Nicholson Hollow, August 31, 2013

Reported by John Shannon

With summer still effective, and it being a holiday, a water hike without lots of climbing seemed appropriate, so off to Nicholson Hollow. Seven of us left Charlottesville and met Kelly Gueli and Mike Brown at the crowded Old Rag parking lot.

Photo by Dan Ralston

Early on, it felt hot and humid, but further up the trail, that feeling disappeared. Despite recent rain, the river was not high and thus easily crossed. After the last crossing, we were near a large swimming hole, where we found a large, quiet timber rattler which slowly moved. Perhaps that was why there was no interest in swimming, so we pushed on, even those who initially wanted to hike only 5 miles.

At Corbin Cabin, we ate lunch in the river, and were greeted by Blue-Blazed Central District Manager Patrick Wilson who was running along some trails for a quick inspection. He recognized some of us from the Little Calf relocation project.

After lunch, Kelly and Mike chose to follow the trail to its end on Skyline Drive. Dan Ralston,who was

recording the trail to ensure that the PATC map is up to date, stayed with the main group rather than seeing the whole trail.

On our way out, we paused at one of our classic swim holes, but the group decided to keep going and found a couple of pools where fish tried to eat CJ Woodburn’s feet.

The parking lot was still crowded on our return, leading us to wonder about the many people presumably on

Old Rag.

One carload stopped in Etlan for ice cream before heading into a very heavy rainstorm, which slowed us down. In our concern to get back in time to avoid football traffic, we did not know that the football game was delayed by the storm. We wondered whether the many people on Old Rag also experienced the lightning and heavy rain we did.

Others hiking today were Lindsay Brown, Bev and Pete Fink, and Kelly O’Rourke.