News from the Valley Trails
Southern Shenandoah Valley Chapter of PATC
April 2020 Newsletter
Welcome to our newsletter for April, 2020. With things being so different in everyone's life this month, we are going to try to share cheery thoughts.
If you have a Facebook page, be sure to look for and like our page, PATC Southern Shenandoah Valley Chapter. On there, we will try to post updates as we have them. If you don't already receive them, you can also subscribe to our email blast by using the link on our home page: SSVC PATC
If you have a Facebook page, be sure to look for and like our page, PATC Southern Shenandoah Valley Chapter. On there, we will try to post updates as we have them. If you don't already receive them, you can also subscribe to our email blast by using the link on our home page: SSVC PATC
What's Blooming
Spring flowers have started blooming. The following are some pictures of wildflowers that our members have seen blooming. If you decide to hike, we suggest that you choose a lesser known trail and one that's close to where you live to limit travel. Try to hike with others that you have daily contact with and maintain a 6-foot distance between you and anyone you meet on the trail. If you are more comfortable enjoying the flowers in your yard or on a walk through your neighborhood, they are just as beautiful.
For reference, here is a wildflower calendar provided by the Shenandoah National Park for their more frequently seen plants: Wildflower Calendar
The information provided for some of the wildflowers was taken from The Secrets of Wildflowers by Jack Sanders.
Spring flowers have started blooming. The following are some pictures of wildflowers that our members have seen blooming. If you decide to hike, we suggest that you choose a lesser known trail and one that's close to where you live to limit travel. Try to hike with others that you have daily contact with and maintain a 6-foot distance between you and anyone you meet on the trail. If you are more comfortable enjoying the flowers in your yard or on a walk through your neighborhood, they are just as beautiful.
For reference, here is a wildflower calendar provided by the Shenandoah National Park for their more frequently seen plants: Wildflower Calendar
The information provided for some of the wildflowers was taken from The Secrets of Wildflowers by Jack Sanders.
Hepatica
The name Hepatica comes from the Greek word for liver. Because of the shape of the leaves, and reddish color of older leaves, the plant was used to treat ailments of the liver, kidney and bladder.
Photo credit: Lynn Cameron (picture #1) and Pam Heinrich, seen along Pocosin Hollow Trail; March 26 (picture #2)
The name Hepatica comes from the Greek word for liver. Because of the shape of the leaves, and reddish color of older leaves, the plant was used to treat ailments of the liver, kidney and bladder.
Photo credit: Lynn Cameron (picture #1) and Pam Heinrich, seen along Pocosin Hollow Trail; March 26 (picture #2)
Bloodroot
Bloodroot is so named because if the plant is injured it "bleeds". The juice has been used for dyes and the root in powdered form to treat a variety of ailments and to whiten teeth. One should take care when using it medicinally as an overdose can be lethal.
Photo credit: Kathy Dickenson, seen on her hike to Pocosin Cabin and Entry Run; March 27 (picture #1) and Cindy Kirchner, on her Sugar Hollow Hike; March 20 (picture #2).
Bloodroot is so named because if the plant is injured it "bleeds". The juice has been used for dyes and the root in powdered form to treat a variety of ailments and to whiten teeth. One should take care when using it medicinally as an overdose can be lethal.
Photo credit: Kathy Dickenson, seen on her hike to Pocosin Cabin and Entry Run; March 27 (picture #1) and Cindy Kirchner, on her Sugar Hollow Hike; March 20 (picture #2).
Cutleaf Toothwort
Photo credits: Pam Leech on her hike on White Rock Falls Trail; March 28 (picture #1) and Pam Heinrich on the AT north of the James River; March 25, 2019 (picture #2).
Photo credits: Pam Leech on her hike on White Rock Falls Trail; March 28 (picture #1) and Pam Heinrich on the AT north of the James River; March 25, 2019 (picture #2).
Serviceberry
Photo Credit: Jean Stephens on her hike near Turk Mountain; March 29.
Photo Credit: Jean Stephens on her hike near Turk Mountain; March 29.
