Devil's Marbleyard

The first thing Laurs and I did together on our first morning in Buena Vista, Virginia was our all-time favorite hike: Devil's Marbleyard. We used to hike this natural granite boulder field at least once per semester. Freeform bouldering and sweeping vistas: sign us up! We loved this hike back in our younger college days, and we were realistic enough to wonder how it would hit our almost-forty-year-old bodies! Thankfully we managed it just fine without any injuries beyond a few scrapes.

Those gentle green Appalachians have a hold on my SOUL.

First we stopped for trail snacks. The Devil's Marbleyard ascent is only 3.5 miles roundtrip, but it takes several hours so we knew we needed to bring sustenance. We stopped by this tiny odd convenience store on the edge of town on our way out of BV. It had overpriced trail-friendly foods like nuts and beef jerky and granola bars. The most memorable item I got was an ancient Uncrustable packaged PBJ sandwich that was so stale and disgusting, I tossed it over the side of a boulder to feed the critters. Interestingly, the $17 I spent at this convenience store was the most I spent on a single meal on my entire trip! 

Devil's Marbleyard is just under 30 minutes from Buena Vista. We drank in the scenery and sunshine as we drove, joking that it was backwards having Laurs in the driver's seat since back in college, I was the one who had a car. I sat back and enjoyed NOT driving on the bumpy mountain roads. The rest of the hike doesn't need narration. The pictures don't exactly do it justice, but they do a better job than my measly words could!

The weird convenience store had a weird eagle wing backdrop with a caption begging visitors to take pictures in front of it. We complied but did not post them with the proffered hashtag, haha. This is my eagle eye expression. I was a bit tall for the wings.

My angelic eagle-friend.

Giddy, about to start our favorite hike!

These azaleas are an invasive species in the Appalachians, but they were really pretty!

The one mile trail to the boulder field was not smooth. We tripped a lot.

How many selfies is too many? Don't answer that; we were having too much fun to care!

It was quite warm and humid and I got drenched in sweat. If only I had soft lightweight merino wool shirts back in college! I could've minimized some of the chaffing.

The boulder field appeared up ahead before we knew it.

Laurs had phone reception and climbed the first 15 minutes or so of boulders while talking on the phone!? I was barely keeping up in the distance on all fours, haha.

"How does she do that?"

I felt just like I did back in college on the boulder field: exhilarated and nervous.

Laurs took my phone and took a bunch of pictures of me climbing...I think it passed the time while she waited for me to catch up, haha. She actually circled me to get pictures from the front and the back. No, I am not a natural rock scrambler.

Trying to figure out where to step and hold next.

Not sure how I made it up this one, but I did eventually.

Thankfully those dark clouds passed us by without dropping rain or shooting lightning.

Laurs scampered off to scale a particularly large boulder.

At the top!

THIS PLACE. 

Trying to look tough enough to climb.

We relaxed and drank in the view at the top for  half an hour before descending on the footpath next to the boulder field. Laurs was all for trying to climb DOWN the boulders too, but I declined that challenge.

Pink azaleas...at least I think they're azaleas.

We stopped at the BV farmer's market on our way back to the Airbnb, and found this new-to-us mural downtown.

After showers and wardrobe change, we walked up to SVU to get Laurs's graduation cap. This excursion turned into an exploration of Main Hall, which is SVU's iconic big historic red building. It used to be the women's dorms! Now it is full of converted classrooms and offices. We discovered that our old freshman dorm room is now Carrie Brotherson's office, who I took College Composition class from back in 2005. Laurs knocked on the door and we got to peek into our old dorm room. Carrie Brotherson didn't remember me specifically (I only had her for one semester 20 years ago after all, haha), but she did offer to take a picture of us in our old dorm room. When we asked, she admitted that this kind of thing happened somewhat frequently. She was very patient. It was fun! 

After that, we explored the rest of the former dorm hallways in Main Hall. We forgot to check out the old Ballroom though! I didn't even think of it until after I got home. But we did discover that the old bathroom down the hall from our dorm room was exactly the same as it was 20 years ago, down to the peeling countertop surface, faucets, and the smell. Ick!

For dinner, we drove 15 minutes to Lexington, VA and had big plates of Thai food to fill our ravenous bellies. While we were waiting for the rain to stop so we could go to the car after dinner, a full rainbow arched over the sky. Laurs was extra happy to see it because it was the first full rainbow she's seen since she came out as gay last year. We went out in the rain to take pictures of it. I love my sweet friend in all of her colors.

In front of our old dorm room door!

INSIDE our old dorm room: It looked so different, and was also smaller than I remembered.

THE BATHROOM.

It was never a good bathroom, even 20 years ago. Do people still USE it now? They must, but GROSS.

YUM that was some delicious Thai food. We thought it would be too much when we first saw the large plates, but we chowed it all down.

My rainbow friend.