives one pause.
Nearly down
The beautiful lake
And though it's still in season, there are few people here, most notably . . .
. . . virtually no anglers.
We're walking back by the easier eastern shoreline path, the sooner to get to our reading bench.
Oddly, there are several places along this path (as well as the one on the other side of the lake) tramped out for fishermen and -women, and they're all vacant.
That's the only island, a lovely thing it is, too. We've always assumed that we're not be on it, but today we see at least three little parties lounging all over it.
Of course, they're all in swimsuits -- that makes a difference.
We almost braved our way out to the island semi-recently when they'd drained off a lot of the lake (for some very sensible reason, no doubt), and the bottom just in front of us here was revealed, just high and dry. Well, not really very dry -- the mud would certainly have claimed our sneakers, and possibly the rest of us as well.
Our favorite reading bench. There are a lot of benches scattered round this family part of the lake and amid the picnic facilities, but this one is 'a place apart'.
The visitors' centre with its trademark Civilian Conservation Corps architecture
-- Having fun yet?
At the bottom of the lake's own road onto Mt Torrey Rd, there's an abandoned old homestead, long gone, leaving just a chimney and a foundation. And now it's got an abandoned bus, too; the destination sign above the windshield just says 'Playboy'.
This part of rural Virginia is of course heavy-duty Trumpist country, it's useless (and perhaps dangerous) to ask why, but some potential reasons are everywhere.
Like this. Some of our back-country roads in Augusta and nearby counties have nearly as many abandoned homes by the roadsides as marginally livable ones.
There is, however, a grocery store. The Sherando Grocery.
This is a painting by June Jordan in our corridor, very unlike most of her work but interesting nonetheless.
Next up: We're off to Italy next week, for a month, but we'll resume our labors when we return.
Dwight Peck's personal website
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All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 7 October 2024.