Dutchman’s Breeches
These are actually four-petaled flowers. Two of the petals unite to form the two legs of the pantaloons while the other two are inside and project over the stamen. The plant has limited use in medicine because it is somewhat toxic and narcotic, although there is some record of its use for skin infections and as a diuretic. The plant can be toxic to cattle. Photo credits: Crystal Anderson in Woolwine, VA (picture #1) and Kate Hoffmeyer on Jones Run Trail; March 22 (picture #2).
These are actually four-petaled flowers. Two of the petals unite to form the two legs of the pantaloons while the other two are inside and project over the stamen. The plant has limited use in medicine because it is somewhat toxic and narcotic, although there is some record of its use for skin infections and as a diuretic. The plant can be toxic to cattle. Photo credits: Crystal Anderson in Woolwine, VA (picture #1) and Kate Hoffmeyer on Jones Run Trail; March 22 (picture #2).
Trout Lilies
Trout Lilies are key members of the forest community. Their colonies help stabilize the soil. Their leaves collect phosphorus which returns to the soil when they die back in summer. The Trout Lily is a prime food for queen bumblebees as they start their colonies in the spring. They have limited use as a food or medicine. Photo Credits: Kathy Dickenson on Doyle's River Trail; March 30 (picture #1) and Jean Stephens, seen along North River Road, Mt. Crawford; March 22 (picture #2)
Trout Lilies are key members of the forest community. Their colonies help stabilize the soil. Their leaves collect phosphorus which returns to the soil when they die back in summer. The Trout Lily is a prime food for queen bumblebees as they start their colonies in the spring. They have limited use as a food or medicine. Photo Credits: Kathy Dickenson on Doyle's River Trail; March 30 (picture #1) and Jean Stephens, seen along North River Road, Mt. Crawford; March 22 (picture #2)
Bluebells
Photo Credits: Dave Bennick, along the Chessie Nature Trail (picture #1) and Dawn Wiese, also on the Chessie Nature Trail picture #2).
Photo Credits: Dave Bennick, along the Chessie Nature Trail (picture #1) and Dawn Wiese, also on the Chessie Nature Trail picture #2).
Spice Bush
Photo credit: Jean Stephens, see along AT near Punchbowl Mt. Overlook on Blue Ridge Parkway
Photo credit: Jean Stephens, see along AT near Punchbowl Mt. Overlook on Blue Ridge Parkway
Star Chickweed
Photo credits: Jean Stephens, seen on AT near James River (picture #1) and Kathy Dickenson Pocosin Cabin / Entry Run (picture #2)
Photo credits: Jean Stephens, seen on AT near James River (picture #1) and Kathy Dickenson Pocosin Cabin / Entry Run (picture #2)
Spring Beauty
The Spring Beauty is edible and said to be delicious. The corm is the part that is eaten and can be prepared mashed, fried, baked, boiled or raw. They are said to taste like potatoes or chestnuts when cooked and like a radish when eaten raw. The bulbs are favorites of grizzly bears. Because it is tasty and pretty, the Spring Beauty's population may be threatened by being eaten and picked as a wildflower. Photo credits: Jean Stephens, seen along North River Road in Mt. Crawford (picture #1) and Pam Heinrich, from April 2019 (picture #2).
The Spring Beauty is edible and said to be delicious. The corm is the part that is eaten and can be prepared mashed, fried, baked, boiled or raw. They are said to taste like potatoes or chestnuts when cooked and like a radish when eaten raw. The bulbs are favorites of grizzly bears. Because it is tasty and pretty, the Spring Beauty's population may be threatened by being eaten and picked as a wildflower. Photo credits: Jean Stephens, seen along North River Road in Mt. Crawford (picture #1) and Pam Heinrich, from April 2019 (picture #2).
