Compton Peak/Skyline Drive

On Sunday, we took advantage of the really beautiful weather to go down to Skyline Drive and hike from Compton Gap up to Compton Peak and have lunch at the top. We picked this hike because it is only about two and a half miles in length with only 800 feet of elevation gain, fairly flat for this part of the world. Given how out of shape we are, this is all we needed to bite off on this particular day, especially since I spent the last two nights working the front of the house at the restaurant and running constantly.

Glen Manor Vineyards From Above

We stopped at a couple overlooks on our way to the Compton Gap parking lot, including the Gooney Manor overlook, which looks straight down onto Jeff and Kelly's winery. I shot them this picture from the road and they invited us to dinner, but we were already back in Winchester by the time we got the invite.

Rocks, The AT has Rocks

From the parking lot, we headed south down the Appalachian Trail and up Compton Peak. The going up the hill was slow at times as we were walking on loose rock in many places. Still the AT through Shenandoah National Park is one of the flatter and better manicured sections.

View Northwest from Compton Peak

Near the top, a small trail crosses the AT, the one branch going to the rocks at the peak in about two tenths of a mile and the other branch going down a very steep slope to a rock formation with no view. We sat in the breeze on the rocks at the peak and ate our picnic lunch: some peanuts and dried cherries, a little Mezzo Secco Monterey Jack from Vella Cheese Company, a couple slices each of two different salame, and the last few pluots of the year.

American Mountain-Ash

At the top, I saw a small tree/shrub that was similar to a sumac in full fruit, but I know how to identify all four kinds of sumac that grow in this part of the world and this was not one of those four. The leaves were slightly wrong and the fruit was all wrong. Sumac fruit does not look like Nandina berries as this does. This is the American Mountain-Ash, Sorbus americana, cousin to the European Mountain-ash that is often referred to as the Rowan.

Columnar Basalt

At the other end of the trail, which I visited while Ann rested at the crossroads on the AT, is a large basaltic rock formation which when viewed from the bottom displays what geologists call columnar jointing. Basically, when certain types of lava cool, they shrink and the shrinking causes them to crack in vertical columns. The columns are roughly hexagonal or pentagonal in shape. Each of the columns you see here is about half a meter to two-thirds of a meter in diameter. The honeycomb shape is unlike anything I have ever seen before.

The climb down was steep and the climb up was worse! As I neared the AT on my way back up the hill, I could hear Ann talking animatedly with someone. It turns out that a thru-hiker and his dog had stopped for a few minutes on their way north. It seems to me that he must be pretty far behind schedule, given that most folks are aiming for the halfway point at Harper's Ferry by July 4th. He is still 3-4 days out of Harper's Ferry more than a week into August. He's going to have a hell of a hurry to get to Katahdin before Baxter State Park closes for the season on October 15th. He might make it yet: he came blowing by us a few minutes later at nearly a jog, a good 4-5 miles per hour.

Picnic at Sky Meadows

Sky Meadows State Park is a jewel of a small park about 20 minutes from Winchester and nestled up on the eastern flanks of the Blue Ridge in Fauquier County. I had intended to take Ann there on our very first date three years ago, but the weather did not cooperate and we enjoyed our picnic at the island in her (now our) kitchen. Ann's been on some meds recently that preclude her drinking any alcohol—poor dear—so I decided that this just might be the weekend to go to the park, where alcohol is prohibited.

View from Overlook, Just Below Appalachian Trail

We hiked from the parking lot, proving to ourselves just how out of shape we are, up to the overlook just below the Appalachian Trail. Two days later, my calves are still sore!

Splendid Dogwood, the Only Trees Turning Color

On the way up through the cow pasture, we took breaks at opportune locations including by this gorgeous dogwood. Dogwoods are the only trees turning color now, though some persimmons in other locations were showing a flash of red. Poison ivy is turning red now as are sumacs, but there are no sumacs up at this elevation.

Bumper Crop of Persimmons This Year

The chef in me is always excited about wild edibles and I couldn't resist showing Ann all the good things to eat on the way up to the top. Persimmons were everywhere and the crop of pawpaws is good as well. We've been serving pawpaws at the restaurant for about three weeks, but none of these at elevation were yet ripe. We also saw lots of rose hips, black walnuts, and hickory nuts just screaming to be foraged.

Lots of Pawpaws This Year Too, Alas None Ripe

Ann and Mystery Flower

During our drive out, we passed big fields of goldenrod in all their fall glory and as we got closer to the park, big fields of another golden flower that I couldn't recognize from a distance. We got up close and personal with it at the park and it looks for all the world like a Helianthus, a sunflower, similar to a Jerusalem artichoke, but with a different flower.

Olive Oil, Focaccia, Olli Calabrese, Boerenkaas, Figs

Picnic at Meem's Bottom Bridge

For a very long time, Ann has wanted me to take her to see Meem's Bottom Bridge, one of the few remaining covered bridges in Virginia, in Shenandoah County just south of Mt. Jackson. And Saturday being the big climax of the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester, it seemed like a great day to escape from the madness, have a quiet picnic away from the crowds, and take in the bridge.

One problem with our planned picnic was that we're still in winter mode at home with nothing but red wine on hand, not exactly what the doctor ordered for light picnic fare on a warm, muggy day that seemed to promise to become really hot. And after 8am on Saturday morning, it would be impossible to reach the restaurant to grab some white wine: the streets are all barricaded in advance of the big parade.

Finally it dawned on me that we could avoid Winchester altogether by heading south on 522 to Front Royal and thence by 340 to Glen Manor Vineyards where we could get some Petit Manseng and some Sauvignon Blanc. On our way out the door, we put together a small feast of casalingo, chorizo, cheese, olives, grapes, and a few slices of lamb terrine. Ann baked a delicious loaf of bread for the day and it rode south with us still cooling in the back seat. Neoprene wine insulating bags, check; corkscrew, check; blanket, check; napkins, check; bottles of water, check; knife, check.

And so we arrived at Glen Manor and chatted with both Jeff and Kelly for a few minutes before following the south fork of the Shenandoah River to Luray via Browntown and Bentonville. Wine, check.

At Luray we took 211 west past the Caverns and climbed up Massanutten Mountain from Page Valley through New Market Gap and down into the main part of the Shenandoah Valley to New Market. With Great North Mountain on our left and Signal Knob on our right, we headed north on the old valley pike from New Market towards Mt. Jackson. Meem's Bottom Bridge lies just south of Mt. Jackson over the north fork of the Shenandoah River.

Turning west off the pike, we drove down the long allée of sugar maples to the bridge. Once there under the shade of a massive sugar maple and an even more massive black walnut, we realized that it was a touch chilly. The day had turned out overcast, cool, and threatening rain, but it sure didn't start that way.

And we also realized: wine glasses, uh, uh, no check! Doh! Jeff's 2011 dry Petit Manseng is a thing of beauty. It is hard to imagine a more perfect picnic wine and I imagine we will sell a lot of it at the restaurant this summer.

 

Doh!

She's a Happy Girl!

200-Foot Arch Truss: Pretty Cool

I Love This Shot and This Woman!