Beijing and Mongolia Part 1 Videos a la Brian

Brian's become a video editing software wizard and has worked some magic with the clips of video we took in Beijing and Mongolia. Here's Beijing and the Great Wall of Chiner. The music is from an album Bart gave Brian of music from Chinese movie soundtracks.

This one is the first half of Mongolia, before we got to the Gobi. The music in this one is from a CD we bought off of the people you'll see giving us a concert of Mongolian folk music in our ger. They were amazing and I love the Mongolian instruments and throat singing.
Maybe next week we'll get the Gobi video up and Shannon's photos. Only 10 more days of teaching in Korea before we're off to the next adventure!

Best Cliffs - McAfees Knob/Tinker Cliffs

We've been told by many that McAfees Knob is the most photographed place on the entire AT mainly becuase of the cliffs that jut out over the valley below with a vertical drop underneath. It is located just north of Catawba Virginia and is frequented by many dayhikers, but luckily it wasn't crowded at all when we were there early on a sunday morning. We passed Tinker Cliffs the same day as McAffes Knob and they were equally amazing. Tinker Cliffs are a little more remote and afford slightly better views, but lack the picturesque rocks of McAfees so its hard to pick a favorite.

The trail followed along the edge of Tinker Cliffs providing breathtaking views along this quarter mile long stretch

Best Swimming Hole - Dismal Falls

Dismal Falls came as a very nice break from an otherwise hot few days in southern Virginia. It was located about half a mile on a side trail in an stretch of the AT where there weren't many other noteworthy places to see. There was a great swimming hole right underneath the falls and a tentsite just behind a large rock that allowed us to camp near the falls without getting all of our stuff soaked by the mist in the process. The creek was wide and littered with large boulders that made exploring the area a lot of fun. We were very tempted to take a zero day here, but we were running low on food and needed to keep going.

Our Campsite


View From on top of the Falls

Best Waterfall - Laurel Fork Falls

The best waterfall we saw the entire trip was probably Laurel Fork Falls. The waterfall was on the Laurel Fork River about 30 miles or so after Roan Mountain (I think). Like many of the other spectacular sites on the trail it came with a cost - a very steep/rocky hike down, but obviously well worth it. Not only were the falls nice, but the river was a godsend because we were in desperate need of a bath (it had been about 5 days). There was also a great shelter with a nice spring located high up on a rocky area close the falls.

The trail wrapped around this rocky area just above Laurel Fork River


Hiking through a blooming rhododendron tunnel on the way to the falls


Laurel Fork Shelter


The Laurel Fork River

Best Rock Outcropping - Dragons Tooth

Located a few miles south of Catawba Virginia is an amazing Rock Outcropping known as Dragons Tooth. One of our favorite aspects of this formation was the climbable rock face that allows one to scramble up to the top. On top the top we had great 360 degree views of the surrounding area - kind of like you would have from a fire tower. The climb was a little scary but well worth the effort.


Climbing up was a little easier than climbing down


Brian on the top

Favorite Places: #1 (Tied) Roan Highlands

A view of Big Hump

Located in the Northern Section of North Carolina is Roan Mountain. It starts out with a tough 2000ft climb as you gradually make your ascent through everchanging forests until you reach the open summit with great views of the surrounding areas. It was also the location of the Cloudland Hotel, built in the 1800s as a resort - only a few ruins now remain. From there it was a short hike over to Roan High Knob - a wooded summit that has a great shelter and cold spring located right in the middle of a spruce/fir forrest. From there you make your way down to a gap with a parking area (this is where we met mom and dad). We hiked back up to Roan High Knob to spend the night with them at the summit. It was a cold night up above 6000 feet and a little rainy - the shelter on top of Roan High Knob is a 4 sided cabin (formerly a fire marshalls cabin) and is the highest shelter on the trail. The next day we hiked back down to the gap then up to Round Bald and Jane Bald. The weather was a little cloudy so the views weren't great, but watching the clouds sweep over the open grasslands was pretty cool. The second night we stayed at overmountain shelter. This shelter was an old barn and could probably sleep 30 people - which is nice because it is one of the most popular shelters on the trail because of the amazing views it affords of the valley below. The next day we hiked up to the humps. Big hump was our favorite part of this section - an extremely large open grassland with views of the beautiful surrounding north carolina mountains. Luckily the weather cleared up really nicley for us as we made the trek across the open summits. From there it was a long downhill hike to the gap below where mom and dad had parked the car. A really great July 4th weekend.

The Open Peak of Roan Mountain - not many ruins to see, but great views of the surrounding mountains.



The top of Roan High Knob - some of the most beautiful forests that we saw during the entire trip. Nestled in these trees was the cabin and an extremely cold water spring.


Clouds on top of Round Bald


Great view of the Sunset from Overmountain Shelter


Hiking up to Little Hump


Views from rocks on Little Hump


View from Big Hump


Me, Mom and Dad on top of Big Hump


Mom and Dad beginning the descent from Big Hump


Another view of Big Hump


Dad posing with some nice cliffs on the descent off of the Highlands

Favorite Places - #1 Grayson Highlands

We couldnt decide on a #1 favorite place that we walked through on the trail but it is definently between 2 places. The Grayson Highlands was an area near Mt. Rodgers which is the highest peak in Virginia. After you make that climb you descend slightly to the Highlands area. We stayed in a really nice shelter that night on our way to the highlands and had a beautiful view of the sunset. After that the area is comprised of about a 5 or 6 mile stretch through open grasslands at very high elevations (for the east coast) of over 5000 feet. We had beautiful views the entire time of the surrounding mountains. There were large rock outcroppings that we walked over/through along the way including "fat-man squeeze". ALong the edges of the grasslands there were spruce/fur trees that filled the air with an amazing fragrance. Perhaps one of the neatest aspects were the "wild" ponies that were released in order to maintain the grasslands. They were very friendly (most likely from being fed by hikers) and would even approached us as we made our way through that amazing area.

Picture of Ponies


The Shelter where we sletp in the Highlands - we were visited that night by some poines at about 3 am that came up in between the shelter and the picnic table


Some lovely rocks


Walking through "fatman squeeze", one of the rock formations


Family of wild ponies


Brian and his magical pony friend


Some more pretty mountains