Humpback Rock on foggy October day

 Top of Humpback Rock is shrouded in fog as viewed from the farm on Friday, October 11, 2013.

 Blue Ridge Parkway as seen from entrance to Humpback Rock hike parking area.

Humpback Rock hiking area had vehicles in the parking lot on a foggy, drizzly day. The assumption would be they had hiked to the top.

Photos by Lynn R. Mitchell
October 11, 2013

Spring has arrived at Blue Ridge Parkway's Humpback Rock Farm

Steps to the past ...

It was a nice day -- temps in upper 70s -- to visit Humpback Rock Farm with spring blossoms and flowering trees. It's not officially open yet for the tourist season -- the Visitor Center is scheduled to open in a couple of weeks and the farmstead's reenactors will return Memorial Day -- but that made it even nicer because we had it to ourselves.

The white blossoms of Virginia's state tree, the dogwood, could be seen at the farmstead and throughout the wooded mountainsides.

I don't know what this beautiful pink blooming bush is ... anyone know?

Dogwood blossoms

There were dozens of bicyclists on the Parkway and at Afton Mountain overlook.

Howardsville Turnpike offered the road less traveled....

Photos by Lynn R. Mitchell
16 April 2012

Frosty mountain sets poetic mood for Richmond hiker

It's winter in the Virginia mountains and, for the first time in a long while, everything has been snow-covered for weeks, thanks to the longest cold snap in years.

Richmond outdoorsman Andy Thompson recently hiked the closed Blue Ridge Parkway to Humpback Rock Farm. His remembrance of that day is in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch in his piece, "Frosty mountain sets poetic mood," where he very well captures the feeling of isolation, cold (frigidness), and admiration for the mountain people who lived there a century ago:

It's hard to convey the sense of isolation up there. Less than two hours earlier, we'd left snowless Richmond; the weatherman said River City would get to 40 degrees. Up on the mountain, we were alone in a winterscape. A few old cross-country ski tracks ran alongside us. Animal prints crisscrossed the road. Treetops offered a brittle creaking, straining not to snap in the wind. It felt as if it had been a long time since another human had come this way.

As mentioned in a previous post, a two-foot snowfall would have isolated the hardy folks who lived in the mountains in those days.

Mr. Thompson reintroduced me to a poet I had read years ago, Robert W. Service, who wrote about the Canadian north and the men who invaded that land to search for gold:

In Service's most famous poem, "The Cremation of Sam McGee," the key lesson is perspective. The title character is from Tennessee and can't handle the Yukon cold. In a world of hard men, McGee was the only one who complained. There was no room for Sam McGees in a place like Humpback Rocks 300 years ago. The challenges of life were too many and too self-evident to grouse about.

Mr. Thompson's words reminded me of my relatives, the hardy stock who still live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia and North Carolina. Visiting my great-grandparents' log cabin on a mountain knob in western Grayson County, Virginia, I have often marveled at the survival skills of those who went before me.

Years ago I asked an elderly relative, who has since passed away, how she had survived in that isolated cabin during the harsh winters with cracks in the walls, water fetched from a nearby spring, and a fireplace as the only heat source. She had married young and lived in the cabin briefly with her in-laws around the 1900s. Her first child had been born there, and she and her husband later settled nearby where she lived out the remainder of her years. I was having a hard time imagining raising an infant under those frigid winter conditions.

She smiled at my question, shrugged her shoulders, and said, "I don't know. We just did it."

"We just did it" ... because there was nothing else to do. They didn't complain. The just did it.

Mr. Thompson's thoughts during his hike made me thankful for those hardy Irish folks.

Sunday: Humpback Rocks Farm "Day on the Homestead"

Humpback Rocks Visitor Center & Farm Museum

The Humpback Rock can be seen at top of mountain from homestead.

Scarecrow watches the garden on a mountain farm.

Music was a big part of mountain farm life.

Musicians entertained visitors with music from the old days.

Humpback Rocks Farm is located at Milepost 5.8 on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Humpback Rock Farm hike ...

Winter 2010: Frosty mountain sets poetic mood for Richmond hiker
Winter 2010: Parkway reopens after winter snows
Spring 2012: Spring comes to Humpback Rock Farm
Summer 2011: Summer along Skyline Drive & Blue Ridge Parkway
Autumn 2011: September in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Autumn 2008: Quilting Bee at Humpback Rock Farm
Autumn 2007: Autumn at Humpback Rock Farm


Photos by SWAC Girl
Lynn R. Mitchell
11 October 2009

Quilting Bee at Humpback Rocks Mountain Farm on Friday

Blue Ridge Beauty Quilt

Every cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains had quilts, those warm pieces of art that patched scraps of material together into a cover that kept pioneers warm on cold winter nights.

Friday at the Humpback Rocks Mountain Farm, located at milepost 5.8 on the Blue Ridge Parkway (six miles south of Afton Mountain), a free quilting bee will be held for any who wish to participate.

The frame took up the entire room of a cabin ... neighbor women would gather to visit and sew. My grandmother made many quilts that I own to this day ... cloth that formed a palate of color to show off the unique style and fine stitching of the lady who designed and sewed it.

Step back in time ... try your hand at a few stitches ... and join in an old-fashioned quilting bee! Info: (540) 943-4716.

Autumn in the Shenandoah Valley ... Humpback Rock Farm

Humpback Rock Farm cabin....

Visitor Center at the farm located on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Rock walls were popular on mountain homesteads....

View of Humpback Rock from farm....

Rock wall encloses the barnyard....
Barn....

Photos by SWAC Girl
October 27, 2007

Dancing with the Blue Ridge....

This week's gorgeous spring weather made us head for the mountains on an overcast day that looked like rain but none materialized..... The Blue Ridge Parkway was open after an ice storm in February had snapped trees and closed it to traffic.



A popular hiking spot, Humpback Rock, was a landmark for early settlers who, from 1851 until the early 1900s, drove wagonloads of goods on the Howardsville Turnpike between Howardsville and the Shenandoah Valley. The road is a nice drive even today as it descends to the Lyndhurst area of the Valley.



At milepost 6 is Humpback Gap which is now the start of the trail that goes to the top of Humpback Rock. This area was often used as a camping spot for travelers and is still a field today. The rock fence around the parking area and across the drive was said to have been build by slaves of a plantation owner.


Humpback Rocks Homestead is a learning experience for all ages and I never cease to be amazed at the tenacity of the early settlers who lived in this often-inhospitable place.

By using native materials they were able to build cabins and outbuildings, erect fences, build rock walls, chimneys, and foundations, and use nuts and berries to supplement the homegrown veggies as well as raise animals and hunt for game in the surrounding woods.

When I was still teaching my children we often visited the homestead in all seasons ... but my favorite time was when there were few people around and it was possible to linger alone and imagine life in these mountains....


More damage from the February ice storm was visible with down trees that had snapped and fallen around the cabins.

This tree had fallen across one of the rock walls.


Overlooking it all is Humpback Rock....

There are dozens of trails in the Humpback area as well as a nice picnic area.


The Blue Ridge Parkway winds through Humpback Gap.


Early settlers camped in this field on the trip between the Valley and Howardsville.



Sign is a teaching tool to explain and illustrate how Humpback Gap's field was cleared by pioneers. To paraphrase the Statlers, "There is Virginia ... and then there is the rest of the world." There is no place I'd rather be ... and there will be many more jaunts in the surrounding mountains throughout the spring....