Quaker Run Fire
We spent a few days driving through Virginia, including a couple stops near Richmond to go mountain biking and visit High Bridge Trail State Park.
Heading further west, we planned for our first big hike in a while to be climbing Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park. We found a campground near the trailhead, paid for our spot, pulled in, looked around, and saw this:
Well, the damn hill’s on fire.
We also then saw that there were helicopters flying water drops to the fire, including this one that was filling up from a pond right across the road.
So this was slightly disconcerting, but the wind was blowing the smoke away from us, and the nearby residents didn’t seem overly concerned, so we spent most of the day hanging out and watching the helicopters.
In the evening the wind dropped and the valley started filling up with smoke, and a general evacuation of the area was suggested, so we left the campground and drove down to a shopping area to sleep near a Lowes loading dock. While I’m annoyed at losing the money for the campground, I do like these images, and am also happy to not be dead.
