After an almost full day of work, Alli and I took to the hills last Friday evening for a little hiking and brewery action. I found the Turk Mountain hike while doing some research and thought it would be perfect for a evening hike at only 2.4 miles round trip. Turk Mountain is located off of Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park about a hour from Charlottesville. The first half of the mile plus hike to the summit is extremely easy and mostly downhill. It is a little strange to describe the hike to the summit as downhill. As to be expected, the downward action eventually stops around the midpoint of the hike, and the ascent to the rocks begins. The climb is slow and steady as the trail twists and turns around the hills. As always, the workout level depends on what you want to get out of it. Alli and I didn't stop for any breaks and kept a pretty quick pace, so we got a decent workout. The view from the top, pictured above, was great, as is the case with most every hike in the Blue Ridge. Looking to the North you can follow the ridge and see the many shades of greens and blues as the mountain peaks reach the horizon. The view to the West reveals the entire Shenandoah Valley and ends with the mountains leading into West Virginia. Massive boulders line the mountain top and entire Western face of the mountain. The rocks, right, have a very similar look to those of the hike at Devil's Marble Yard, although that hike actually requires scrambling over the rocks to reach the top. About a hundred yards down the trail from the summit is another outcropping of rocks, below, that provides a nice view to the South and many more boulders to play on if you are so inclined. On the way down, we ran across a nice buck whose horns were in felt. He allowed us to point at him and talk openly from only about 15 yards away, which was pretty shocking to me. Besides the deer, we saw no other living, breathing thing the entire hike, which was also shocking. It was nice to have the entire trail to ourselves- a very rare treat when hiking these parts. After spending 15 minutes or so cooling off and enjoying the views up top, we took to our favorite road, Nelson 151, to take care of the hunger and thirst that we had worked up.
Wild Wolf Brewing Company is certainly not new to us. It is one of our favorite watering holes to stop at when we make our frequent drives through scenic Nelson County; however, we had never eaten dinner there. Wild Wolf is the newest of the three microbreweries on Route 151 sandwiched between Blue Mountain Brewery and Devil's Backbone Brewery. Although it does not have quite the view that the other two establishments boast, Wild Wolf started off making quality beer only a few years ago and has been expanding every since. The brewery quickly grew to a full scale restaurant and its grounds are now being populated by a number of specialty shops including a home brewing hut. From the grand opening of the restaurant, we had heard from everyone that tried it that the food was delicious, and we took this sunny Friday evening to try it out for ourselves.
After sitting down at one of the many outdoor tables, we quickly got to the first order of business- ordering a water and a beer. Alli went with some type of collaboration ale that was brewed with input from the three master brewers of the breweries mentioned above. The beer was extremely light and crisp with subtle hints of grapefruit. I went with my Wild Wolf go-to, the Alpha Ale, which is one of their hoppier beers and what I believe to be their closest to an IPA. There is nothing better than an ice water (not pictured) and a cold beer after a good mountain hike. Having satisfied our thirst we turned to an appetizer. It is a pretty good bet that if a menu has fried oysters on it, we are going to order them. We actually had the oysters from here before, and they were so delicious we had no problem ordering them again. The breading on these is extremely light and crispy allowing you to really enjoy the fresh oyster taste. For dinner Allison and I both kind of stuck with the seafood theme as she ordered the spicy mussels in white wine, and I ordered the jambalaya. Alli's mussels were soft and succulent, as expected, as she was given plenty of bread to sop up all of the delicious white wine sauce. My jambalaya consisted of Andouille sausage, chicken, and shrimp served over penne pasta in a creamy tomato sauce. Besides the three meats, large chunks of fresh tomato and jalapeno filled the sauce adding a nice spice. The dish was finished with a topping of shredded Parmasean provided by our server. The extreme richness of the white wine and tomato sauces made both dishes quite decadent. I would absolutely, 100% re-order everything that we tried. We will certainly be having dinner at Wild Wolf again, and I suggest you do the same if you ever get the chance.
We started the evening with a beautiful hike through the Blue Ridge with a nice view and ended it with delicious beers and food from a local brewery. I don't think we could have asked for a better Friday night...and this is why I never want to leave Charlottesville.
