The Devil's Bathtub

     We had a nice breakfast on Monday morning after mountain bike Nationals in West Virginia and then hit the road for home. We had all day to get home so we planned to see a few sights along the way including the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank. That giant dish telescope receives radio waves put off by celestial bodies in space. It moves and is constantly scanning the skies in order to map star and planet locations and movements. This part of West Virginia is in the National Radio Quiet Zone which clears the radio interference for the telescope. That means cell towers are few, hence the reason you have no service in this area. Internet is also restricted. We also saw a bear crossing the road just south of here.

National Radio Astronomy Observatory telescope

     Our main stop of the day was to be in Fort Blackmore, Virginia to hike to the Devil's Bathtub. This hike is becoming more popular thanks to social media. It is located along the Devil's Fork Loop, which is 7.3 miles long. Most people just hike to the Devil's Bathtub feature which is about 2.2-miles into the loop. The Bathtub is a deep hole in the rock where water pools. It's shaped like a bathtub. The water and rocks have interesting colors in them to add to the beauty. Parking can be hard to find so get there early on a warm summer day. It was crowded for a Monday with everyone searching for a swimming hole more than for a good hike.

Shannon on the hike back to the Devil's Bathtub

Virginia woods

     We didn't have time to hike the full loop, so we went out to the Bathtub and a little beyond in search of a private place to swim. The trail back there was rocky and gradually uphill, nothing too difficult as far as climbing, but you had to do some major rock hopping several times along the way.

Rock hopping

     The first big waterhole was full of swimmers. There are several "bathtub" features, but one is the main attraction. There was always someone there so we never got in the water. I just tried to get a good picture of it between swimmers. We hiked another 0.2 miles up the hill and ended up finding a side trail that descended a rooty bank to another deep swim hole. The water was cold, but very refreshing on a 90-degree day. We swam for a while with some crawfish, then scaled the rooty bank back to the main trail and hiked out. This hike, the mossy ride on Saturday and hitting Mountwood Park on Thursday really saved this trip from being a complete flop. Those stops made us enjoy both West Virginia and Virginia and have us both wanting to come back in the future.

The swimming hole

Deep creekbed

The Devil's Bathtub

It is a deep pool that is about the right size for a bathtub

Video: Water flowing through the Devil's Bathtub

Our swimming hole just up the trail from the main bathtub

It was cold, but I loved it!

Selfie in front of the small waterfall

Climbing back out to the main trail

Shannon on her way up

Flower near the parking area

     I didn't feel really great on Tuesday and Wednesday after we got home. I felt weak and didn't want to eat. It made it hard to get my things unpacked and tend to the farm. We only had a few days before we were going to be gone from home again, this time heading north to take a trip to northern Michigan with Shannon's sister, Amber, who was planning the trip for her 30th birthday. I struggled to pick some blacks beans and then work on two bikes for neighbor's who asked me to help them with maintenance. 

Praying mantis in the garden. Always good to see these predator insects in the garden. They will eat a lot of pests.

Bucket of black beans. Shannon wanted to grow black beans last year and we ended up with a small cereal bowl full of beans. This year we are measuring in gallons. We are learning!

     The cool thing about these bikes were that they belonged to my family years ago. When we first got into mountain biking, my Dad bought us all basic Treks. That was around 1997 or 1998 I think. We rode those bikes everywhere, which is amazing to think about now considering how primitive those bikes were. I did my first race on one of those bikes in 1999 at the Bald Eagle Challenge at Land Between the Lakes when I was 13. That bike had no suspension, flat pedals, bar ends and 7-speed grip shifting. I didn't know how crappy my bike was, I just had fun riding it. Our neighbors bought both my parents' bikes. I don't know what happened to mine, but we still have Dina's little 20" bike in my Dad's garage. It was cool to get to work on these bikes and see they are still going strong. One needed dry-rotted tires replaced, new shifters and new grips, while the other one just needed a tune-up. I was glad to be able to help get them ready to ride again and to be able to do it cheaply for my neighbors. I had tires and grips that I gave them. They were only out the cost of a few cables and the shifters.

These tires are toast.

My neighbor Steve's bike, formerly my Dad's bike.

June's bike, which belonged to my Mom back in the day.

     I knew I didn't feel right, but it didn't hit me until Thursday that I was sick. I came down with some intestinal bug that destroyed me. I have not felt that weak in a long, long time. I also was pretty nauseous. I spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday just lying around the house try to sleep and beat this thing. I didn't want to eat, but I forced things down, which usually just came back out a few minutes later. It was a rough few days. We were planning to leave on Saturday to head up to meet Amber, but the sickness left me in no condition for an eight-hour car ride so we stayed home until Monday when I was at least able to keep things in me for most of the day. It seems Snowshoe is still plaguing me! 

     More about our Michigan trip in the next post.