I’m saddened that no one commented upon a common item in the last two posts: Seneca Rock and Spruce Knob.

I’m obviously too subtle for my own good.

Sunday would have been my cousin Ben’s 33rd birthday. My aunt and uncle held a memorial hike along the Appalachian Trail on Sunday, but I’ve felt very uncomfortable recently around groups of people I don’t know, so Michael and I chose to hike up Seneca Rocks, which is one of the first places he climbed.

There are two ways to get up Seneca Rocks: climb the face or hike from the side. We–unsurprisingly–chose the hike.

Here are some views of Seneca Rocks:

This is the end of the hiking path: only climbers with proper gear are supposed to go beyond here.

We also made the slightly more arduous hike (because it’s not a path, but a trail) to the base of the rock. We came in from the left, so it’s looking up at the lower face on the far left. Here’s a look upwards.

This is a gorgeous stream running below the rock face. One of the nice things about visiting state parks is the water ways tend to be clean and clear and unpolluted (ie, not orange from acid mine drainage, which used to be the state of all the creeks local to Morgantown.)

Here’s the view from the observation deck:

And here’s a sign that caught my fancy. You could see several areas of erosion where people took “shortcuts.”

Since we made an actual weekend of our trip (staying overnight instead of just a day trip) we had our leisure to visit several of the parks and recreation areas.

Spruce Knob is West Virginia’s highest peak. We did not hike to the top, but instead drove (I believe it’s an 11 mile hike).

Despite being the end of May, it was quite cold–there was even ice on the ground under the observation tower. But it was also gorgeous, and there were not many people, so one could actually get a sense of the isolation of the area.

It’s nice to be in a mostly wild area, and not see or hear other humans.

Mind you, it’s not quiet in these areas–nature isn’t particularly silent–just peaceful.

Coming back down from Spruce Knob, we made the mistake of listening to the GPS, which kept wanting us to turn down roads marked “Private! No Trespassing!” or overgrown dirt roads.

On the other hand, it was an absolutely gorgeous drive.

We also took a short hike at Dolly Sods

We also saw many signs of Superstorm Sandy. There are some trails throughout the various state parks that are still closed, and we had to clamber over several downed trees on some of the trails.

And there was plenty of beauty to admire.

Today’s word is: hope

Happy Birthday Jules!

I can’t believe you’re three already!

Perhaps my interest in decay is unhealthy, but it’s fascinating to see how quickly the monuments of man disintegrate.

At Seneca Rocks.

Cool Springs Park along Route 50. We’ve stopped here before. It’s still fascinating.

Played around with processing some of these pictures as black & white. Any thoughts?

From this weekend:

Thank you, to all who served.

We spent the day together–as in, with the exception of Rooms of Resting, we weren’t more an a few steps from each other for the entire day.

Which is why Michael is annoyed by our step totals.

Michelle: 19647 steps

Michael: 17503 steps

I WIN!!!!!

ADDENDUM the First:
I have, in fact, hit 20k steps since we got home.

In honor of yesterday’s update to xkcd, today’s word is baobab.

The xkcd comic Time is still continuing, and I was quite surprised by this discovery.

I do believe that is a baobab tree, which means they are not in North America or Europe.

Here’s the updating animated(?) image so you can get caught up.

ADDENDUM the First:

HA!

First up, the marvelous Gina, hanging out with Ricky Martin the Metal Chicken, and Ada Lovelace the Metal Chick.

So sweet!
 
 

Wednesday I went overboard.
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Today’s word is in honor of Tania, who sent me the BEST dinosaur art: T-Rex