Virginia Creeper

The day before Tammy and I left to come home from her parents, we visited the Virginia Creeper Trail for a small day hike. The Virginia Creeper Trail is the result of a "rails to trails" effort where a no longer used railway line was converted into a hiking/biking/horseback riding trail. Including a very small spur out and back on the Appalachian Trail, we ended up hiking just over 6 miles. That is not really very much of the Virginia Creeper Trail, since it is 34 miles long. We essentially covered just under 3 miles of the trail (three miles going out and then the same three miles coming back) just east of Damascus, Virginia.

While walking, we saw lots of people who were riding/coasting towards Damascus on a bike. There are several outfits in Damascus (and other towns on the trail as well, I suspect) that will rent you a bike and then drive you to the high point on the trail so that you can ride back to town, more or less all downhill. That actually sounds like a pretty cool ride.

Here are a few pictures from the walk along the Virginia Creeper Trail.

Tricolored Heron

Today I drove south and west from Lafayette. I ended up at the Sabine Pass Swing Bridge. While that description of my travels today may seem random, I meant to go there. There is a colony of swallows nesting on the underside of the bridge, something that I wanted to check out. I got zero pictures of swallows because they fly too fast for my current photography skills. On the other hand, this Tricolored Heron was grabbing an easy meal (the food was easy enough for him not to care too much about me), and not flying, so I snapped a couple of photos. He is all pretty in his breeding plumage. The third photo shows just how close to Texas I got today.

Bridges of Cottage Grove

Just south of Eugene Oregon, there is a little town called Cottage Grove. One of its attractions is a self guided tour of covered bridges in the vicinity. Before getting on the road to Bend, we took some time to go see a few of these bridges. I liked this picture because of the reflection of the bridge in the water.

Bridge over Yaquina Bay

This bridge carries route 101 south over Yaquina Bay. Newport is to the left. This picture was taken from Yaquina Bay State Park

Belle Island - The Pedestrian Bridge

The trip out to Belle Island usually begins and ends with a walk across the pedestrian bridge that is suspended beneath the Robert E. Lee Bridge (which handles north/south traffic on Route 1/301). It is always a bit disconcerting when you get out onto the pedestrian bridge and notice that it vibrates according to the traffic passing on the bridge overhead. And the "hanging in mid-air" feeling seems to always make me feel just a wee bit nervous and tense.

The first picture was taken at the start of the trip, looking south to Belle Island from the north bank of the James River. The second picture was taken at the end of the trip, and is a shot of the Richmond skyline as we headed back to the north bank of the river from Belle Island. Fyi...during the week I work in that tall silver building. I always get to see the people enjoying the river and Belle Island while I am working during the week. Sigh.

Bob White Covered Bridge

There are a handful of covered bridges in Virginia. This is the Bob White Covered Bridge.