Best laid plans

Its always difficult to make plans when dealing with mountains, I had another 2 days off and wanted to get away from work asap, This did not happen and i was late leaving so tried to make up time in travel, This also did not happen as i was stuck in traffic, In my panic to get there i pulled off the interstate to grab a burger and hit a curb with my rear wheel heavily scuffing the alloy wheel, This will bug me for a long time until the wheel is refurbished, I was heading to spend the first night on the Blue ridge parkway in Virginia, a 3.5 hour drive, I hit storms as i got into VA with lots of lightening and extremely heavy rain, The narrow twisty roads bring my speed down to 20 miles per hour at times as i struggled to see the road, I arrived at the campsite at 10pm and boy was it dark, I had to decide whether to sleep in the car or put my tent up, In the end i got the tent up and settled in before the heavens opened again, One thing that came out of the deluge was that my Big Agnes tent is totally water tight, I love that tent, The plan was to get up early and photograph Mabry mill just down the road, I have shot there before but wanted better light, I was up and on the road at 7am, The light was bright and there was a mist, I arrived at the mill and instantly started to shoot but knew the light was not great, I decided once i had some shots to grab some breakfast in the cafe there and see how the light was once i had a full stomach, Once i was full of blueberry pancakes i walked out and instantly noticed the better light, I shot the mill from various angles then hit the road heading back to McAfees Knob, The forecast was not great but i decided to get up there and make my mind up whether to stay the night or give it best, I wanted to get shots on the knob at both sunset and sunrise and also during the night, I packed my 50ltr Osprey backpack with tent,food,water and camera gear, It weighed 35lb but felt like 50lb, I got to the top quickly considering and hung around there taking shots and talking to people, There was a family from Scotland and a couple of girls from Florida, I took images of them and myself, The sky was great but quickly changeable, There was a 90% chance of rain from 6pm and during the night, That news was enough to make my mind up and in the end i decided to make my way down and head home, There is always another time and stormy weather on top of a mountain is not the nicest place to be, There is always another time, So my days off did not go to plan but there was some good moments, My time up to the Knob with a heavy backpack was the same as my last visit with a much lighter backpack so i guess the leg presses in the guy are working, Either way its all good exercise,

Click on the images to make bigger

The beautiful Mabry Mill

Back on McAfee's Knob

The girls from Florida

Kirsty from Aberdeen about to move and school at Penn State

You can see how changeable the sky and weather is and that's the magic of shooting in the mountains

Click on the Comments/No Comments below to leave a comment

Dave