Noticed Lord Huron was playing the night after MMJ at The Mann in Philly so I bought a ticket to that as well. 😉 Looks like my first Lord Huron live show is going to be this one instead of Red Rocks. I still have my tickets to the 2-night run at Red Rocks but it was postponed again to June 2022. I also just picked up a 1st row seat at MECU Pavilion for Lord Huron on Sept. 13th. Super lucky lining up 2 shows each of Lord Huron and My Morning Jacket out of the gate. Super stoked!

I landed VIP tickets to My Morning Jacket w/ Brittany Howard @ Merriweather Post Pavilion on Sept. 7th AND The Mann Center on Sept 8th! I’m also looking for someone to attend OBH5 with me. I will be booking as soon as they announce. Serious inquiries only.

I found a sweet 20-mile loop on Alltrails that I just had to try. I planned on doing it as a 2-night trip but as always plans change. Friday evening after work I headed over to Fisher Gap, right in between Skyland and Big Meadows. I jumped on the AT and headed north towards Rock Spring Hut. I sprinted along the AT for a couple miles and just made it to the shelter before a rain shower set in. I greeted the folks I’d be sleeping with that night and set about routine things. The rain rolled out just before sunset. I managed to sleep for 12 hours. I couldn’t believe it, I must have needed it eh? The next morning I was up around 7am. Made breakfast and got moving. First stop, Hawksbill Mountain Summit a couple miles north and off on a spur trail. The featured image is from the summit. I got a nice shot of Byrd’s Nest as well. I ran down the mountain towards Upper Hawksbill parking lot, across Skyline Drive, to the Skyland-Big Meadows Horse Trail. I was on this trail for roughly 5 miles till I hit the north end of the Rose River loop. I ran some more through the Rose River loop till I came to Dark Hollow Falls. I took a break there, filtered water, and consumed plenty of water as well. Lots of day hikers here as well. I turned West and headed down a fire road that turned into Stoney Mountain Trail. I stopped about mid-way on this trail for lunch. I got moving again and popped out on the edge of the Rapidan Camp fire road. I turned and headed up the road towards Skyline drive. After walking the road for a while my GPS was telling me to turn left. As soon as I looked left I knew what trail it was telling to get on. It was the same horse trail that Tim, Dan, and I had conquered back in 2019. There was no way in hell that I was going to do that trail again. After further analysis of the map I surmised that I had already done the rest of the trail. So I kept going on the fire road till it brought me out to the back of the meadow at Big Meadows. I ran into a lot of day hikers, horseback riders, and dog walkers. Lots. I made it up and across the way to the wayside. Ran into some thru-hikers and chatted it up a bit. Then I head north and end up back at the truck a day early. According to my watch I did 2 miles Friday night and 17-1/2 miles on Saturday, within 8 hours, so I was strolling. My knees let me know about it for a week afterwards but it was worth it. I ended up loitering around Big Meadows lodge drinking beer, changing clothes and ‘bathing’ in a bathroom stall then having a nice dinner. There was no vacancy on the mountain so I booked a room in Manassas. It was beautiful driving down out of the mountains during the sunset.