FIRST HIKES AFTER THE INJURY

Ann has been walking without her boot for two weeks now.  Last week we took a very short 1 mile stroll/hike along a part of the New River Trail beginning in Galax, a trail we had hiked back in May.

A week later we took an hour walk/hike, also along the New River Trail; this time from Cliff View.  In June we had biked along this portion of the trail.  The biggest difference this time was the lack of song birds serenading us.  It was very quiet and peaceful except for a few ravens announcing our presence from the treetops.

We noticed that the vegetation along the paths looked quite different than in early summer, when we were last on these trails.  This being September, there were some fall wildflowers in bloom.  First, Coneflower, 

Thistle,

Ironweed,

Jewelweed,

and finally, Goldenrod.  When we see this wildflower, we know that stuffy noses often follow!

We did see a white tail deer, a mature doe, come down and across the trail heading to the creek for an evening drink.  She was about 20 yards in front of us but, unfortunately, we were unable to get a photo.

It seemed like this butterfly was teasing us on the return portion of the hike.  We would take a few photos and he would fly off only to re-appear a hundred feet further up the trail.  Here is the best photos we were able to get.

We concluded our late afternoon hike with a cold beer and a brick oven pizza at Creek Bottom Brew Pub in Galax.  Their Warrior IPA is very flavorful, and the brick oven pizza is quite tasty.

We will begin our last few days of work before heading back to Florida.  Our return trip will take us west to Grayson Highlands State Park where we want to finish what we started in June.  We plan on hiking the Rhododendron Trail to see the wild ponies.  You may remember, we were rained out last time we were there.