Trailing Arbutus
Photo credits: Jean Stephens, seen near Turk Mountain; March 29 (picture #1) and Pam Heinrich on the AT north of the James River; March 25, 2019 (picture #2)
Photo credits: Jean Stephens, seen near Turk Mountain; March 29 (picture #1) and Pam Heinrich on the AT north of the James River; March 25, 2019 (picture #2)
Coltsfoot
The Coltsfoot is one of the earliest flowers to appear in spring. It thrives along roadsides in poor soils and is often mistaken for a dandelion. It has been a popular remedy for a cough or soothing an irritated throat. The smoke from burning Coltsfoot has been used as a relief for asthma. It should be used with care though because it can cause liver damage. Photo credit: Jean Stephens, seen on Elliott's Knob; March 9 (picture #1) and Mike Smith (picture #2).
The Coltsfoot is one of the earliest flowers to appear in spring. It thrives along roadsides in poor soils and is often mistaken for a dandelion. It has been a popular remedy for a cough or soothing an irritated throat. The smoke from burning Coltsfoot has been used as a relief for asthma. It should be used with care though because it can cause liver damage. Photo credit: Jean Stephens, seen on Elliott's Knob; March 9 (picture #1) and Mike Smith (picture #2).
Wild Geranium
Photo credit: Jean Stephens, seen near Turk Mountain; March 29.
Photo credit: Jean Stephens, seen near Turk Mountain; March 29.
Trillium
Photo credits: Jean Stephens, Snow Trillium, seen on a trip to West Virginia; March 24 (picture #1) and Kathy Dickenson, Large-Flowered Trillium, seen on Pocosin Cabin / Entry Run; March 27 (picture #2).
Photo credits: Jean Stephens, Snow Trillium, seen on a trip to West Virginia; March 24 (picture #1) and Kathy Dickenson, Large-Flowered Trillium, seen on Pocosin Cabin / Entry Run; March 27 (picture #2).
Rue Anemone
Anemones are also appropriately called "windflowers". This is because the wind loosens the pollen and carries it to nearby blossoms, fertilizing without the need for insects which are scarce in early spring. Rue Anemone is a relative of the Wood Anemone, but has leaves that are similar to the Early Meadow Rue which will bloom later in the spring. Early Europeans and Egyptians considered anemones to be symbols of sickness, while Chinese considered them flowers of death. However, herbalists used the plant to treat headaches, gout, leprosy, eye inflammation, and ulcers. Photo credits: Jean Stephens; March 22 (picture #1) and Crystal Anderson in Woolwine, VA (picture #2).
Anemones are also appropriately called "windflowers". This is because the wind loosens the pollen and carries it to nearby blossoms, fertilizing without the need for insects which are scarce in early spring. Rue Anemone is a relative of the Wood Anemone, but has leaves that are similar to the Early Meadow Rue which will bloom later in the spring. Early Europeans and Egyptians considered anemones to be symbols of sickness, while Chinese considered them flowers of death. However, herbalists used the plant to treat headaches, gout, leprosy, eye inflammation, and ulcers. Photo credits: Jean Stephens; March 22 (picture #1) and Crystal Anderson in Woolwine, VA (picture #2).
Fiddleheads
Photo credits: Crystal Anderson (picture #1) and Kathy Dickenson, Doyle's River Trail; March 30 (picture #2)
Photo credits: Crystal Anderson (picture #1) and Kathy Dickenson, Doyle's River Trail; March 30 (picture #2)
Other Announcements
Betty Rosson Forrest
We were sad to learn about the passing of Betty Rosson Forrest on March 16. Betty was a long-time SSVC member and wildflower expert. She loved nature and spent much of her life working as a guide for the Shenandoah National Park and was a lifelong volunteer at the JMU arboretum. We have provided a link to her obituary if you would like to read more or sign the guest book: Betty Rosson Forrest
Tick bite? Get a Tick Test!
