Hiking Huskey Gap Trail

I've never seen a lot of cars parked at the lot for the Huskey Gap Trail and it wasn't far from our rental house so I thought I'd give it a try on Saturday morning.  We were expecting a few more distant relatives to show up for lunch so I was on the trail by 8 AM and was the only car in the lot.

At 8AM the temperature was just barely 50F so I had to keep my hands in my jacket pockets and I kept my hiking buddy snuggled in there too.

Right away I spotted some Wild Geranium and was hopeful I'd be seeing a few new wildflowers on this trail.

Wild Geranium

I'm assuming the reason this trail isn't as popular is because it was a grueling steady climb.  Not steep enough to require stairs to be built, but there was only one short level spot near the beginning and then it was up, up, up. An elevation gain of 1240 feet in 2 miles is nothing to sneeze at in this flatlander's opinon.

Crested Dwarf Iris lined the trailhead

Some of my new favorite wildflowers made an appearance along with the previously unseen ones.

Showy Orchis

White Baneberry?

The wildflower distribution on this trail seemed to almost appear in organized sections.  Huge patches of one kind of flower or another would blanket both sides of the trail for awhile before giving way to another variety.

Soon there will be lots of Bloodroot blooming, and there was also a ton of this unidentified plant below.

The Early Meadowrue was in abundance in one section as well.

Early Meadowrue

The trail kept going and kept giving me something new to look at.  Otherwise that endless climb might have deterred me.

Yellow Mandarin

fading White Trillium

With all the stopping and admiring I didn't get sweaty or out of breath, but it wasn't long before the sun started pouring in as I kept going higher.

Yellow Trillium with a surprise inside

As always happens there came a point where I thought for sure I must have missed something.  Shouldn't I have gotten to the top already?  After all it's only 2 miles, how slow was I going anyway?

Race you to the top!

Bishop's Cap

One of the benefits of going slow was I spotted some fading Squirrel Corn.  The rest of the nearby plants had lost all their blooms, but I looked hard as I kept gaining elevation and was eventually rewarded with a few plants that weren't yet past their prime.  It seemed to like growing in wet, rocky sections.

Squirrel Corn

Suddenly it was pretty obvious I was near the top.  Ground cover got scarce and there were no leaves on the trees.  I'd been on the trail for 2 hours and it was really warming up.

The summit was reached!  As tempting as it was to choose a direction and keep going I turned around and headed back down.  I might not have met any bears or people on this hike, but it was a great way to start the day.

Today's day started with a drive in the rain to work and the temperature readout on my dashboard only read 40F.  Thank goodness I still have these posts - I can pretend for a little while that I'm still where it's warm.  I'm planning next spring's escape already - I can't decide whether to head for Georgia in March or the Red River Gorge of Kentucky in April.