Yesterday we had the weather to end all weather- for July anyway! It barely made it to 80 degrees, humidity was present but not oppressive and the clouds were blocking out just enough sun. It made for a great hike on the AT and boy did we cover some miles! We walked the trail from Culver's Gap to Blue Mountain Lakes parking area, with a little extra thrown in to get to the car . . . We also saw some pretty crazy and unusual critters. We stumbles, quite literally, upon a timber rattlesnake near the beginning of the hike. I'm not a huge fan of snakes, my kid is though so she was thrilled! I will say that this guy was BIG (not exaggerating - at least 4 feet long) and beautiful! The pattern on his back was so intricate and the end of his tail, before the 10 rattles, looked like pure black velvet. It all looks to lovely as he calmly slithered away not worrying about us at all. A few miles later, while most of us had our eyes to the ground keeping watch for any more of those . . . this guy was spotted directly above my buddy's head on an overhanging sassafras tree! That was pretty awesome! The best part was that, just like the snake, this could also could not care any less that we were near, around and under him/her. They just hung out on the bent tree while we snapped away like tourists miles deep into Stokes State Forest! There were quite a few places where we got to take in the views on both sides of the ridge. Pretty sure we're looking at Pennsylvania in this picture! This last shot pretty much captures the day for all of us! It was quite an adventure and well worth the close calls with nature, sore knees and stiff hips today! From what I can tell looking at the map, we've got less than 20 miles left and we're planning on doing it in 2 days whenever the weather looks good again!
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