Salmon Cakes

I'm starting to get back in the habit of taking Tuesday and Wednesday evenings off to spend with Ann if business is slow enough and slow enough early week it has been. After some back and forth about eating in or eating out, we decided on eating in.

In trying to find something healthy to eat for dinner, I remembered that I had a couple sides of small Steelhead Trout in the refrigerator and had just scored some amazing small cucumbers at the farmers market. Pretty quickly I arrived at salmon cakes with cucumber salad.

Salmon Cakes in the Pan

Salmon cakes really could not be any easier to make. The exact flavorings are different each time that I make them. I skinned the fish, cubed it, and tossed it in the food processor with some whole grain mustard, two minced shallots, a big bunch of chopped dill from the garden, and a big handful of capers. I processed it to the consistency you see in the pan above and then formed it into four-ounce cakes, which I cooked to crispy on the outside and medium rare in the middle. I see all kinds of recipes that include egg and breading to help hold the cakes together. This is about as necessary as egg and bread in hamburgers to help them hold together.

Salmon and Cucumbers, a Classic Combination

The cucumber salad is equally trivial to make. After slicing the cucumbers thinly, I added just a little Greek yogurt, a little sugar, a little rice vinegar, and a little salt. End of story. Delicious!

Buzzard Rock/Christina's Café

Of all the places we have hiked this spring including the Smokies, the Buzzard Rock trail very near to us between Strasburg and Front Royal is so far my favorite. I think it was a combination of a spectacularly clear day, the awesome rock formations of Buzzard Rock, and the phenomenal views of Fort Valley, Passage Creek, and Signal Knob.

Statuesque Dwarfed Pine; Looking at Signal Knob Across Fort Valley

To put things in perspective, the Shenandoah Valley is not one big broad valley as is commonly supposed. Between the outer boundaries of the Blue Ridge (where Skyline Drive is) and the Alleghenies (Great North Mountain along the Virginia-West Virginia border) you will find Massanutten Mountain which runs north-south right down the valley and parallel to the larger flanking ranges. It runs from about Harrisonburg in the south to Strasburg/Front Royal in the north, where we hiked. Massanutten Mountain forks into two arms on the northern end; the phenomenally gorgeous and very narrow Fort Valley sits between the two northern arms, over which Buzzard Rock looms on the eastern arm and Signal Knob reigns on the western arm. Passage Creek winds down the middle of Fort Valley, flowing south to north as do all waters in the Shenandoah Valley, trying to make their escape to the Atlantic at Harper's Ferry, WV.

We left Winchester about 7:55 and arrived at the trailhead about 8:30, turning east out of Strasburg on route 55, then south on Fort Valley Road, and then east again on Mountain Road and just past the Front Royal Fish Hatchery. The trailhead is not super well marked, but I expected this and we had no problem finding it. We were about the fourth car in the small parking area that had about 15 cars when we came back down off the mountain.

Tiny Trailhead Sign Hidden Behind Tree

The trailhead is on the very northern edge of the George Washington National Forest and so there are houses around the trailhead. It was fairly surreal in the afternoon coming back down the mountain after just having seen a black bear to hear the sounds of a lawnmower in action. But in the early morning, all was calm and serene as we loaded up and headed into the woods. Along the trail near the parking lot, I saw the first yarrow of the season in bloom. There will be lots of other opportunities to photograph it as the summer goes on.

Fleabane All Around Parking Lot

Ditto Oxeye Daisy

We Climbed About Halfway to Shawl Gap

Into the deeper woods, we came across a single Wild Blue Indigo plant and thickets of Enchanter's Nighshade. More frequent however were vast patches of Longleaf Summer Bluets (all blooms white and not blue) on both sides of the trail at the lower elevations. The blooms are so tiny that I'm having difficulty photographing them. iPhone next time.

Small Blue Indigo

Enchanter's Nightshade

After a mile and a half or so, the trail started to climb and the trees started to change over from the beech-oak forest through which we had been walking to a higher elevation mixed oak and pine scrub forest with azalea, rhododendron, blueberries, and mountain laurel. As we rounded the northern flank of the mountain, we came upon a spectacular view looking north over the fish hatchery towards Winchester.

