Ragged Mountains

We had done hike to Ragged Mountains on 28th July 2019 . It is located in Charlettsville, Virginia State.

Hike Location:

Name: Ragged Mountains
Distance: 61 miles from Henrico (approx)
Total hiking distance: 6.1 miles
Elevation Gain: 980 ft
Hike Team: me and  my wife.

Hiking Experience:  We woke up around 4:45 am and packed our breakfast, water bags and started around 5:59 am. The hiking area is one hour distance from our home. On our way , we saw two horses one white and one is brown one.

After that when we were about to reach parking lot we saw two deers and one of those is baby deer with dots. We were surprised because it was the first time we saw deer with white spots outside of zoo. We reached the parking lot around 6:58 am. By the time we reached we were the only one in that parking lot.It was little sunny along with cold air. We started our hike around 7:05 am. The trail was nice and little narrow but it is enough for two people to walk side by side. Then it got steep, like we almost touch our knees to our chin. The trail is completely covered with rocks and trees's roots But that was not so bad after 12 minutes as we reached the flat trail. We saw many big and large trees and the half of the trail in this hike is covered with big roots of these trees. We got two wooden sticks for us which were quite helpful while walking along the trail. Then we saw reservoir ,it was so beautiful. After sometime we saw one statue of a man holding a big gun. The statue just looked like a real hunter. Then we saw the upper loop trail board and followed that way. After some time we crossed two big private houses. Then after a while of walking we reached bear statue. There were two bears, one of them is baby one. The statue is so beautiful.

It was almost like a real bear. Soon we saw one mile mark on a two person wooden bench and then we saw a lake to the right of the trail. The lake is very big and beautiful. Actually the hike was doing a big loop around the lake. We saw many fish in that lake and the water is glittering because of the sunlight. It was a beautiful scenery to watch. Sometimes the trail was getting narrow and after couple of yards hiking the trails becomes wide again. We then reached the eagle statue. It was spectacular like almost a real eagle holding fish in its beak. Behind the statue in 10 steps ahead we saw a small wooden bridge. Then the trail was little off from the lake into the woods but the lake can be seen throughout. We saw a big wooden bridge. After that we saw a fallen tree in the middle of the trail. We saw two mile mark on chair. The trail was so beautiful and the ambiance of the nature was very nice. Then we saw a owl statue and that was so perfect in sculpture. Then after a while the trail came little closer to the lake .We saw the little 3 mile chair. The trees were shining in the sunlight even the dead and fallen trees along with the woods, everything looked so pleasant. The green leaves were glowing like emerald stones in the sunlight at the same time the dried leaves were shining like ruby stones.

We saw a small stream and there was a small wooden log on the steam to cross it. We saw the 4 mile chair and had our breakfast around 9:35 am. Then we reached to the floating bridge. It was very big and so strong.The bridge was made connection to the other side of the trail. The lake was so beautiful on that bridge. After the bridge the trail was little slippery for few steps. Then we saw 5 mile chair ,then we saw 4 big  trees joined at trunk. All of them were very big and long. After sometime we saw 6 mile chair. The hike distance is 6.1 miles, but we walked for some more time, it was nearly 1 mile more. Then we came out from forest and we saw the reservoir and a big bridge, we took some pictures on the bridge. Some people were doing kayaking over there we saw many kayaking boats too. Slowly the climate was getting hot. And then we were little confused about the hiking trail. Then we went in wrong direction for a while after that we changed our direction to other side as we saw another parking area. There were two parking areas. From that parking area we saw the trail but we were not sure as the trail was so steep and leading into the woods. We did not know how to go for the other parking area where we parked our car.

We asked some kayaks about the correct way to another parking area. They said there are two way one way is the main road area which we took initially and came back and another one is to follow the steep trail and will take more time. Then we chose the main road one. While walking on main road we saw a trail towards our left into the forest and decided to take that. Soon after walking couple of steps we saw the trail splitting into two trails and felt like we already seen it before. Then we went through the trail(towards the right) and yes we already went through that trail when started our hike ,from there only we saw the reservoir. Then we recognized our trail and the way to parking area. So we happily went along that path. We saw the place where we got the wooden sticks and we threw back them there. After 10 minutes we reached the parking area around 10:55 am. We started to our home around 10:57 am. We liked this hike very much, we did a big loop around the beautiful lake and saw many statues. They were really nice sculptures and great art, they almost looked like the real ones. We started our hike in cold weather but after our hike was complete it was very hot. We reached our home around 12:11 pm. We had a great time with this hike and we collected lot of memorable moments. We enjoyed a lot.  All is Well.
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Powhatan State Park

We had done camp on 29th June 2019. It is located in Virginia State.

