Mint Springs Park - May 21, 2016

Deb Jones , Nancy Handley, Dave Borszich, Leon Gorman at the Mint Springs Park trailhead

Marit Anderson (hike leader) at right rounds out the group

     Rain kept a few hikers away that had planned to meet us, but the fivesome were pleasantly surprised with no rain throughout the hike. We traversed up and down roughly 4.9 miles of trails at Mint Spings Park in Western Albemarle County making a loop on the Fire Trail, Survey Trail, Hollow Trail, Little Yellow Trail, Mountain Orchard Trail, and Lake Trail.  Footage was muddy and there were a number of creek crossings after the previous night of intense showers, but we had the trails to ourselves with no other mountain bikers, hikers, or trail runners out early. We enjoyed the solitude!

Dave hops the stream as we trekked over Bucks Elbow Mountain

All the moisture is bringing out the mushrooms

As we crossed over Little Yellow Mountain we had a view of Kings Family Vineyard

     After our two hour walk we enjoyed lunch and chocolate chip cookies under the pavilion by the upper lake.  Fishermen were out and trail runners were making their way to the trail head. We acknowledged the nearby memorial remembering the 26 people who died in the charter flight in 1959 crashing into Bucks Elbow Mountain. At this point we  all decided a glass of local wine was in order, so we made our way to Stinson Vineyards about 10 minutes away.  It was a fun way to play on a gray day in May.

It started to rain when we got to the Stinson Winery. How convenient, so we hunkered down in the fermenting room!

Submitted by Marit Anderson