Hiking in a densely vegetated canyon: an adventure with a buggy end.
In three parts.
PART THREE
There was no way down for us, so we looked at the happy creek on its way to the fall, and contemplated another way back since the last half hour had been strenuous: mud did not provide reliable footholds on steep slopes we found out.
We looked up and it looked like there was an easy way up, first we skirt the laurel then turn left and up, into it if we must, but the grade was not impossible:
Quite Soon we had to make a left turn and scramble through thick laurel:
That wasn't all that bad, and soon we saw the end of the laurel and were glad:
Once out of the laurel, we looked into the canyon below and thought we had it made:
But unexpectedly we faced a wide ring of toppled trees pushed on top of each other into the canyon from above, followed by very thick and unfriendly weeds and briars:
Pushing through this dense vegetation was not fun, but you can tell we are now at the top where the road is, looking down rather than up:
Except for some ticks in our skin we were unscathed. Two were stowaways on United Airlines back to Las Vegas, where they received the death penalty for their crime. Cruel, I know. By the way, trying to burn one of them out only removed some body hair and caused me pain. Lacquering them with nail polish killed one, yes, but with its head still stuck in me. Medical people advise against both these practices and suggest wearing rubber/plastic gloves, grabbing the creatures firmly behind the head with tweezers, and gently but firmly pulling them out. Staying in until they drop off in a few days and roam the house for another blood source is strongly recommended against. Kill them and dispose of them in a way that keeps them from coming back should they revive.
Tweezers, a little painful digging for missing parts, and two flushes marked the final end of this adventure.
It was a good adventure. Thanks, James. We'll do it again. Stock up on insect repellent, it works on ticks.
Repeat some of the adventure (or move on):
See where Rachel and James live
See a historic mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway
Go to ThoughtsandPlaces.Org Home Page
Go back to Part One