Appalachian Trail near Harper's Ferry

We started at the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship (BRC) near Harper's Ferry, WV. It is about 2.5 miles from the trail head to the beginning of the Appalachian Trail. We were greeted at the BRC by 2 cute dogs. The one in the picture decided to be our guide. It was fun having him on the trail with us...at one point he was chasing a deer. He would run ahead of us and then circle back. He was ahead of us when we stopped and turned around....I'm sure he found his way home but I missed him on the return trek.

This is the view from the top of the hill up to the Appalachian Trail. It was a hard climb for me...it's steeper than it looks in this picture. This area is called "Butterfly Alley". When we were climbing up there were lots of beautiful butterflies (see a few pictures in the album http://picasaweb.google.com/jane.quist/AppalachianTrail7707?authkey=bwWyWo4nOqc). This was the only hard part of the run for me...so I didn't feel to badly about my ability to keep up with Alan....who patiently waited for me along the way.

This is at the top. You can see the hill in the back ground....it seems like the one we climbed was that high...or higher...maybe twice as high...or more ;).

This is on the way back. You can see the slope better in this picture. Going down was fun. The butterfly are smart enough to take a siesta in the heat of the day. We saw some in the shady area around Butterfly Alley.