Glassy Mountain [ulog #9]

The trail is quite level and nice in a couple of places, but most of it is on a relatively steep slope. It was easy enough to go down, but coming back up (which was simple in my younger days) was much more problematic now that I am in my sixties with weaker legs and weaker heart. As they say, "It's hell, getting old."

One of the most delightful things I found on the trail was a spiderwort plant in bloom. There are many species of spiderwort, but I believe this one might be Tradescantia ohiensis, as the other spiderwort most common in this area (Tradescantia virginiana) tends to a darker blue, sometimes with a tinge of purple. The light blue of this little florescence is lovely!

Quite a breathtaking sight can be seen when the trail finally opens onto the top of the granite face of the mountain! Perhaps it is so striking because this mountain isn't very high, making the houses, barns, and roads easily discernible below.

A small oasis of grasses and plants can be seen growing on the rock in the above photo. Several species of plants thrive in environments like this and are seldom found anywhere else. Among the greenery, I spied a yellow flower and wanted to see it more clearly, so I carefully inched down the rock on my butt to find a magnificent Coreopsis flower! As with many other flowers, there are several varieties within this genus, but this one appears to be the Lanceleaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata). It is such a stunning flower! There are quite a few of these beauties all over the mountain.

Since the granite face of Glassy Mountain is on the north side, the view in the distance is towards the border between South Carolina and North Carolina. From that vantage point, I could easily spot individual mountains in the scene that I know well — Big Rock Mountain, Reese Mountain, Chapman Mountain, Brown Montain, Tater Hill, Bullard Montain, Langley Mountain, Long Mountain, Hickorynut Mountain, Horse Mountain, Pinnacle Montain, Table Rock Mountain, Raven Cliffs, and others!

I'm not particularly skilled at "stitching" several photos together into one seamless panorama, although I've accomplished it in the past with much effort, but I am not doing it here, so kindly pardon the seams... 🤨 but please click the following photo for a larger view! 😁

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After struggling up the steep trail back to the car, my heart was racing and I was sweating profusely, so I collapsed into the driver's seat and rested a few minutes before heading back down the mountain. I took a longer and more scenic drive down than I went up, rambling the eastern slope to the plain below, then around the north side, and on to the west. Along the way, I stopped to make this final shot of the mountain, looking up towards the face over an old farm gate.

All of the mountains in this blog post are part of the Blue Ridge Mountain chain, so called because of their distinctive bluish color when viewed from a distance. That color is caused by isoprene which the trees release into the air. ^[2] The Blue Ridge Mountains are part of the greater Appalachian Mountain Range, and are among the oldest mountains on the face of the earth. As such, they have been worn-down by wind and rain over millennia and are no longer as high as younger mountain ranges like the Rockies, the Alps, the Andes, or the Himalayas. I have lived in, or near, the Appalachians for forty-eight years of my life, so they feel like "home" to me.

This post is tagged as part of the #wednesdaywalk challenge started by @tattoodjay where folks make photos during a Wednesday walk. I think it was actually on a Tuesday when I took this hike sometime back, so don't tell Jay... 😬 LOL

 😊

SOURCES
   ¹ Glassy Mountain Heritage Preserve
   ² Wikipedia: Blue Ridge Mountains
   ² Wikipedia: Monadnock

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