Cascades

 Since we've moved here everyone has been telling us that we just have to hike up to the Cascades. It's this beautiful 2 mile hike that meanders along a creek and leads you up to a 66 foot waterfall. Word on the street is that it's amazing to go when it's a little colder out because the falls freeze. So, we decided to go.

We kicked off the weekend by going out in downtown Blacksburg with Jessica, who works at the clinic, and her boyfriend Shawn. Apparently the thing to do for the undergrads is to take their friends to TOTS (Top of The Stairs) and get a rail. A rail consists of every type of low ball alcohol mixed together with grenadine. Basically, it was disgusting. We're past the point where we feel obligated to drink so we actually wound up dumping it out. Oops. I don't think they minded though. They know how terrible it is.      

                           

                                                    Ready to hit the town!

                    

                                                      Fun with friends. 

We decided to hike the Cascades on Sunday and headed out midmorning. It's about a 30 minute drive to the beginning of the trail. The trail has two different start points: one that is a little more steep and quick, and one that winds along the creek and is a little longer and more scenic. We wanted to check out the sights so we decided to take the longer more scenic route. Poor mistake! Since it has been so cold the stone path was completely iced over. We were slipping and sliding (me more than Jason) for the first mile or so before we were able to cross over to the other path. The lower path really was beautiful, but we were so worried that we would slip and fall in that we couldn't enjoy our surroundings. The steeper path was on higher ground and was more travelled so we didn't have to fight the ice. It was just a little bit muddy.

We finally got to the top of the path and worked our way down the wooden steps to the base of the waterfall. Everyone was right. The waterfall was magnificent!! The bottom was frozen enough so that we could walk out on the pool below it and get right up next to it. We're used to walking and fishing on frozen lakes up north, but this was a bit different. We weren't standing on still water. The waterfall was crashing down just a few yards away and you could see the open rushing water just down the stream. Jason got way closer than I did and got soaked from the spray. His foot also fell through the ice a couple of times which royally freaked me out. We took a couple of pictures and started our way down which was much easier than our trek up. 

This was my favorite hike to date. I just love waterfalls and streams. We decided that if we ever had any visitors (hint, hint) this is the hike we'd take them on. We definitely want to go back in warmer weather and take the scenic path the entire way up. 

Virginia is for...frozen falls.