Sunday, Mother's Day, found us headed down Skyline Drive to Mathews Arm Campground to take advantage of a 24-hour break in the rain to hike to Overall Run Waterfall. Though the trail was muddy and had water running in it in places, and though we had to ford Overall Run in high water a few times, the weather could not have been nicer for our 8-plus mile hike. As a bonus for dealing with all that water, the falls had more water in them than I have ever seen in any photo.
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A Lot of Water in the Falls on Sunday |
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The 29' Cascade Just Before the Main Falls |
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The View from the Falls is Spectacular |
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Hummus, Provolone, and Canadian Bacon Wraps |
The trails in this area are confusing and not well marked and at one point, we went right when we should have gone left and ended up three-quarters of a mile later on the AT, a place that we did not really want to be. It was a pleasant back track to the correct trail, but it did add a mile and a half to our day. We ended up at the falls about 12:30 and after a morning of hard work, those hummus, provolone, and Canadian bacon wraps sure hit the spot.
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We Goofed a Turn and Ended at the AT in the Lower Right |
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Some Steep Sections |
The camera flattens out the perspective, but you can still see that this trail has some pretty steep sections as well as some creek fords.
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Annie Crossing Overall Run on the Way Back |
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Velvet Buck and a Doe Near the Campground |
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Star Chickweed |
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Winter Cress |
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Chicken of the Woods Resplendent in Dayglow Orange |
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Wood Betony |
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Bluets |
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Lots and Lots of Squawroot on This Trail |
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Rue Anemone |
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An Unknown Type of Wild Parsnip |
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Birdfoot Violet |
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Wild Azalea |
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Mountain Laurel Starting to Bud Out |
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Wild Geranium Everywhere |
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Showy Orchis |
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Found a Big Patch of Wood Anemone |
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One of the Bellworts, not Sure Which |
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I Was Surprised to See Vetch in the Woods |
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Choke Cherry in Full Bloom |
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Ragwort in the Campground |
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We Were Serenaded by Several Catbirds in the Campground |
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We Found Ourselves in a Flock of American Redstarts |
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A Very Late Blooming Dogwood |
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Very Tired Annie with a Glass of Barolo on our Patio |
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One of Only About Ten Wisteria Blooms This Year |
On the way back, we stopped at Costco to get a bottle of Barolo, a loaf of bread and some tomatoes as well as to fill up on gas. After showers, we collapsed into chairs on the patio under the now leafed out wisteria. Because of the hard freeze a few weeks back, we have about ten blooms among the three vines when we should have hundreds. Once the sun started to go down and it started to chill, we came in and devoured bruschetta topped with tomatoes in balsamic vinegar and passed out at 8:30pm. Note to self, in current state of conditioning, two glasses of wine on top of 8+ miles is a buttkicker!
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