Blacksburg VA Remote Work Week 2021: Exploring Old & New - VT Nostalgia and Falls Ridge Preserve

Blacksburg Remote Work Week: Exploring Old & New – 6/14-6/16/21

The “work” part of our week in Blacksburg dictated our weekday mornings, but Jim and I took extended lunch breaks each day and/or knocked off early.

On Monday afternoon, we visited a small nature preserve in Montgomery County, VA. [Have you checked out the nature preserves in your home county? They may be a little under the radar compared to county parks. Go find those little gems!] 

Falls Ridge Preserve is extraordinary. On its 655 acres, the most prominent feature is an 80-foot spring-fed travertine waterfall; the stone looks like cooled lava, melted mud. There are also large sinkholes in the preserve suggesting underground caverns. Read about the property’s history, geology and natural features. Fascinating!

NOTE: We visited the preserve on June 14, 2021. This notice now appears on the website:

As of January 27, 2022, Falls Ridge Preserve is closed until further notice.

We are repairing the trails and allowing nature to recover following an extended period of high visitation and overuse of the trails. Want to help by volunteering? Contact: vapreservestewards@tnc.org. For all other inquiries about Falls Ridge please call:      434-951-0579.

On Monday night we carried lawn chairs and adult beverages to the front yard of our home-away-from-home and waited for sunset while soaking in the pastoral scene at Walnut Spring Stables across the way. Ahhhh.

On Tuesday’s lunch break, I introduced Jim to Heritage Community Park. We walked on mowed grass trails through the meadows down to Tom’s Creek. 

Tucked in a corner of the park is Nature Play Space, where several children and their adults were exploring the pollinator garden and interpretive signs.

When we were students at Virginia Tech, from time to time Jim and I would carry cheese and crackers, our backgammon board, a blanket, and a bottle of Lancer’s wine (don’t judge) to the campus Duck Pond. After dinner on Tuesday, we walked down this “memory lane,” enjoying the nostalgia of our idea of sophisticated interludes. We gave ourselves grace for our youth and gratitude for all the years between then and now. How lucky we were (are).

Wednesday was a full work day, except for Jim’s lunchtime bike ride. After the whistle blew, we strolled around another part of the VT campus (it’s a big place, y’all) including Burruss Hall and the April 16 Memorial Monument. 

Remember that dinner invitation? Bountiful hospitality, delicious Greek food, good wine and wide-ranging conversation on a cool evening in the Virginia mountains, all from a chance meeting at a brewery.

These experiences are giving us a lot to think about.

“You can’t force people to care about the natural environment, but if you encourage them to connect with it, they just might.” ~Jennifer Nini 

Blacksburg VA Remote Work Week 2021: Cascades Hike & Cruising Giles County

Blacksburg Remote Work Week: Cascades Hike – 6/13/21 - 4 miles

Today Jim and I headed just a few miles west of Blacksburg to a special spot for all Hokies: Cascades Waterfall in Jefferson National Forest. 

I’ve blogged about this hike several times (here and here) so I won’t get into great detail. We took the more scenic Lower Trail to the Falls and the Upper Trail to return to the parking lot. Little Stony Creek was flowing beautifully and even the air was saturated with early summer green.

Since we didn’t have to rush back to anywhere (we live here this week, remember?) we took a scenic drive around Giles County. We had lunch on the veranda at Mountain Lake Lodge of “Dirty Dancing” fame.

Did Baby dance down these steps?

There are still a couple of covered bridges in Giles County. We stopped to look at the Link Farm Covered Bridge over Sinking Creek, built in 1912. (This bridge is on private property so we zoomed in from the road.)

Is there a brewery open on Sunday night in Blacksburg? Why, yes, there is: Eastern Divide Brewery on the east side of town, a new industrial space with a wide grassy outdoor space for kids to run around. 

A couple of folks sitting at nearby tables struck up conversation and we were so immersed in the fellowship that we forgot to eat supper! We ordered takeout as the brewery was closing.  One of our new friends invited us to his home for dinner with friends later in the week.

Building community, checking off boxes, adding reasons why Blacksburg is the best place on earth…

“What if the Hokie Pokey really is 
what it’s all about?”
 ~a Virginia Tech fan 

Virginia's Best: Cascades & Barney's Wall

Cascades & Barney’s Wall – 5/29/16 – 8 miles

Hiking (me) and biking (Jim) go together like peas and carrots.  Jim signed up for the Mountains of Misery charity bike ride in Newport, VA, just up the road from Cascades National Recreation Trail in Jefferson National Forest.  While I have hiked to the Cascades waterfall several times (most recently with our daughter Laura in 2014) this was a great opportunity to go further to check out the Upper Cascades and Barney’s Wall. 

