One of the things I wanted to do these trips was to visit some places we hadn’t before. We were focused for awhile on visiting all the state parks & forests, so we hadn’t explored as much of the national forests as I’d have liked. We’ve started remedying that.

Harmon rocks are located just outside the Monongahela National Forest, with no signs and up a very steep and rocky gravel road. (Other vehicles could drive it, our Corolla? Not so much.) In fact we were initially unsure we were in the right place, but parked next two a truck with two gentleman and two hound dogs who had been out hunting bear all day, and they told us the rocks were straight up the hill (the road was, of course, all switchbacks). One gentleman didn’t seem convinced when we said we were good with walking up the hill, but it was less than a mile, and I said we’d already hiked up Seneca Rocks that day, so we’d be fine.

Which we were. Although a little out of breath at the top.

Location: Harmon Rocks
Distance: 1.6 miles (out and back from road)
Elevation: 3527-4151 feet (624 feet climb)
Grade: 18%

The view was well worth the slog up to the top.

There is a trail of sorts there. But it’s more like a rough path hacked out of the rhododendron and mountain laurel. I don’t really recommend it.

The view was marvelous.

I’m not sure I’d want to make the hike up there again, but it really was well-worth the visit.

This was more of a short wander than a hike, but the colors were better from Spruce Knob.

Also, it was warmer than I have ever known it to be at Spruce Knob. I normally wear multiple layers, and last visit, at the end of May, I was wearing gloves to be more comfortable. Saturday it was in the lower seventies.

Location: Spruce Knob
Trail: Whispering Spruce Trail
Distance: 0.6 miles
Elevation: 4865-4935 feet
Temperature: 72 F

You can see the color change moving down the mountainside here.

And here, some beautiful color.

You really can see quite far from the highest point in WV.

A beautiful walk.

We decided a long weekend was in order, to enjoy the clear skies and the color changes in the Monongahela Forest.

It was far warmer than it should have been, and the color change in this area wasn’t much, but it was still a beautiful hike.

Location: Seneca Rocks
Trail: Seneca Rocks Trail
Distance: 3.6 miles
Elevation: 1670-2503 feet (829 ft elevation)
Grade: 9.7%
Temperature: 74-80

It’s mid-September, which means some areas in WV are starting to see leaf change. Color change was just starting in the Cranberry Wilderness, which was pretty, however the day was overcast, so it wasn’t good for taking pictures of the landscape.

It was, however, still a lovely day for a hike.

Location: Cranberry Wilderness
Trails: North Fork, West Fork Trails
Distance: 7.5 miles
Elevation: 3766-4425 feet (751 feet rise)
Temperature: 63-52 F

These two trails are old forest roads, so although we dropped in elevation, it was a relatively gentle drop. It was also very interesting so see the wilderness taking over the old road.

The Middle Fork Trail followed the Middle Fork of the Williams river, and since you’re heading down the mountain, the Middle Fork gets bigger as you go.

You can see the color starting to move down the mountain.

Here is the Glade itself, looking off the boardwalk. If there had been sunlight, it would have been even more stunning. But even without it is impressive.

Please enjoy some hot butterfly on flower action.

Saturday was a perfect day for a hike. After great debate, we headed to the Seneca Rocks-Spruce Knob area to hike at Seneca Creek Backcountry.

Location: Seneca Creek Backcountry
Trail: Swallow Rock Trail
Distance: 4.6 miles
Elevation: 3060-4039 feet (1139 ft elevation gain)
Avg Grade: 8.1%
Temperature: 55-58 F

The trails we’ve hiked at Seneca Creek Backcountry are out and back hikes that start at the bottom of the mountain and go up to the Allegheny Mountain Trail.

Unlike the other trail we hiked, there were not photogenic spots, so I took zero pictures. But it was a lovely hike, and one I would recommend.

Even if next time I’ll pick a trail with vistas for taking pictures.

Another month of a lot of reading–the weather was hot at the beginning of the month, and then events conspired to keep us at home on weekends towards the end of the month.

I did a fair amount of re-reading this month, mostly historical romances and mysteries. For some reason I’ve been in the mood for books that remind me how glad I am to live in the future.

My recommendations from this month’s reading? Let’s start with Mockingbird. This is marvelous and delightful, but it did take a second reading for me to be way less confused. It is NOT for kids, but it is wonderful. What’s especially fascinating is the contrast between the Mockingbird and New Avengers portion of the second volume. I adore Mockingbird, but have no interesting in reading New Avengers, even if that did help clarify just what had happened to her.

If you like geek heroines, then I highly recommend checking out Courtney Milan. You’ll find an evolutionary biologist (botany), an astronomer, and a suffragette. Plus a fabulous doctor.

If you want characters that are outside the normal heroes and heroines, you’ll find virgin heroes, heroes with dyslexia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, PTSD, a history of substance abuse, and characters with a history of ruin (including a former courtesan), what would be called today autism spectrum disorder, and characters of color and non-WASP ancestry. She really is marvelous.

