Wilderness Road SP, Cumberland Gap, James River AT Footbridge, Trail Riding at Pleasant Grove, Kayak Rivanna Crofton to Palmyra: Memorial Day 2014

Memorial Day weekend was amazing this year! We took an overnight trip to Wilderness State Park to finally knock that one out. We got up early and drove down on Saturday morning.

Karlan Mansion is available for wedding receptions and the like. Lovely!

Wilderness Road State Park is on the site of Martin's Station, a 1775 frontier fort that was the last "civilization" before pioneers headed through the Cumberland Gap. So cool. I took a ton of photos for my kids at school.

 

 

I especially loved the photos showing how the Appalachian Mountains are so different from our Blue Ridge.

 

 

 

 

There was a baby Bison born the night before, but we couldn't see it.

After leaving Wilderness, we went down to the actual Cumberland Gap, where there is a town called...wait for it...Cumberland Gap! We looked around and took a few photos. Then it was off to the hotel that we'd booked for the evening.

On the way out Sunday morning, we saw some incredible river views. This is the Clinch River as seen from Bean's Gap.

Just after lunch, I mentioned to Dave that there was a spot where the AT crossed the James River and suggested that we should do that sometime. He agreed. Immediately, as I tend to do, I was Googling. I found out that there's a dedicated pedestrian footbridge built on an old railroad trestle, and that it's at Snowden, exit 175 off I81. We were less than an hour from there, so we decided to take a side trip to see it.

 

 

 

 

The bridge is way cool, and the views were lovely. At the other side of the bridge, we walked down the trail for awhile and found....this.

 

After returning across the bridge to the car, we noticed a trio of thru hikers trying to flag down a ride. We asked them where they were going and they said they were trying to get to Glasgow. Since we were going through there, we gave them a lift and enjoyed chatting with them about the trail.

We got home in good time and started making plans for Monday, Memorial Day. J had mentioned that she wanted to ride sometime soon so we decided we would haul the horses over to Pleasant Grove for a trail ride. We got up early and headed over so we'd have plenty of time to ride and still grill some chicken for lunch back home, as she had to go to work at 3:00.

 

 

Once we were home and the holiday bbq was over, we unhitched the trailer and took the kayaks over to Crofton for a paddle down the Rivanna. It was hot but beautiful. We didn't see as much wildlife as usual but it was enjoyable none the less.

It was a wonderful weekend, filled with all the things I love--history, the James, the AT, riding, and kayaking the Rivanna!