The best part:  Home base in our favorite place on earth, Blacksburg, VA.  We spent Friday roaming around the Virginia Tech campus…

… and sampling beers at Rising Silo, an indoor-outdoor brewery.

Saturday morning at crack-of-dawn-thirty I dropped Jim off at the ride start and headed to the Cascades in nearby Pembroke.  Only two cars in the huge parking lot at 7:00 a.m. (It was slam full when I left.)  The trail starts at the information board beside the bathroom building. 

Within 5 minutes’ walk it splits into an upper and lower route on either side of Little Stony Creek.  The best choice is crossing the footbridge to the trail on the lower side to get up close and personal with the creek.  Returning via the upper trail gives a different perspective of the creek and makes a nice loop.

In recent years I have hiked many trails, and the Cascades hike stands out as one of the best of the best.  Why?  It’s a gentle uphill grade, easy to follow, alongside the shaded mountain creek that lives up to the stony part of its name yet is anything but little.  So walk with me.

After one mile the trail crosses Little Stony Creek on another footbridge to rejoin the upper trail.  The second mile is a little steeper and a bit more challenging.  Yet it doesn’t seem difficult because I’m walking slowly, mesmerized by the soundtrack and seemingly endless flow of mini-cascades.  This isn’t a hike for exercising the body but for engaging the senses and immersion in the flow.  Zen anyone?

 A teaser trickle

The destination for most visitors:  66-foot tall Cascades Waterfall.  This early in the morning it’s just me and a single fisherman.  

I hear voices approaching, signaling that it’s time for me to move on.  The observation deck near the falls is closed, so I take the wooden stairs leading to the upper trail.  In the large open area, a left turn onto that upper trail leads back to the parking lot.  A right turn leads to the Conservancy Trail and Barney’s Wall; that’s where I am headed.  A half-mile along this fire road, an unmarked trail to the right leads a short way down to Upper Cascade Falls.  Here I meet a second early bird out enjoying the solitude (the owner of that second car in the parking lot.) 

Unlike the reveal of the lower waterfall, looking across the large pool, the first glimpse of the Upper Cascades is right at the edge of the drop.  The proximity to all that power is exhilerating. 

It’s a very rough scramble down to the bottom of the falls and I’m amazed that people haven’t forged a more solid path – and then I realize that the forest service doesn’t really provide information about it and most visitors never venture here with no signage, no clear instructions in the parking area to encourage exploration.  But what a reward for the effort:

Upper Cascade Falls

From here I retrace steps to the main Conservancy Trail.  The next mile continues the ascent through open forest.

My multi-legged friend points the way

Up to this point the signage is great, but that’s the last of it.  I walk the 1.5 miles, pass a nice campsite, and find myself on a cliff edge. 

Looking out at New River Valley towards Blacksburg, VA

Am I on Barney’s Wall?

Or am I looking at Barney’s Wall?

I begin following a trail hugging the edge and seems to be heading towards that wall of rock.  About halfway there, the trail peters out and I remember that I am alone out here.  Still, I continue stubbornly fighting my way through the rhododendron until I have to admit defeat and turn back. 

I need to get back to that rock ledge without falling off the mountain

 

Time to get back to Jim’s bike race.  There will be a next time for hiking the Cascades because there is more to explore further up the Conservancy Trail extending to Butt Mountain and Lookoff Rock. 

I haven’t seen anyone today other than the fisherman and the early morning hiker and the first two miles backtracking are solitary as well.  At the trail intersection leading to the lower waterfall I stay on the upper trail and see that the multitudes have awakened, had coffee and doughnuts, and are swarming along the trail in all their flip-flop glory.  And that’s as it should be.  It’s a spectacular spring Saturday and I’m delighted to see families, college students and older adults hiking up to see what Little Stony Creek has on display. 

And I’m also delighted to see that Jim is still in one piece and is enjoying the celebration and fellowship of the cycling community at the Mountain Island Lake finish line.

Gracious and generous God, thank you for giving us health and strength to enjoy the world that You have made.  Amen.

“When I first open my eyes upon the morning meadows and look out upon the beautiful world, I thank God I am alive.”  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson