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Regardless of the season, a visit to Blue Ridge Mountains has timeless appeal.

By GWEN WOOLF
The Free Lance-Star

Date published: 11/19/2005

Photos by Scott Neville, The Free Lance-Star

YES, IT’S A mountain, all right. And there is the trail, disappearing ominously into the woods.

“A short, gradual uphill hike” is how it is described in the literature; “1.6 miles round trip, fairly easy.” To me, a nonoutdoorsy type, a hike normally means the trek from one end of the mall to the other.

And the result is usually a new pair of high heels—not the ankle cast I envision with this experience.

Apprehensive, I trudge up the trail with a small group of journalists, not at all sure my nonathletic self will be physically able to make it to the top. There are rocks and roots in the dirt trail, with big boulders, towering trees and tangled underbrush all around. Nature, unlike the shoe aisle, is untidy.

When the trail gets steeper, I am breathing hard, though in all honesty, not so hard that I’m clutching my chest.

I’m carefully watching my every step for fear I will have an embarrassing tumble. And I’m keeping a wary eye out for disgruntled bears and boa constrictors and maybe Bigfoot.

Someone hears the “drumming” of a grouse in the brush.

I wonder, what on earth is a grouse? Does it bite?

Suddenly, the trail ends at the peak of the mountain. I gasp in delight. A spectacular panorama greets me: the wide Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, its mottled green and brown tones set off by the blue sky. The air is fresh. The whole experience is exhilarating, like the scene in “Titanic” where Leonardo DiCaprio stretches out his arms at the bow of the ship and proclaims he’s “King of the World.”

Imagine how this mountain scene looks in the fall, when trees are painted with yellows, oranges and reds; or in the spring and summer, when pink, purple and blue wildflowers show their dainty heads, and the blooming mountain laurel and rhododendrons light the landscape; or in the winter, when snow blankets everything in pristine white.

Date published: 11/19/2005