Sherando River Hiking

Yesterday was a gorgeous day! I've wanted to go on more hikes and explore more around here. Usually I am not a person that deals with the cold very well, but it wasn't that bad. My friend Mary and I decided to do a sunset hike at Sherando Lake. It was about an hour away from Charlottesville. We walked up to Lookout Rock on the blue trail loop which was .5 miles. Don't let the .5 miles fool you it is a nice uphill hike, but definitely doable. It definitely got my HR up. The blue trail loop is 2.5miles, but after we got up to Lookout Rock we turned back around. We made it to the Lookout rock close to sunset and we decided it would be best not to navigate the trail in the dark. We ended up doing around 2 miles in all because we had to walk back to our car because the road to the Sherando Lake was closed.

(Sorry for the blurry phone picture)

 Someone wrote SOS in the gravel in the parking area for the hike.

The lake was frozen which was really pretty.

 

I was so nervous to step on the ice.

 

 

Pretty view from the Lookout Rock

So pretty

 

Hiking Adventure

Today Mary and I went on an adventure hike today. We hiked Spy Rock which is about a hour drive from Charlottesville. We didn't really know what to expect because it was our first time. We tried to read a little on the hiking trail. I personally haven't done tons of hiking before so I was excited about the experience. Well it was definitely worth the work. However, there was one minor thing we didn't think  about before the hike and that was snow. It wasn't actually snowing, but there was a good bit of snow on the ground. Me being so outdoorsy wore my nice new running shoes. Surprisely my feet did not get wet, however it was slippery at times for sure. We had our nice walking sticks that were a lifesaver. We both ended up falling once, but I am surprised it wasnt more than that. At parts it was scary because we had to actually climb up a rock with snow, but we made it!! The hike was about 1.3 miles. It felt like forever cause it was pretty uphill in snow. We didnt walk too fast just to avoid slipping. Anyways heres some photos

 

 

My Cheesy Video

 

 

This pic is actually from Crabtree falls hike, but we only went as far as the waterfall