Front Royal Fish Hatchery 400 Feet Below

Yoga Warrior in Action

Strike a Pose

Climbing south up the spine of the ridge was fun. There is something I like about hiking the spine of a mountain where everything drops away from me on both sides, a feeling of being on top of the world. Soon enough, we emerged through the trees onto the really rocky spine of the mountain. We found in some places the trail wasn't really a trail but a scramble through rocks with no clearly demarcated trail. As we headed south, our right feet were in Shenandoah County and our left feet were in Warren County.

Trail? What Trail?

Trekking Poles No Good Here

The views at the top were spectacular as we emerged into full sun to find several formations of nearly upright sandstone. I cannot even begin to imagine the force required to take this rock and shove it nearly vertical. We could see 180 degrees from the town of Fort Valley in the south to Winchester in the north, across Fort Valley to Signal Knob to our west, with Passage Creek and Fort Valley Road 650 feet below us. In places the cliffs dropped away for hundreds of feet below us. No doubt this is a popular spot with rock climbers.

Signal Knob

Looking South Down Fort Valley

North Towards Winchester

Again, North Towards Winchester

Passage Creek and Fort Valley Road 650 Feet Below

We reached the top by 10am and were not ready to call it a day, so we continued along the ridgeline perhaps a mile further south towards Shawl Gap. We saw a lot more birds along the ridgeline than I might have imagined, including a Turkey Vulture gliding below us red head gleaming in the sun, Indigo Buntings calling from lookouts, a brilliant male Scarlet Tanager serenading us, and lots of Barn Swallows following the mountains looking for bugs.

Wild Blueberries Nearing Ripeness

At one point along the ridge, we came to a sunny opening that contained pink flowers that I could see for several yards ahead. I thought they were Wood Vetch until closer inspection. They turned out to be Goat's Rue, which is a fairly uncommon wildflower in much of its range in the Eastern US. The blueberry crop is heavy and is starting to ripen. The bears are going to be very happy over the next few weeks with so much easy forage.

Goat's Rue

About a mile down the trail, we decided that because of time constraints, we needed to head back to the car, after first stopping back at Buzzard's Rock to eat lunch. We found our first and only view looking east at this point in the direction of the Warren County Airport with the Page Valley expanding to the south below Front Royal. While looking out at the Blue Ridge in the distance, we saw a small plane towing a sail plane aloft from the airport. Eagle eye that Ann is, she also spotted a Zebra Swallowtail which landed at our feet. These butterflies use Pawpaws as their host plants. I didn't see any Pawpaws on our walk.

Photographing the Photographer

Zebra Swallowtail

Heading back down the mountain towards the car, we came upon patches of Rattlesnake Weed that we missed in the morning with their highly variegated green and purple basal leaves and golden yellow blooms suspended high above those leaves. This flower has evaded me in the past. It has always been too dark, too windy, or both to get a decent photograph. I also saw three or four clumps of Striped Wintergreen in full bloom, but again, it was too dark to get a reasonable photo.

Rattlesnake Weed

Sulfur Cinquefoil

We got off the trail around 2:30pm with a couple hours to spare before we had to be back in Winchester to deliver Carter to Shenandoah University for a week-long leadership program, and as Ann said, we had a "thirst that needed to be quenched" and the place to do that was Christina's Café in Strasburg, about 10 minutes from the trailhead.

Bell's Two-Hearted Ale and Port City Optimal Wit

I started with a draft Bell's Two-Hearted Ale, an old standby if I can't find something more interesting, and Ann tried a Port City Optimal Wit from Alexandria. For round two, our server recommended that I try the Southern Tier 2xIPA double IPA also on draft. Ann chose a cider from California that she found a bit too dry for her liking. The double IPA was really out of balance with a skunky hop flavor that was not at all balanced by the malt.

Southern Tier 2xIPA and Sonoma Cider "The Hatchet"

I hear that we are hiking the other side of Fort Valley next weekend, up to Signal Knob. I'm really looking forward to that climb and if it is anything nearly as spectacular as this walk was, it will be a wonderful day.

