You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
The Augusta Springs Wetlands
Oh, how nice: some pretty flowers. Maybe, in time, we'll see some more.
We're walking up the Upland Trail today, in the reverse direction from our usual one.
Passing the aging car wreck -- it's one of five or six sprinkled throughout the woods on this side of the ridge, but it's the only one that's squatting next to the path.
It's a pleasant, nearly level 20 minute approach, at a carefully nonchalant pace, to . . .
. . . this little bridge over the creek (which is presently dried out). This is part of our plan for today --
-- from here on, the path takes a long plod up onto the crossover at the top of the ridge, and we're experimenting a bit now.
Approaching from the other side up a longer, less steep track, our normal choice, could involve a grim interlude coming downhill along here, a disagreeable experience for the aging knees of older folks anytime, but these days rather a nightmare.
But we would like to learn whether the uphill access would still be as much fun as ever. Though slower than heretofore.
Yes, slower, a bit breathless, but yes, still as much fun as ever. We'll remember that for next time.
So now, it's down the somewhat gentler far side.
Also slower, unfortunately
Looks like we may have to look into calling a taxi.
Ah, rejoining our party again.
At the bottom of the incline on this side, that's a forbidden old access to a forestry road that's now part of the US government's Hotshot forest fire training ground. Our path leads off to the left.
Back out of the woods along a very nice path, that leads . . .
. . . to what must have been a carriage road for the guests of the old 19th century hotel and mineral springs spa. The creek on this side of the Upland Trail is just down to the right (also dry at the moment), and the former trail has been allowed to grow over since it's more frequently grotesquely muddy.
Get ready to leap over this mud-mess.
That's a crossover path up this lower end of the ridge, unsignposted when we first discovered it, but presently with a little marker up the hill. We're bypassing it today.
Out we go to the Wetlands Loop, and round to the . . .
. . . 500-meter boardwalk to help us along the (frequently) very wet meadows.
Farther along the open swamp-meadows (with the Hotshots' entrance road at the far end). Until a few years ago this whole thing was infested with the invasive marsh species Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata), successfully removed (mostly) by the authorities.
But in the photo just above, Kristin is observing that on this side of the walkway it's popping up again.
Lots of water round here, but it's not going anywhere for the moment.
'Wheelchair Accessible'
The info plaque here is pointing out the virtues of the snapping turtles.
Still more helpful forestry maintenance
There was originally a bottling plant along here on the left somewhere. Just saying . . .
No person who's spent 20 years communicating the virtues of wetlands to the wider world should be admitting that, in general, he doesn't much like wetlands.
About the only environment that one can't seriously go running in.
Looking for tadpoles (in vain)
As usual, unfortunately, no wildlife observed here again. Oh well . . . good exercise.
A good guide to the Wetlands Trail, though fairly well weathered over apparently many years
That was fun. 'Home then, you have done well -- home' (apologies to Virgil).
The 20-minute journey back to Staunton through some of the Augusta County architectural remains.
Sentara's Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville
A very nice hospital for certain purposes, and time to kill with a lunch on the patio.
And the trip turned out well, medically speaking.
The Montgomery Hall Park
Today we're taking off from the northern end of the Montgomery Hall jungle, behind that softball field.
Beginning along the Scout trail
There are three trails through the forest, two of which are complicated and lengthened by a myriad of loops and convolutions. We've planned a mix-and-match itinerary that should get us back to the car in precisely one hour.
And we've planned a route that avoids the most egregious ups and downs. Though this is the one tiny uphill alongside this railroad-adjacent part of the trail.
And now the down part of it -- Jump!
Just here, a few weeks ago, we ran into some deer, very nearby, who let us take their pictures.
The Amtrak track alongside (New York to Chicago and back, a few times a week)
We've just passed the bottom end of the Fern Gulley (which we don't plan to tackle on this trip) and are passing another Scout trail landmark. Disgusting, actually.
Some time later, we come up to the old tepee at a junction of the Scout and Yulee trails. Mercilessly destroyed recently, for no justifiable reason, one would have thought. But the remains still point us to a little known shortcut back down through the woods onto the Expressway path.
Which is where we are now. Our shortcut brought us to the top of the off-limits section of the Fern Gulley, and we're bustling down the Expressway now, as . . .
. . . in five minutes we'll be dropping down onto the bottom of the top unmaintained length of the Fern Gulley, to pass . . .
. . . just down round this corner, the top of the bottom Fern Gulley, the official one.
Though the Fern Gulley sign, which had disappeared earlier this season but reappeared just recently, has disappeared again.
Why? we ask.
That's looking down the lower Fern Gulley, where we're not going, because . . .
. . . we'll be continuing along the Expressway towards the softball field and the car.
And we're fully prepared for all of the convolutions and loops that we'll encounter!
Like this one coming up
And another right round that corner
There'll be another very soon.
-- Do stay on the path!
The most charming loop on the trail . . .
. . . as long as the old tree doesn't fall over at a bad time.
At this point, we can hear various comments from one of the disc golf clearings.
Very close to the end now, or rather . . .
. . . very close to a convenient shorter way out of here, off to the right.
Properly, the path continues for another 150 yards or so to join up with the beginning of the Scout trail, but since we're here . . . why not scuttle back up to the carpark?
[And maybe go home for a nap.]
And to our car, which we parked under a tree for the shadows, but which is now roasting in broad sunlight. This was a very enjoyable day out -- or rather exactly an hour out. But very enjoyable.
Next up: Further dispatches are awaited.
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All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 26 May 2026.