An unexpected delight was Alissa Johnson’s third book in her Thief-Takers series, A Dangerous Deceit, where the heroine has hearing issues (the previous two books are also marvelous, where the heroines are sisters with a criminal past). And I really enjoyed re-reading Michelle Diener‘s Regency series, which are mysteries with strong and unusual heroines.

And although I listened to the audio version of the second book, if you haven’t read Paul Cornell‘s Shadow Police series, you are truly missing out on some fantastic urban fantasy.

Historical Romance

The Brothers Sinister
The Duchess War (2012) Courtney Milan
A Kiss for Midwinter (2012) Courtney Milan
The Heiress Effect (2013) Courtney Milan
The Countess Conspiracy (2013) Courtney Milan
The Suffragette Scandal (2014) Courtney Milan
Talk Sweetly to Me (2014) Courtney Milan
The Turner Series
Unveiled (2011) Courtney Milan
Unclaimed (2011) Courtney Milan
Unraveled (2011) Courtney Milan
The Worth Saga
Once Upon a Marquess (2015) Courtney Milan
Her Every Wish (2016) Courtney Milan
Rules of Scoundrels
A Rogue by Any Other Name (2012) Sarah MacLean
One Good Earl Deserves a Lover (2013) Sarah MacLean
No Good Duke Goes Unpunished (2013) Sarah MacLean
Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover (2014) Sarah MacLean
Scandal & Scoundrel
The Rogue Not Taken (2015) Sarah MacLean (6.5/10)

Audio Book

Shadow Police
The Severed Streets: Audio Version (2014/2015) Paul Cornell narrated by Damian Lynch
Soulwood
Blood of the Earth, Audio Version (2016) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam
Curse on the Land, Audio Version (2016) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam

Graphic Novel

Rivers of London: Detective Stories #2: Old Soldiers (2017) Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan, Luis Guerrero, Gary Erskine, Yel Zamor
Rivers of London: Detective Stories #3: Cry Me a River (2017) by Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan, Luis Guerrero
Mockingbird Vol. 1: I Can Explain (2016) Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Ibrahim Moustafa, Joelle Jones (9/10)
Mockingbird Vol. 2: My Feminist Agenda (2017) Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Sean Parsons, Rachelle Rosenberg (8/10)

Historical Mystery

The Thief-Takers
A Talent for Trickery (2015) Alissa Johnson
A Gift for Guile (2016) Alissa Johnson
A Dangerous Deceit (2017) Alissa Johnson (8.5/10)
Regency London
The Emperor’s Conspiracy (2012) Michelle Diener
Banquet of Lies (2013) Michelle Diener
A Dangerous Madness (2014) Michelle Diener

Mystery

Inspector Montalbano
A Nest of Vipers (2013/2017) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli (written in 2008) (7/10)

Supernatural Romance

The Edge
Steel’s Edge (2012) Ilona Andrews

As usual, I read (or re-read) mostly eBooks, with the paper exceptions being comics, which I strongly prefer in paper format, since I miss a lot of things otherwise (I can’t really get the whole page with ebooks, and it’s a PITA to flip back and forth to check things.)

Trade Paperback: 2
eBook: 26
Audio: 3

Multiple Formats: 5
Re-read: 24

Genre-wise, it was a LOT of historicals this month.

Fantasy: 7
Mystery: 10
Romance: 22
Comic: 4

And this was the month female authors caught back up (what with all the historicals).

Male: 4 (39% for the year)
Female: 24 (41% for the year)
Joint + Anthology: 3

And that wraps up the books of August.

Textile Mills

Factories

Fields

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

Chimney Sweeps

Mining

Come all of you good workers,
Good news to you I’ll tell
Of how the good old union
Has come in here to dwell.

My daddy was a miner
And I’m a miner’s son,
And I’ll stick with the union
‘Til every battle’s won.

They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there;
You’ll either be a union man,
Or a thug for J. H. Blair.

Oh workers can you stand it?
Oh tell me how you can.
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?

Just a reminder what we’re celebrating today.

It was a gorgeous day for a hike in Canaan. And also for wandering around Davis, after eating ice cream.

Location: Canaan Mountain Backcountry
Trail: Table Rock Trail
Distance: 2.3 miles
Elevation: 3385-3500 feet
Temperature: 72 F

Most of our hiking was with small people this weekend, so they were short, easy hikes.

We did do one hike for ourselves–I’ve wanted for awhile to scramble down to the falls that are visible across the gorge from Pendleton Point. So, we did.

The Canaan Valley SP hike is one I highly recommend for small people. It’s short, it’s relatively flat, and it’s gorgeous.

Location: Canaan Valley State Park
Trail: Blackwater River Trail
Distance: 0.9 miles
Elevation: 3252-3337 feet

Here’s the hike we did for me.

Location: Blackwater Falls
Trail: Elekala Falls and off trail
Distance: 0.9 miles
Elevation: 3031-3219 feet

Here are the main falls, the ones directly below the lodge.

The next set of falls:

Next falls down:

Hey look! Pendleton Point!