Lunch Date/Fresh Pasta

Yesterday was unusual for a Monday in that my truck was in the shop and Ann kindly ferried me about. Though it was a pain in her ass, it did afford us the opportunity to have lunch together, something that rarely happens. After bringing the weekly haul from Costco back to the restaurant, we decided to have lunch at Thai Winchester while waiting for my truck to get done.

Happy to be on a Date

Lager and Spicy Food, Hard to Beat

Summer Rolls

Cellophane Noodle Salad

Krapow Gai Sub

We really enjoyed sitting outside yesterday: despite the blazing sun, the temperature was moderate for this time of year especially in the shade of an umbrella and the breeze was wonderful. It was 3:00 by the time lunch was done and my truck was not ready, so we headed home. We put on Game of Thrones from Sunday night and had just about finished watching it when I got the call that my truck was ready.

We planned to take a walk after getting my truck, but by the time we got back to the house, it was still too hot, so we decided to push the walk out to about 6:00 to take advantage of the sun's being lower on the horizon. It still wasn't very cool and there were parts of our 4-mile walk that really dragged as we were in full sun. Nonetheless, we made it and back home, headed for cool showers before starting to make dinner.

I had made some fresh pasta at the restaurant on Saturday for my tasting menu and was teasing Ann by sending her pictures. She told me in so many words that if I knew what was good for me, I would bring some home. And so I brought a ball of dough and the pasta machine home. Annie got a lesson in rolling and cutting fresh pasta. I figured that being a card-carrying Italian that she would have been well versed in pasta, but apparently not. No excuses now!

Rolling Pasta, Batches of Noodles Tossed in Semolina

Cutting Noodles

I'm not the world's biggest fan of fresh pasta, being a box pasta kind of guy, but this fresh pasta that I made with local duck eggs was outstanding! That I haven't had pasta in months didn't hurt, I'm sure.

Freshly Cut Tagliatelle for Dinner!

Whiteoak Canyon

Knowing we wanted to get up and get out early on Sunday to avoid the heat, somehow my body woke itself at 6:54am when all it wanted to do was sleep off the hard dinner service from the night before. While I was getting the dogs taken care of, Ann pulled herself together and we were out the door just slightly before 7:30 headed for Whiteoak Canyon in Madison County just south of Old Rag.

Whiteoak Canyon can be hiked from basically two different locations. At the top of the hill on Skyline Drive or from the bottom of the hill near Old Rag. We decided to start at the bottom of the hill and walk up, leaving the second half of our day to be downhill. I pity the bastards that started at the top of the hill and had to finish by walking uphill all the way.

Winding our west south and west of Sperryville, we reached the trailhead parking about 8:45. I saw several fields on the way in with signs reading "Parking $10" and I noted that the parking lot for the trail was enormous. There were a half a dozen cars there when we arrived and checked in with the ranger on duty in the little hut at the end of the parking lot.

We got ourselves all saddled up and headed into woods on a very flat but extremely wide trail. I should have put together the parking situation and the very wide trail to figure out how crowded this place would become later in the day, but my math skills were a bit fuzzy on short sleep.

Lowland Forest at the Beginning of the Trail

Baby Cucumber Tree with 12-15" Leaves

The first part of the walk was naturally uphill along Robinson River but really pretty flat, all things considered, up to the first waterfall and large pool, the so-called Lower Falls. When we got there, Ann, never shy around a body of water, headed straight in. The lower pool is a couple feet deep and maybe ten by fifteen yards, a nice little swimming hole. It was peaceful and a great place to sit for a few minutes.

Lower Falls

Annie Did Not Enjoy Herself

Second Fall

Beyond the second fall, we started to climb pretty quickly and as we climbed the scenery changed entirely, leaving the lowland forest behind in favor of a lot more rock and higher elevation flora. My favorite stretch was along a dry sunny clifftop where a lot of flowers were blooming unlike along the majority of the shaded wooded trail where the only thing blooming were viburnums. I have been watching heucheras for the last several weeks waiting for them to bloom and finally that has happened. Ditto for Mountain Laurel. Bumblebees were busy working the penstemons and I saw a low shrub that is new to me, New Jersey Tea, Ceanothus americanus, that was blooming profusely in many locations, mainly dry areas. The best sight of the day for me was a sea of low roses growing out on the cliff rock. Standing about a foot tall with single pink five-petaled blossoms, I thought they were geraniums from a distance.