Camp Location:

Name: Powhatan State Park.

Distance: 19 miles from Henrico, Richmond (approx)
Site type: Electric
Camp Team: me and my wife.
Camp Items: Camp Stove, Gas, Charcoal, Lighter, Food items, Table Cloth, fire wood, tent, Sleeping bag, Cutlery, Trays, Water, Torches, Lantern, Small fan, Small table, Dutch Oven,Pillows,Two coolers.

Camping Experience:
             We started around 3:30 pm from home. The weather was very hot. This campground is very near to us. Around 4:00 pm we reached Powhatan State Park. We went to the park office for check in but it was closed and nobody were there.

Then we were getting back to the entrance and suddenly we saw one lady is coming from the office.Then we got back to the office again. She explained everything about that park and we checked in. Around 4:32 pm we reached our campsite. Our campsite was very nice.That day it was very hot but we did not feel that much heat because the campsite was surrounded by large trees and cool breeze. The site has clean area for tent. Entire site was fully covered with small stones. There were Wooden picnic table, fire pit and grill on top of it for barbecue, electric hook up, water hook up and place for car parking at the camp site.First we pitched our tent . Then brought out all food items and coolers from the car. We made Camp fire Nachos and Lasagna on that day. We arranged all things for Camp fire Nachos and we placed them in dutch oven. We put dutch oven on the heated charcoal and few coal pieces placed on lid of the dutch oven. This is the first time we have used dutch oven. We were very much excited to taste the food made in dutch oven. After 15 minutes the Camp fire Nachos were ready to eat. These nachos were so good and very tasty. The taste was very different in this vessel. We liked it very much. Then we ate BBQ marshmallows.

After that we went for walk, spent sometime in the chilled weather. One side of our campsite we saw many children playing over there, some doing cycling,some were simply jumping in their personal small pool.It was fun to watch kids enjoying in the open wild space. And another side of our campsite we saw two old couple.The old man simply sat before his campfire and was drinking some coffee or cool drink and the old lady took her small pets and went for walk. After sometime we saw them sitting together in front of campfire and eating. We felt very happy watching the old couple and living their life and words are not sufficient to express these sightings. Actually, it was like we saw our future stages related to us. In first stage we are going to have many responsibilities. And in the second stage we want be live like that old couple.While we were talking all these things, the camp officer stopped by with a small corn snake in her hand. She told about the camp fire in that park to us and welcomed us to there. Then we started to arrange all things for Lasagna.We placed all ingredients in dutch oven one by one like layers and placed the oven on heated coal. After half an hour around 9:00 pm we had our dinner as Lasagna it was so tasty.After our dinner we put all the food and cooking items in the car. Then we went for walk, while we were walking we decided to go to that park campfire and saw a man who is working in that park.

We went to him and asked about campfire, he said campfire was already done at 8:30 pm. In a little while we missed it, then we continued our walk for another sometime and we reached our tent around 10:15 pm. We arranged our small fan to the roof of tent and saw many stars from inside the tent.We watched a movie in the tent. Then we slept around 11:40 pm. In the mid night the tent went so cold because of the weather and little fan. We had very good sleep that night.Next day morning we woke up around 5:30 am with birds chirping.It was like we do not need any alarm for awake.The sunrise was very beautiful to watch. We done our morning chores and had our breakfast around 7:25 am. We packed the tent and all the things around 8:00 am. We started to home around 8:15 am because of the weather, it's getting so hot. We dumped all trash on our way and reached home around 9:00 am. This time we enjoyed a lot, we tried new things and new food items. We woke up with beautiful birds natural music. We started our day very pleasant and we collected more beautiful memories.All is Well.
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