{In the Picture} ~ 52 IN 52 ~ Week 4

 Who is that mad woman behind the mask?

Why, it’s Genie on another “Forced March” through the icy woods. I am really NOT a grump. I laugh and have fun all the time. It is just HARD taking a picture of yourself with an iPhone in freezing weather.

This post is linked with the Flickr group {in the picture}.

Bridge at Wigwam Falls

Last week I told of our freezing hike to Wigwam Falls where I chickened out and returned to the car. Workers with the  Blue Ridge Parkway have done much work here to help restore this section of the railroad track.

1.

Here are the steps you have to climb to get up to the old railroad tracks.

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Here I am in all of the gear which did NO good! 

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This is where you start walking across the bridge.

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This is the section over the water coming down from the falls.

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Here you have a view of the water coming down from the falls up above.

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Close-up of bridge section.

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This is my final shot taken looking down at the bridge just before 

I started back across it and to the warmth of the car.

This post is linked with Louis LaVache’s Sunday Bridges.

Taking’ a Hike by the Ice

Here are a couple more shots of our January 2, 2012, frigid hike up Wigwam Falls on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a “questionable" way to start the new year...hiking in 24 degree weather, way up high, and the wind blowing wildly. The water was flowing, but there was not nearly as much as there could of been if we had had more rain.

This post is linked with Watery Wednesday

and Black and White Wednesday.

First Hike of 2012 ~ Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia

   Every year, either on the first or the second day of the new year, we try to go for a hike and look for letterboxes. Yesterday we did not make it, but today we did. It was terribly cold...24 degrees but with a wind chill that made it feel lots colder. The good news is we did fine one new letterbox.

We were on the Blue Ridge Parkway (3,140 feet above sea level) at Wigwam Falls. There you will see a sign,“Yankee Horse,” marking the location where a hard-riding Union man’s horse fell and had to be shot. When you go there, you can see a reconstructed spur of an old logging railroad. I had on long johns, turtle neck wool sweater, wool jacket with hoodie, fleece vest, a down jacket, face mask, hat, gloves, and a woolen scarf, and I still thought I was on Mt. Everest waiting to die. 

I wasn’t fooling about all the layers. Buddy was kind enough to take this ridiculous picture of me as proof of the “inclement” weather. It snowed on us all the way home, and there have been wrecks up and down the interstates tonight. Maybe our first day back to school will be delayed in the morning...only in my dreams!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM VIRGINIA

This post is linked with Our World Tuesday.