by Lynn Cameron
These days ticks carry some terrible diseases. Have you ever had a tick bite and wondered what to do? Some of us go directly to the doctor and demand an antibiotic and others "wait and see" if any symptoms appear. For some diseases, like Lyme, it may take a while for symptoms to appear. Malcom and I discovered a lab in Pennsylvania that will test your tick for tick-borne pathogens that cause Lyme, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and a long list of other diseases. You get results by email in less than 48 hours after they receive the tick, and then you know what you have been exposed to. Here's how it works. When you get a tick bite, remove the tick, go to TickCheck.com and order a tick check, put the tick in a ziploc bag, and mail it to TickCheck in an envelope. TickCheck.com can identify the tick, no matter how tiny, and determine if it carries Lyme or other some serious disease. It costs $50 per bag of ticks (up to 5 ticks in a bag). I pulled a bunch of tiny ticks off of Malcolm after a day of work on the AT last fall and sent them in. They were too tiny for us to identify, but the lab determined they were Lonestar tick larvae. All were negative for pathogens except for one that carried Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. We decided to wait and see if any symptoms appeared. None did, but we were glad to know what to watch for. It was worth the $50 to us.
Two things I should have known about invasive plants
by Mark Gatewood
I’ve been reading Douglas Tallamy’s Nature’s Best Hope ~ A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard, in which he puts out the idea that homeowners can help to foster biodiversity by planting native species. He cites two studies on invasive plants which brought up some things I didn’t know.
The first study is about the bittersweets, native and oriental. If it seems to you, as it does to me, that we’re seeing more oriental than native bittersweet, we may be right. The cause, say the study’s authors, is introgressive hybridization. The science on this is above my pay grade, but here’s the gist of it: oriental and native bittersweets cross-breed. The offspring then backcross with the oriental bittersweet and those offspring become more oriental than native. This is bad news for trail maintainers.
On our hill, an accumulation of oriental bittersweet vines snapped off a ten-inch black cherry. The top landed on one of our paths. It took two hours with hand tools to cut through the spaghetti of limbs and vines to clear the path.
I only encountered one vine-wrapped blowdown as a sawyer on the AT and it was a mess. Bittersweet vines are quite robust and when two or three braid together, they approach the diameter of a small tree. Vines on a blowdown can impede sawyer footing and can catch the saw chain and cause kickback.
The second study compares the nutritional value of invasive shrub berries with those of native shrubs. As summer turns to fall, birds seek sources of fat to build reserves for migration. The non-native shrubs – autumn olive, bush and Japanese honeysuckle and multiflora rose – set out a banquet for birds, but have little to no fat. They provide mainly sugar, which doesn’t meet the birds’ requirements. For fats, the natives win hands-down: Virginia Creeper, arrowwood viburnum, spicebush, poison ivy and dogwood. No trail relevance, just a fun factoid for home landscapers and birders.
Little Devils Stairs
by Tom Johnson
*We hope you enjoy this adventurous story submitted by Tom Johnson that he wrote several years ago in remembrance of a special hike.*
Long ago and far away, when ice was on the land and Kurt was out and about, we decided to take a Saturday hike. Kurt advertised it as a daunting 18-mile traverse of the Bull Run-Occoquan Trail. Kurt had friends who wanted to do it, and he had volunteered to lead.
But when we showed up at the meeting place, Kurt’s friends had backed out, and now we were at liberty to select another hike that might not be 18 miles long. We pondered for a few moments, and then Kurt, our leader, said “How about Little Devils Stairs? That’s always nice in wintertime.” And so it was decided (everyone believing Kurt’s claim that it would be “awfully nice in snow and ice”) to do the thing.
After a long commute, we arrived at the trailhead for Little Devils Stairs. You might remember I said that ice was on the land. Was it ever! We knew we were in trouble when we tried to get out of our cars and couldn’t stand up. My Subaru wagon was our salvation because we could cling to the roof rack while we pondered our next move. Everyone in the group was for bagging the hike and returning to fireside with a nice mug of hot chocolate, but Kurt was for going on. So of course, we decided to go on. Not 100 yards from the parking lot, we first encountered the stream. In summer, it is a trickle, a step-over. Now, it was a raging torrent of frothing, icy death, carrying tree trunks and various debris valleyward. We stopped and pondered our next move. Crossing was clearly impossible, so of course we elected to cross.