And finally the section of falls visible from Pendleton Point:

The scramble wasn’t awful, but the rhododendron is thick, which always makes things difficult.

I wouldn’t mind going down when it was a little drier, just so I could explore a little more. (This is me: I refuse to clamber along falls when there is a fast flow of water. Because I’m not a complete idiot.)

Where on earth did the summer go? Jeesh.

Favorite reads of the month were actually a lot of newly published books. (Although there was plenty of re-reading.)

Cold Reign by Faith Hunter is the latest Jane Yellowrock book, and I do love that series. The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch, which is the latest novella in the Rivers of London series. Which I also love. Which means I also loved Rivers of London Volume 3: Black Mould by Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan, which is the comic series. And finally Where the Dead Lie by C.S. Harris, which is the latest in the Sebastian St Cyr series.

Historical Mystery

Some Danger Involved (2004) Will Thomas
Sebastian St Cyr
Where the Dead Lie (2017) C.S. Harris

Supernatural Fantasy

Rivers of London
The Furthest Station (2017) Ben Aaronovitch
Jane Yellowrock
Cold Reign (2017) Faith Hunter

Supernatural Romance

Hidden Legacy
Burn for Me (2014) Ilona Andrews
White Hot (2017) Ilona Andrews
Wildfire: A Hidden Legacy Novel (2017) Ilona Andrews
The Edge
On the Edge (2009) Ilona Andrews
Bayou Moon (2010) Ilona Andrews
Fate’s Edge (2011) Ilona Andrews

Comics

Rivers of London Volume 3: Black Mould (2017) Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan
Princeless Vol. 1: Short Stories Collection
Princeless: Make Yourself

So I mostly read eBooks this month, although two of the comics were in paper format. And there were six re-reads, because I’m in one of those funks where I don’t know what I want to read.

Genre-wise, a bit more variety this month.

Fantasy : 10
Romance : 6
Comic : 3
Mystery : 2
YA : 2

The romance was all supernatural romance, and all Ilona Andrews. Which is perfectly fine.

Male didn’t pull ahead that much, but female authors didn’t particularly catch up, since half of what I read was Ilona Andrews, which is a jointly written series.

Male : 3
Female : 2
Anthology : 2
Joint : 6

And those are the books of July. My favorite books were the latest additions to series, so I don’t recommend starting there. But there are plenty of books out there, and you can always start those series I love!

I didn’t get solo pictures of each kid, because my time was short and there were various schedule issues. But these are some of the pictures that I loved.

And that was MY past weekend.

It seems that yet another white male is saying there are a lack of female authors in SFF, so that’s why SFF movies by women just don’t get made.

No, I shan’t line to the original article, but here is the discussion I came across: Stop Erasing Women’s Presence in SFF

Interestingly, most of the comments are people boggled by the writer of the original article not being aware of, say, JK Rowling. And then the commenter goes off to list their favorite five or ten female authors. There are a LOT of different female authors listed throughout that thread.

So this is where I once again completely geek out.

I read a LOT. You know that.

I also love geeking out. You know that too.

So you might remember that years ago (good grief, 14 years ago) I started keeping track of the books I read, and then later started tracking various information about those books–the gender of the author, the genre of the books, etc.

That means that I have a LOT of data on my personal reading habits. Which I love to manipulate. (Because: geek)

I know this is a confusing chart–I’m looking at two different types of data so I pared things down quite a bit. Here’s how to understand what you’re looking at.

The stacked bar charts are showing the gender of the author: women on the top, men on the bottom, multi-author books in the middle. That pink slice? Women who write under male pseudonyms.

You can see that I tend to read more female authors than male authors in any given year, but that sometimes I read more books written by men, but at no time have less than 40% of the books I’ve read been written by women.

The lines are the genre of the book of read. You can see that I predominantly read fantasy (Green line), but I also read a lot of mystery (red line). As romance is predominantly written by women, that line is pink. (Don’t try to figure out the numbers here, a book can have multiple genres–FREX I have a have a deep love for supernatural mysteries.)

So what is the point of this? It shows you that I read predominantly female authors, and the majority of my reading tends to be fantasy (although some years mysteries win out.)

Yes, I do re-read books a lot, but I am not re-reading the same fantasy book by the same female author over and over again (I rarely re-read them same book twice in a year).

It also shows that genre and gender are relatively independent. Yes, romance novels are mostly written by women. Yes, most comics are written by men. But since most of my reading is of fantasy and mystery, those categories are gender independent.

I have also complied a list of female authors I have read, across all genres.

That list currently has 275 authors on it. If you’re looking for something to read by a female author, I think you’d be able to at least one book on that list you’d like.

So next time some guy says there aren’t any good female authors, you can assure them there are quite a few, and perhaps recommend one or twenty books for them.

Flowers are from the Cranberry Wilderness and the Falls of Hills Creek.

The way the light turned out, I almost feel embarrassed looking at this display of naughty bits.

Lots of Bee Balm

Is this a white Bee Balm? Because that’s what it looks like to me.