{"id":656,"date":"2014-05-20T00:16:52","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T04:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=656"},"modified":"2016-04-29T14:38:03","modified_gmt":"2016-04-29T18:38:03","slug":"second-wildflower-pilgrimage-to-west-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=656","title":{"rendered":"Second Wildflower Pilgrimage to West Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bread feeds the body indeed, but flowers feed also the soul.<\/em> — The Koran<\/p>\n

It was the 53rd Wildflower Pilgrimage in Davis, WV, but our second trip. \u00a0The Blackwater Inn in Davis was the host. This year my wife and I chose two different trips and spent part of Sunday at a third choice before coming home.<\/p>\n

Cranesville Swamp<\/span><\/p>\n

This Nature conservancy location straddles the Maryland\/West Virginia border. It is a relict community that is left over from the ice age because this West Virginia area is cold enough to maintain a boreal environment, at least so far, if climate change doesn’t make that impossible in the future. I had entered from the Maryland side previously and wasn’t aware that there was a boardwalk through the bog accessible only from the WV side, which is where went this time. This is one of the advantages of the Pilgrimage: \u00a0people who really k\"RoundLeavedSundewSF2\"<\/a>now the area can show you the best places and help identify\u00a0the flowers and birds.\u00a0Because\u00a0of the cold spring, some things that might normally be in bloom weren’t. \u00a0I was able to get one very nice sundew. \u00a0 Others saw some water snakes playing in an open area. \u00a0Numerous flowers along the trail.<\/p>\n

You can get travel directions from the Nature Conservancy website for Cranesville Swamp.<\/p>\n

Cathedral State Park<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Jack-in-thePulpitSF1\"<\/a>The second half of the first day was spent at Cathedral State Park. \u00a0I had been there before, but this trip was disappointing because it was rather dry and more open than usual due to storms that pulled down some old trees. \u00a0This park has some really magnificent old hemlocks. It also has the biggest dandelions I have ever seen. \u00a0Cathedral State Park is well-marked on most maps and you enter off of Route 50 in Aurora, WV.<\/p>\n

Otter Creek Wilderness<\/span><\/p>\n

On Saturday we went to Otter Creek Wilderness. \u00a0After a short trail hike there is a somewhat shaky bridge over Otter Creek. It is a replacement for a swinging bridge taken \"OtterCreekCascade3\"<\/a>down at high water. \u00a0A bit after the bridge there is some rough trail climbing over rocks with some muddy\u00a0spots for about a quarter mile, but then the trail smooths out with \"Painted<\/a>some very nice wildflowers. A small wadeable stream crosses the trail about 1 mile in with some very nice little cascades a short ways upstream.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Fernow Experimental Forest<\/span><\/p>\n

We were on our own on this one, and with another couple mistakenly drove\u00a0up some pretty rough trails before turning around and getting some better directions. \u00a0We stopped at only one location, near some maintenance buildings and a low water bridge. \u00a0Around the bridge were gobs of Showy Orchis and other wildflowers. \u00a0A really nice location.<\/p>\n

\"ShowyOrchisSF3\"<\/a>In Parsons, make a left at the Subway shop and then almost immediately another left. Car GPS coordinates for a little ways into the forest was: \u00a0N 39.07997\u00b0 and W 079.64925\u00b0 (you are on your own with these directions),<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bread feeds the body indeed, but flowers feed also the soul. — The Koran It was the 53rd Wildflower Pilgrimage in Davis, WV, but our second trip. \u00a0The Blackwater Inn in Davis was the host. This year my wife and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[4,32],"class_list":["post-656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-in-the-field","tag-photo-locations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8lcUy-aA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=656"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":677,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions\/677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}