Austin Mountain / Furnace Mountain, VA

Photos by Michael Juskelis, 2008/06/06.

Good views of Furnace Mountain were had all along the Austin Mountain Trail.

There were knife edges like this on both sides of the valley. Note the trail across the talus rock in the foreground. We had to traverse a lot of that.

A closer view of the Furnace Mountain Summit just before our descent (and subsequent climb).

A hazy view of Trayfoot Mountain from Blackrock.

A faint breeze finally hits Diane below Blackrock.

Don at the base of Blackrock (a cliff that crumbled into a huge rock pile through the ages). The haze, intense heat and shortage of water precluded the final summit.

We found this American Ipecac (Gillenia stipulata) just before the Blackrock Summit. Very similar to Bowman's-Root except the bottom leaves of the former are sub-divided while the latter's bottom leaves are not.

For day 2 of this trip, go to Jones Run / Doyles River, VA

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