Fair warning to all of Virginia's couch potatoes: Curtis Badger has compiled such an engaging and refreshingly unconventional treasury of outdoor adventures that you may be compelled to give up your seat. He will send you in pursuit of rare salamanders on the slopes of Mount Rogers, to dig clams on tidal flats along the coast, and to spot eagles along the bluffs of the Potomac River.Dividing Virginia into four regions -- the Eastern Shore; the Tidewater, Middle Peninsula, and Northern Neck; Central Virginia and the Highlands; and Southwest Virginia -- Badger hikes, bikes, canoes, and kayaks his way through some of the Commonwealth's best-known, and least-known, natural areas. He fishes for trout in the James River, confronts bears on Stony Man Mountain, and looks for migrating birds in the Blue Ridge. He kayaks on the Pamunkey, bikes on former railroad beds, and searches for gold at Lake Anna. Yet as much as Badger provides an invaluable guidebook for the active outdoor explorer, his is also a writer's journal of entertaining essays sure to please the most adventurous reader.Whether used as a family guidebook for easy weekend jaunts or a natural history resource for students of the Old Dominion, Virginia's Wild Side will motivate even the armchair traveler to experience fifty very special Virginia places.

Curtis J. Badger, a freelance writer and photographer in Onancock, Virginia, is the award-winning author of thirty-three books

Acknowledgments

xi

Introduction

xiii

The Eastern Shore

On Burton's Bay

3

(4)

Clam Sign

7

(4)

Tangier by Bike

11

(4)

Birding on the Bridge

15

(4)

Fisherman Island

19

(4)

Beach-Combing

23

(3)

Cold-Weather Canoeing

26

(5)

Chincoteague in Winter

31

(4)

I Fought the Cobia, and the Cobia Won

35

(3)

Fly-Fishing in the Chesapeake Bay

38

(3)

Surf-Fishing

41

(4)

A Dawn-to-Dusk Search for Birds

45

(4)

Onancock by Kayak

49

(4)

Wood Aerobics

53

(6)

Tidewater, the Middle Peninsula, and the Northern Neck

King William on the Grill

59

(4)

Birding by Bike

63

(4)

Back Bay and False Cape

67

(4)

The Great Dismal Swamp

71

(4)

Alive in the Killing Fields

75

(4)

Mountain Biking Tidewater Style

79

(5)

Chippokes Plantation State Park

84

(4)

Biking Mathews County

88

(4)

Belle Isle State Park

92

(4)

Westmoreland State Park

96

(4)

Caledon Natural Area Preserve

100

(4)

Paddling the Pamunkey

104

(7)

Central Virginia and the Highlands

Pocahontas State Park

111

(4)

Lake Anna

115

(4)

Skyland Lodge

119

(4)

Limberlost Trail

123

(4)

Stony Man Mountain

127

(3)

Mr. Crabtree's Falls

130

(5)

Warblers at Wintergreen

135

(4)

Sherando Lake

139

(4)

The Chessie Trail

143

(4)

Doubtlessly Douthat

147

(3)

The Civilian Conservation Corps

150

(3)

Sweet Land of Goshen

153

(4)

It's Called Fishing, Not Catching

157

(6)

Southwest Virginia

Bass and Whitewater

163

(4)

To McAfee Knob with Olen Waldrip

167

(4)

Roaring Run

171

(4)

The New River Trail

175

(4)

Grayson Highlands

179

(3)

Hellbent on Salamanders

182

(4)

The Virginia Creeper Trail

186

(5)

Warblers in the Mist

191

(8)

Hungry Mother State Park

199

(4)

Guest River Gorge Trail

203

(3)

Natural Tunnel State Park

206

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