Heuchera americana in Full Bloom

Bumblebee in Penstemon canescens

Lots of Tiny Wild Roses with 2" Blooms

Finally, Mountain Laurel in Full Bloom

New Jersey Tea, Ceanothus americanus

Halfway up to the top falls, we stopped at an inviting place in the river, a rock shelf where Ann kicked back for a few minutes while I looked around. There was a crazy chute between a couple of rocks where the water was flying. And speaking of flying, lots and lots of butterflies flitted about us while we were out on the rocks. I don't think I have ever seen as many butterflies in one place before, aside from a butterfly house. As we were leaving, I saw a tiny ring-necked snake scurry from one rock to another, notable because they are generally not out and about during the day time.

Water Moving Rapidly Through Chute

Living the Life!

A long weary trudge led us to the upper falls through some very steep terrain. We noticed really how steep several sections were when we had to come back down through them after lunch. As you can see in the photo below, the upper falls are beautiful but really not the most interesting. We had been led to believe that the uppermost fall was the most spectacular; however, we found the lower two falls to be the most picturesque.

The Uppermost Fall

Warrior Ann

At the head of the top fall, we had a brief lunch on a rock in the river and then turned around and headed back down the hill to the car. From the top of the falls, we could have gone one of two ways: back down the hill the way we came or across the hillside on a fire road to pick up the Cedar Run Trail that also goes back down the hill. We decided to go back down the way we came because neither of us are big fans of fire roads, though in retrospect in reading about the Cedar Run Trail, we may have missed a wonderful opportunity to see a wilder side of this walk with some equally impressive water features on Cedar Run. We're definitely going to have to go back and do the Cedar Run Trail. The spectacular scenery will make this an absolute hardship.

Black and Tiger Swallowtails Drinking

Nearly at the bottom, one particular Tiger Swallowtail, the Virginia State Butterfly, of the hundreds I had seen during the day, caught my attention and as I followed its flight, it dipped behind a rock. When I peered over the rock, I saw many dozen Tigers and a few Black Swallowtails drinking in the shale alongside a small creek.

Down below the first pool, we were both glad that we had made an early start. The pool that we had to ourselves in the morning was filled with screaming kids and people were coming up the path in dozens. This must be the local water hole as accessible as it is. I doubt many of these people ventured higher up on the hill. I was truly glad to be back in the parking lot, because although the trip was downhill all the way, it was really, really tough on my knees to the point where each step was painful. I've said it before and I'll say it again, "I hate downhill."

Though we had just eaten a couple hours earlier, the word ravenous would be a great word to describe us after the hike. And thirsty. Beer thirsty. "I just finished a grueling hike and I would love a glass of wine," said no one ever. We had it in mind to stop at the Thornton River Grille in Sperryville to grab a late lunch and a beer. And so we arrived at 2:50, not knowing that they close at 3:00. There isn't cell phone service in the area so there was no way of checking and we would have never gone that close to closing had we known. But we didn't and we were there and it was obvious from her body language that our server was pissed that we were there. She let us know that the kitchen would be closing in 10 minutes and then she left. As in said goodbye to someone in the back and got in her car and left. Being in the business, I understand the sentiment when at the end of a long shift when you are tired and ready to go, a last-minute table walks in. But I will personally strangle any employee of mine who acts like that. After a couple of serverless minutes, we got up and left.

Although we thought about stopping at the Griffin Tavern in Flint Hill, based on the so-so last meal we had there, I decided to keep going to Pavemint Taphouse in Front Royal where we got our beer fix while deciding what to eat. I started with a Sierra Nevada Hoptimum Imperial IPA and Ann had an Allagash White. For round two, I had an Evolution PINE’HOP’LE IPA which sounded weird but tasted pretty good, the subtle pineapple working in tandem with the citrusy hops. Ann had a blackberry cider from Cobbler Mountain Cellars in Delaplane. I had a Whisky Melt burger and Ann got the fish and chips.

Whisky Melt Burger

Fish and Chips

Ravenous Annie