Half an hour later, everyone had somehow crossed the river, holding onto blowdowns that had been turned crosswise by the water and ice and were wedged from one bank to the other. Once that was negotiated, we turned and began to climb.
Everything was coated with a thick layer of ice. Secure handholds (and footholds) were not possible, but we moved on and up. Crampons and ice axe would have been nice - as I recall, no one had so much as a hiking pole. Up Little Devils Stairs, and then down Piney Creek, went Kurt, Kathleen, Jane, Maude (Jane’s dog), along with me with my collie Willow and at least one more person (female in red cap). Willow was just beginning her hiking career and didn’t know that it was possible to walk through water and survive. Maude, being older and more experienced, bounded through the innumerable water crossings, while Willow waited to be carried. It is an experience to carry a wet, squirming, 45-pound collie across first one water crossing, then another. We did a loop hike, with more crossings than I care to remember.
Arriving back at the cars, we took careful count to see that we still had the same number of people and dogs. Then, and only then, did we head back to the fireside for our hot chocolate.
Last summer, I did the same hike for the first time since that icy cold day in 1993. Little Devils Stairs was easier in warm weather, but only marginally so. I tried to call up the memory of Kurt leading us up that craggy ravine, hand over hand, as if climbing a long, icy staircase to the stars.
by Tom Johnson
*We hope you enjoy this adventurous story submitted by Tom Johnson that he wrote several years ago in remembrance of a special hike.*
Long ago and far away, when ice was on the land and Kurt was out and about, we decided to take a Saturday hike. Kurt advertised it as a daunting 18-mile traverse of the Bull Run-Occoquan Trail. Kurt had friends who wanted to do it, and he had volunteered to lead.
But when we showed up at the meeting place, Kurt’s friends had backed out, and now we were at liberty to select another hike that might not be 18 miles long. We pondered for a few moments, and then Kurt, our leader, said “How about Little Devils Stairs? That’s always nice in wintertime.” And so it was decided (everyone believing Kurt’s claim that it would be “awfully nice in snow and ice”) to do the thing.
After a long commute, we arrived at the trailhead for Little Devils Stairs. You might remember I said that ice was on the land. Was it ever! We knew we were in trouble when we tried to get out of our cars and couldn’t stand up. My Subaru wagon was our salvation because we could cling to the roof rack while we pondered our next move. Everyone in the group was for bagging the hike and returning to fireside with a nice mug of hot chocolate, but Kurt was for going on. So of course, we decided to go on. Not 100 yards from the parking lot, we first encountered the stream. In summer, it is a trickle, a step-over. Now, it was a raging torrent of frothing, icy death, carrying tree trunks and various debris valleyward. We stopped and pondered our next move. Crossing was clearly impossible, so of course we elected to cross.
Half an hour later, everyone had somehow crossed the river, holding onto blowdowns that had been turned crosswise by the water and ice and were wedged from one bank to the other. Once that was negotiated, we turned and began to climb.
Everything was coated with a thick layer of ice. Secure handholds (and footholds) were not possible, but we moved on and up. Crampons and ice axe would have been nice - as I recall, no one had so much as a hiking pole. Up Little Devils Stairs, and then down Piney Creek, went Kurt, Kathleen, Jane, Maude (Jane’s dog), along with me with my collie Willow and at least one more person (female in red cap). Willow was just beginning her hiking career and didn’t know that it was possible to walk through water and survive. Maude, being older and more experienced, bounded through the innumerable water crossings, while Willow waited to be carried. It is an experience to carry a wet, squirming, 45-pound collie across first one water crossing, then another. We did a loop hike, with more crossings than I care to remember.
Arriving back at the cars, we took careful count to see that we still had the same number of people and dogs. Then, and only then, did we head back to the fireside for our hot chocolate.
Last summer, I did the same hike for the first time since that icy cold day in 1993. Little Devils Stairs was easier in warm weather, but only marginally so. I tried to call up the memory of Kurt leading us up that craggy ravine, hand over hand, as if climbing a long, icy staircase to the stars.
