Mark your calendars now for our Annual New Year’s Day walk. Please join us on January 1, New Year’s Day, to see Virginia’s earliest flowering wildflower in bloom – our Skunk Cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus. This is a joint field trip sponsored by our Chapter and the NN Audubon Society and it has been held for many years. We will meet at Hickory Hollow NAP off of Regina Rd in Lancaster at 2:00 pm and have a leisurely 2 hour hike down to Cabin Swamp to see the Skunk Cabbages. Learn how these intriguing plants manage to bloom and be pollinated even with snow on the ground and below freezing air temperatures. What a great way to celebrate the New Year and do a little renewing and forest bathing! The parking lot is small, so if you can carpool, please do…

 The trail is about .75 miles each way and is mostly flat but does contain a steep, narrow section down to Cabin Swamp and back up. Please wear sturdy shoes and perhaps bring a hiking stick. If you don’t want to hike down to Cabin Swamp, consider joining us on the flat White Trail for the first part of the hike and enjoy this beautiful forest in its winter finery!

DRIVING DIRECTIONS to Hickory Hollow:

From Kilmarnock, follow VA 3 towards Lancaster. Just before you reach Lancaster, turn right onto Regina Rd., VA 604 and Hickory Hollow will be on your left.

If coming from the north, pass through Lancaster and turn left on Regina Rd. with the Preserve on your left.