Sharp Top

I suppose I should update sometime soon. I just got back from a week-long survey seminar in Roanoke. It was interesting, but those 8-hour sessions were brutal. 2 days of survey geometry very nearly drove all of us there crazy. Anyhow, I left on Thursday and camped by the Peaks of Otter, along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It rained all evening - I managed to get my tent up during a break in the rain, then hunkered down inside during the thunderstorm. (Note to self: I had better dry my stuff off before next week.) The rain stopped around midnight, and I went to hike Sharp Top first thing in the morning. Still cloudy and hazy, but beautiful nonetheless. The rest of my pictures are, as always, on my Fotki site.
One week until Montana!

Dolly Sods

I had a lot of fun this weekend out with the Montana-bound group on our second trial hike in the Dolly Sods Wilderness in West Virginia. The Sods is a high-elevation plateau just on the western side of the eastern continental divide, with a general elevation of about 4000 feet (which is WAY up there for those of us in the east.) The big draw is the climate and scenery - the weather is generally 10° cooler on top the plateau, and the open, rolling hillsides make for some great views that you don't normally find in the tree-heavy Appalachians. 4 weeks until the Beartooth Mountains!