Wildcat Mountains Hike

Today my friend Nathan and I went hiking on the Wildcat Mountain Natural Area hiking trail in Warrenton, Va. This is the first time that this trail has been hiked by the both of us, so we were extremely excited to get the day started.

I picked up Nathan at his house at around 8:30 am this morning, and we proceeded to go westward toward Warrenton, and where the Wildcat Mountains lie in wait for us. On the way there I comment that I recently downloaded a new app named EveryTrail for my iphone that I wanted to try it out today, and Nathan then announces that he was also just downloading that app. As we park my car, and approach the kiosk for the trail, Nathan grabs a map for the Natural Area so we can use it as reference.

After closely observing our map we head of to begin our adventure.

Along the way we encountered some data plaques that had some fascinating information about the local flora. I do apologize in that some of these pictures are blurry. At the time of taking these pictures I did believe that I was taking them appropriately.

We found a turtle along the trail that we dubbed as Tyler, because he is a huge turtle fan. He was extremely shy, and completely shut itself out from the world.

The first picture is of the Spring House from far away, and the following are the pictures that we took of the Smith House.

We found this fruit next to the Smith House. Anybody know what it is? Trying to learn more about it.

After leaving the area that had the settler homes we continued hiking north past where the recommended trail was marked. We ended up in a private property that had a huge and beautiful house, some horses, and a great view. Unfortunately I did not think of taking pictures of the house, because I thought it would be rude.

Since we had not taken the advised route and decided to go exploring the trails we came upon the following sign.

Nathan posing for the camera as he drinks from his Home Depot water bottle. Corporate advertising anyone?

We found a second turtle on our trip and we named this one Courtney, after our friend who had a turtle that she found on our last hiking trip.

This is where we took our lunch, and rested a little bit before finishing the hike.

On the way down we found another fruit. Anybody know what this one is? If so please comment.

A better view of the two fruits together.