Hike to High Knob Fire Detection Tower

My first time hiking to High Knob Fire Tower in the George Washington National Forest.  This tower is on the list of National Historic Lookout sites, built in 1939 by WWI vets, finished by the CCC in 1940, and rehab'd in 2002, it is the last standing fire tower in the GW National Forest.  It is empty but the catwalk is open to the public -- those who want to hike in -- about two miles -- uphill -- from the parking lot on US 33 at the Virginia-West Virginia state line.

 

There's also a High-Knob Tower in the Jefferson National Forest, but that one is much newer and many miles to the south.  This High-Knob Fire Tower sits right on the VA-WV state line, as does the sign shown below.  There is a USCGS bench marker right behind this sign which marks the state line to the nearest 1/16th of an inch.

View to the southwest, below, looking into West Virginia.
The green stripe in the center of the picture is a grassy road about a mile away

 

Below:  View to the north.

Below:  the inside of the fire tower.  The wire visible in the top of the windows is actually the lightning arresting gear running around the outside of the rafters, grounding the tower from lightning strikes.

 

The tower is just under 2 miles from the (relatively) new parking lot on US Highway 33 on the Virginia/West Virginia border.  The hike is gorgeous, but it is almost totally uphill all the way, and the last half-mile is very, very steep, almost like climbing stairs.  It is an invigorating hike.  I had to stop every 100 feet or so and rest and catch my breath.

Cardinal and Goldfinch

Crummy picture, taken through the screen on telephoto.  But the first time I've caught a cardinal and a goldfinch together.

Elkhorn Lake, Staunton Dam and Aquaduct, and Braley Pond

 Above is a photo of Elkhorn Lake, in the George Washington National Forest, up in the Allegheny Front mountains, about 20 miles west of our home.  This is about 3 miles from the Virginia-West Virginia border (on the Virginia side, of course).

Above:  View from the top of Elkhorn Lake Dam, looking down at the outlet pipes.  The lake empties into the North River, which combines with the Middle and South Rivers (at Port Republic) to form the North Fork of the Shenandoah River.

Below: View of the Elkhorn Dam from the lake side.  The weather is perfect, nice and cool, I was surprised there weren't people around.  Of course, being miles into the wilderness might explain the lack of a crowd.

This is the lake above Staunton Dam, on the North River.  This is about 3 miles downstream from the Elkhorn Lake..

 This is the Staunton Dam, on the North River.  This dam appears to have been built around, oh, say, about the time of the Roman Empire, given its dilapidated state.   

 The spillway is about 50 feet high, although it looks a lot less from this angle.

 Trout hiding under the driftwood in the pool beneath the dam.  They were about 10 inches long.

 The sign at the Staunton Dam.  The water intake building is in the background.

 I stumbled across this cave in the forest about half a mile below the Staunton Dam.  This cave looked interesting, so I investigated.

 The cave appeared to be gated and heavily locked.

 This is the view between the bars, using the flash.  This appears to be the entrance to a tunnel which holds the piping for the aquaduct which carries the water from the Staunton Dam down to the valley to the city of Staunton's water works.

Braley Pond Picnic Area, just off of Highway 250 west of Staunton.  View from the top of the Braley Pond Dam.  Braley Pond is part of the headwaters for the Middle River.  This is about ten miles south of Elkhorn Lake and 12 miles south of Staunton Dam.

Allen's Homecoming from Afghanistan

 Cutting the yellow ribbon off Mama Marge's tree.

 With Mama Marge and Daddy Bill...

I'm proud of my soldier.