June 15 2011: Killer Deer or a case of Mistaken Identity?--on the Blue Ridge Parkway

This is my craziest outdoor experience I've ever had!

On Wednesday the 15th of June, my wife, cocker spaniel, and I arrived at the Peaks of Otter Campground, Milepost 85, on the Virginia Blue Ridge Parkway. We found a level campground site and parked our RV on Loop "T'. The campground is lush with quite a forest canopy and ferns and grasses everywhere. The deer here are quite used to people and generally don't run away when approached.

After dinner, about 8:30pm--just about sunset--I began walking my 28 lb golden red cocker spaniel (Murphy) around the RV campground. By the time we were walking along the upper loop light was gone; I spied a large, dark, stationary object ahead, on the right edge of the road by the leaves. My first reaction was that I had encountered a bear, but when I turned on my flashlight and pointed it at the object, I saw a large young female deer.

She was undeterred by the flashlight, so we slowly walked towards her, on the left side of the road. Her eyes followed us continually, until we were alongside of her. Murphy tugged at the leash to get closer, but I was wary of getting within the distance of her hooves. She didn't flinch or move.

I continued walking past her, but I kept my head turned towards her as I felt a little unsettled by this event. After she had followed us with her eyes and head for an arc of 180 degrees, I finally turned my back to her and continued walking Murphy.

Suddenly, I hear thundering hooves on the paved roadway, and the female deer rushes past us, dashing into the woods, and getting ahead of us--she then turns around and faces us! I've never experienced anything like this and am scared as to what this deer's intentions are.

I turn my flashlight onto her face and just watch her watching us, for about 30 seconds. I decide that this is not the time to continue walking this looppast here and instead take a left turn and head down a small path to the lower loop, all the while facing her and pointing my flashlight in her face.

When I get half way down the small path, the deer has not followed us any further--and I hear the voice of a fellow female camper who had observed all of this, asking me if the deer had won? I replied 'yes' and returned to my RV.

Below is the picture of my 28 lb cocker spaniel Murphy--do you think that I had encountered a killer deer, or do you think that the female deer thought that Murphy was a tiny fawn?

Blue Ridge Parkway Mid-Sept 2009

My wife and I pointed our RV down the Blue Ridge Parkway, starting at MP Zero, Rockfish Gap/ Afton Mountain in Va., just past the end of Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park, and heading south.

We camped at a succession of National Park campgrounds: Otter Creek, Peaks of Otter, and Roanoke Mountain. We thoroughly enjoyed the regional cooking served up at the Otter Creek restaurant and the lodge at the Peaks of Otter.

Below the Peaks of Otter put prior to Roanoke Mountain, we watched the Broad-Wing Hawk migration at Harvey's Knob, a well known hawk observatory in the area. We saw over a hundred broad wing hawks in an hour, starting at noon. The sky was too hazy to get a really good photograph of the swirling hawks. We did look for hawks at the Afton Mountain hawk watch site, but none were evident at that time.

The weather was balmy, 60 - 70 by day, and the 50's at night, requiring the furnace to turn on.

In the extreme uphill climb from the James River Visitor's Center--the lowest point on the Parkway to the Peaks of Otter via Apple Orchard Mountain (highest point on Parkway in Va.), we met a couple named Bob and Christina from the Research Triangle area of NC who were biking from Front Royal (start of Skyline Drive) in Va. to Mt Mitchell in NC, the highest point in North Carolina, a distance of 480 miles. We were able to provide them with some extra water as they steadily biked uphill.

This is a view of Otter Creek, passing under the Parkway

At Otter Creek Lake, we found two butterflies very attracted to a piece of apparently white bread.

Nearby, we found another, different butterfly
This dragonfly presented itself above the water's edge

This unusual butterfly was just sitting on the side of a nearby structure

While walking around Abbot Lake (Peaks of Otter Lodge), a very curious deer came over to see me. Her ears perked up when I spoke to her.

Near the Peaks of Otter, we discovered some thistle in bloom, attracting both bees and butterflies

On the fringe of Abbot Lake, I found these plants growing at the water's edge

The spiders were quite active at the Otter Creek Campground

An interesting pair of stumps

Some wildflowers at Otter Creek

A small collection of wildflowers not far from the creek

Along the Otter Creek Trail, I spied a spider's web

Some person(s) with a sense of humor stacked rocks on top of each other in Otter Creek. This recurred over a distance of half a mile

The Parkway offers up a fascinating variety of lichens and ferns, particularly north and south of Otter Creek.

