Dunnfield Creek, New Jersey

As always, this "easiest" hike was no stroll in the park. We had a stiff climb on the Farview Trail to reach the AT along the ridge.

Part of the trail paralled an arrow-straight abandoned road between low rock walls. As noted earlier, this land had once been occupied by settlers. It had also been logged over -- note the young trees surrounding us. The road may have been left over from the settlement days or it may have been a skid road to take the logs down to the river.

Throughout the woods, low rock walls outlined former properties. When this area was occupied, it may have been cleared for farming and pasture. In the Blue Ridge area of Virginia, folks commonly raised pigs because they can forage in the woods and be confined by relatively low walls.

This small cairn marked the intersection of the Farview Trail and the AT. I don't know if this one is official or not. There was a larger one on the far side of the AT, but this one was cuter.

Most rock cairns are carefully planned and constructed. They should not be tampered with in any way.

We got to hang out for a while at the intersection. For a change the AT looked like the superhighway of trails: wide, smooth, gently sloping. There were regular "steps" as shown here, and occasional waterbars to control erosion. The Forest Service has an extensive discussion of trail construction and maintenance that includes waterbars, but their use has fallen out of favor for a variety of reasons. Nevertheless, we stepped over plenty of them!

This butterfly kept us company for a while. I'm no expert at identifying butterflies, but it appears to be a Dreamy Dustywing. I like the name so I'm keeping it. It was quite small.

Looking down to the Dunnfield Creek bridge. We will cross this on our way to the waterfall for lunch. Even without leaves, it is hard to see through the trees unless you know what you're looking for (the bridge is right-center behind the spring foliage). In summer, you couldn't see a thing but leaves.

This isn't a tree-hugger, it's a hugging tree! The roots embrace the rock tightly. That tree isn't going anywhere unless the rock comes along.

We had seen hundreds of the single-leaf stage of the Canadian Mayflower. This double-leaf fertile individual is budding out. Once it blooms, according to Rick, it won't bloom again for six years.

Dunnfield Falls is where we will have lunch. There are two falls. I didn't climb up to see it, but there is a swimming or wading area above the falls that was quite popular. We could hear the shouts and giggles well before we saw the falls.

This was my view during lunch. The area close to the falls was cooled by the water and felt delicious. There were plenty of rocks and downed trees to sit on. If anyone picked up ticks, I didn't hear about it.

The ridged back identifies this as a green frog. There were a pair of them. This one, I believe to be the female, was sitting on the rock.

The smaller male was in the water below the rock where the female was hanging out.

Those of us who saw the frogs were pleased with ourselves until we heard that others in our group had encountered a timber rattlesnake in more-or-less the same spot.

Another butterfly remained still enough to capture a photo. This one has been hard to identify. The closest I can come is an Appalachian Azure, which is also very pale blue with similar patterns.

As we walked along the trail toward the parking lot, we passed a several clumps of red trilliums.

We saw many, many violets, but this was my favorite picture of the common blue ones. It is the state flower of New Jersey.

Dunnfield Creek is nearing the parking lot and the end of our last hike.  The foliage is already much denser than it was when we first arrived a few days ago.

A surprising sight on the edge of the parking lot. Can this be a morel mushroom?!? I know people who keep close wraps on where they find morels because of their desirability and here is this monster just hanging out by the parking lot!

I didn't know how to distinguish between true and false morels until getting home to look it up, but I wouldn't have wanted to slice this beauty in half anyway just to find out.

I'll end with another mystery. I've never seen a flower like this with a fleshy globe surrounded by tiny yellow petals. I haven't been able to find anything like it online, either. My best guess is that it is some kind of euphorbia, but ...?

This was a delightful week with the sisterhood. I'm looking forward to another women-only program. Maybe the same one, if I can get more in shape for the longer hikes.