It was a special night, one night after the 2015 Blue Moon, with sunset and moonrise just 40 minutes apart. Twenty two adventurers headed a mile south on the AT from Beagle Gap to the communication towers on Bear’s Den Mountain in order to take in this late summer spectacle.
We had several new hikers with us this time: Cindy Shuffield, Nancy Handly, Kathy and Ed Allenby, Nick Liacopoulos. Natalie Siler, and Sean Bias. The Charlottesville PATC hiking gold star of the day went to CJ Woodburn and David Crowe who participated in both chapter hikes this day! The rest were veteran and erratic attendees: Marian Styles, John Shannon, Jeanne Siler, Neil McKinney, Debra Fisher, Ginny Barber, Emerald Young, Lisa and Kyle Lampe and Max, Rich Bard, Brian Muszynski, and Mary Craig.
To entertain ourselves in the dusk before the moon rose, we managed to consume a wide range of shared food offerings - cinnamon bread, cookies, grapes, cheese, and John’s antioxidant bread. Brian also provided summer sky constellation tutorials. The big, red moon rose and then hid behind a cloud before re-emerging blue-white. Most of us descended about 10pm along the fire road illuminated by the bright moon. A nice way to welcome August!