More lichen with yellow wildflowers

This is a view of the James River Water Gap, with the James River Face Wilderness in the mountains there--along with the Appalachian Trail

This bridge underpass is accessible from the James River Visitor's Center. The US Highway passes overhead; this path will take you to a set of old locks

A short trail from the Visitor's Center passes by these rocks on the way to a view of the Water Gap

Just outside the Visitor's Center, some of the stone were deliberately set to resemble a buffaloe

Before the advent of the railroads and their progress to the Blue Ridge Mountains from Richmond, the James and Kanawha Canal paralleled the James River. This is one of the lock control mechanisms

This is a more complete view of a lock

These wildflowers were just above the locks

Adjacent wildflowers

A set of pretty yellow wildflowers, with the mountains by Buchanan in the background. James River bottom land in the foreground

Wildflowers seen on the Parkway

A view from the north of the Peaks of Otter

I see this flowering plant up on Skyline Drive, too

Bob and Christina, on their way to Mt Mitchell in NC

We stopped at an overlook called Thunder Ridge. These wildflowers were on the walkway to the overlook

This wildflowere really caught my attention, with the white and yellow together

A caterpillar enjoying this plant

More wildflowers enroute to overlook

While registering at the Peaks of Otter Campground, this deer came over to see us. When my wife talked to her--for several minutes--her ears perked up!

While walking along the lake (Abbot) trail, I saw these berries growing along the path

View of the lodge rooms, which all face Abbot Lake and Sharp Top Mountain. The tall mountain behind is called Mourning Hill

Sharp Top rising above Abbot Lake

At dusk and using ISO 6400 handheld, I captured this thistle on the Lake Trail

One more deer browsing along the Lake Trail; she was watching me carefully

Blue Ridge Parkway NC + Grayson Highlands State Park VA: Sept 27- 29 2007

This trip took us to a number of places--it was a good trip. Locales visited included Rural Retreat Lake, Rural Retreat, Va.; the Blue Ridge Parkway (the 40 northern most miles in NC); and Fall Festival at the Grayson Highlands State Park, just 5 miles above the Va-NC border.

Rural Retreat is located approximately 5 miles east of I-81, south of Wytheville and and north of Marion. This little town is known for being the place that Mountain Dew was concocted at the local drug store.

The water level at the lake was quite low, and I would not recommend camping at this lake, even though it did have RV hookups.

However, this site is listed as being the Va Birding and Wildlife Trail location, and we did see some unusual birds and wildlife here. First, we saw and heard a number of killdeer. And, a bittern [type of heron] plus a form of grebe. To top it off, we witnessed a beaver swimming across the water, leaving a nice "vee" behind him. And, there were the usual number of ducks and geese.

From Rural Retreat, we continued south on US Rt#11, determined to locate the Appalachian Trail crossing. While there are no signs identifying this momentous spot, we determined that the actual crossing occurs just south of the Mountain Empire Airport, at the Rt# 683 crossing from I-81--and where the middle fork of the South Holston River is, right by a redwood stained exterior restaurant. This locale would be northern Atkins.

On the next day, Friday, we drove across Rt#16 from Marion, past Sugar Grove and into Vollney. From there, we headed down into NC, crossing both the north and south forks of the New River. My wife drove us to a place she visited as a child: Shatley Springs, a family-style eating establishment. All you can eat, country cooking. Then, we passed by Jefferson and joined the Blue Ridge Parkway at the Northwest Corner Trading Post and proceeded north.
Memorable spots included the Devil's Garden overlook, a place we had caught a sun rise several years ago--with wild boars rooting around in the nearby woods! The Doughton Park area was also impressive. Pilot Mountain can be seen off in the distance.

We reached Low Gap, and left the Parkway to follow a highway into Galax. In driving through Galax [south to north], we were able to see the downtown area, including the Rex Theater [bluegrass music every weekend] and Felts Park, home of the Old Time Fiddler's Convention. From this point, we picked up US Rt#58 heading west towards Grayson Highlands Park. We arrived at the Park around check-in, 4:30pm.

In the morning of the next day, we drove from our campsite down to the picnic area, location of the fall festival. We choose our second row seats to the sound stage [30 feet?] and looked at various vendor stands. Across the way, old time crafts were being practiced, including the making of Molasses from sugar cane grown from nearby Sugar Grove, apple butter making from local apples, and Appalachian style iron rendering. Several pictures from the iron rendering are below.

The first bluegrass group was named "True Grass". Pictures and two video (movie) clips are presented below. You need Windows Media Player to view/listen to them. These clips were taken with my Canon S3 IS camera. Cloggers appeared on the dance stage throughout the day.

Unknown group:



True Grass:

Crafts Area:

Long Line for the BBQ Chicken Dinner


In the afternoon we were charmed by local guitar player and instrument maker Wayne Henderson of Mouth of Wilson, Va. Wayne and his group played a number of old time songs replete with humorous commentary. The pictures of him and his group plus a single video are presented below.

Wayne holds his own festival in June at Grayson Highlands: the Wayne Henderson Festival and Guitar Championship.


Wayne Henderson Band

Wayne Henderson

The Park Superintendent:

For details on all of the events at Grayson Highlands State Park, the friends of Grayson Highlands maintain a very niche web site: http://www.graysonfriends.org/

True Grass_1

Wayne Henderson

True Grass_2