Wintergreen trip

We went up to Wintergreen this weekend to visit Christine's aunt and uncle Susie and Terry. A great time was had by all. First up was a short hike off the Blue Ridge Parkway to Humpback Rocks. Here we are a the top. With Jamie in the backpack, I wasn't allowed to go near the edge. It's quite a ways down. It was at this spot almost exactly a year ago that the first stranger commented to Christine that she looked pregnant. The stranger was completely dumbfounded that Christine had just climbed up there. (it's pretty steep)



After our hike, we ate grass by the parkway.



On Saturday, Terry and Susie took Jamie and we went on a cross country MTB ride. It was Christine's first real ride on dirt in many a month. She did great. We ended up riding about 9 miles.



During the I ran over a snake, a first for me, and nearly pooped myself. It was a big hog-nosed snake whose markings look remarkably like a timber rattler, especially when you only see it as it's passing under your wheels. Further adding to the trauma was the fact that just the day before, we had seen a large, dead timber rattler on the parkway. The hog snake seemed unharmed by my bike, but quite perturbed and slithered off into the bushes beside the trail to contemplate the encounter.


Eastern Hog-Nose:


Timber rattler:


After returning from our ride we took Jamie to the pool. At first he was a little concerned but then he loosened up and started splashing and kicking and trying his best to swim. We were afraid to actually let go but he didn't seem to mind.





Wildlife sighting: Terry spotted a "moth" on the porch rail so we went out an snapped a few photos. Turns out he (or rather she) was a rather weathered female tiger swallowtail butterfly. (Notice she is missing her tails.)



I rode downhill Sunday (no pictures). I think I did around 12 runs in three hours covering around 9600 ft of vertical (that's a lot of riding). Whee! Today I'm at work nursing sore quadriceps.