Rail Trails: Riding the Torey C. Brown Trail and the Heritage Trail

A couple of months ago, Michael and I did a 60 mile ride on the Torey C. Brown Trail and the Heritage Trail, which are connected rail trails in Maryland and Pennsylvania, respectively. the Torey C. Brown Trail starts in Cockeysville, Maryland and ends at the state line, where the Heritage Trail begins. The Heritage Trail goes all the way to York, Pennsylvania for a total distance (both trails) of 40 miles one way It is a beautiful trail and we enjoyed it enough that we decided we needed to do the whole distance for an out-and-back of 80 miles. On Sunday, Wild Type and another friend joined us and we made the ride.

It started out a little bit crowded with runners. Apparently, a Baltimore running club was having an event at the southern trailhead. It wasn't too bad and, before long, we were mostly by ourselves on the trail. We made good time all the way to York. We had lunch on a picnic table in a park at the end of the trail. Then we decided we needed to ride to Maple Donuts. After all, it was only another 4 miles, round trip. And there would be donuts!

The way back was even more deserted than the ride out. The northern section of the Maryland portion of the trail was especially quiet. Michael had a flat, so we got a break while he changed it. We also stopped for ice cream since we were clearly sugar deficient after the donuts. It was a great ride that took all day. We did a total of 85 miles. Congratulations to our friend Wild Type on his longest ride ever.

I didn't take a lot of photos on this trip. I brought my good camera, but forgot the memory card in my computer. All of the pictures below were taken with my phone.

The Howard Tunnel on the Heritage Trail. This was one of the prettiest sections of the ride.

The square in York at the end of the trail.

Pretty sunflowers right beside the trail.

How many cyclists does it take to change a flat?

Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania: The birthplace of commercial ice cream production (click to enlarge).

Roaring Plains: Flowers and Berries in the West Virginia Highlands

Friends of ours wanted to go looking for blueberries - the wild kind - this weekend. The West Virginia mountains seemed to be the most likely place we would find them this late. I love, love hiking in West Virginia. It is a long drive and we could only do a day trip, but as usual, it was totally worth it. We discussed going to Dolly Sods, but I kind of wanted to explore a new area. Roaring Plains seemed to fit the bill. It is quite literally, across the road from Dolly Sods, just as high, and just as likely to have sweet, sweet blueberries. I had also read that it is less crowded than Dolly Sods (of course, if you visit Dolly Sods in the winter, crowding isn't really a problem). Roaring Plains, which gets its name from the terrible weather that can blow across the area, was absolutely spectacular.

We got a bit of a late start, but soon enough, we were hiking on the boardwalks of the South Prong Trail. The forecast called for an even chance of showers in the afternoon and we were definitely hiking in the clouds to start. It was actually a little chilly at the trailhead. The South Prong Trail starts out by meandering through a series of interesting bogs and rock formations. In one place, where I should have taken a picture, we came around a corner to find big slabs of rock with red spruce trees on them. The weather is so fierce up there that all of the trees were flagged (deformed in the direction of the prevailing winds). On this section of trail, we were supposed to get some views of Dolly Sods to the north and of the mountains to the south. The cloud we were hiking through blocked anything beyond the ridge we were walking on. As to our main goal, we found a few blueberries in this section, but not a lot.

 A boardwalk on the South Prong Trail.

 An interesting bug on a rock.

This lichen had interesting little cups topped with little red flecks.

After a little less than two miles, we turned off on an obvious footpath, taking what we thought was a somewhat well-known unofficial trail. It did not turn out to be the right path. We saw lots of interesting things and wandered around a bog for about half an hour before deciding to backtrack and see where we had gone wrong. About 25 yards further down the South Prong Trail, we found the correct unofficial footpath. I hesitate to call it a bushwhack, because once on the correct path, it was very straightforward. There was no question about the right way to go.

About halfway down the unofficial trail, we broke out into a large, high meadow.

 And there were the blueberries! Michael and our friends picking some beside the path.

The meadow was carpeted in them.

By this time, the sun had also burned off the clouds, so we finally got a nice view to the south. After following the ridgeline for about a mile, we intersected a gas pipeline cut.

We followed it south to the top of the hill in the middle of the photo, hoping for a good view.

Along the way, we met this Timber Rattler, hanging out in the brush on the edge of the pipeline cut. It didn't coil when it saw us, but it did watch us pretty closely. There's nothing quite like walking along and realizing your foot was a few inches away from one of these just a few seconds ago.

At the top of the hill in the pipeline cut, we found a side path that led out to a nice overlook with a view to the southwest.

A bootshot from the overlook. From there, we returned up the pipeline cut and passed the unofficial trail, continuing on to Forest Road 70. We had a 3.5 mile walk out on the gravel road. Blackberries and a few red raspberries, and the sound of a gurgling stream made the trip pretty pleasant.

The other thing that made this trip so cool was the interesting flowers, several of which were new to me:

Stenanthium leimanthoides (Pinebarrens Death-camas). Seeing this member of the Lily Family is a little bit like seeing a unicorn, at least in the Mid-Atlantic. I struggled for a while to figure out what it actually is. It looks a lot like Amianthum muscaetoxicum (Fly Poison), but the flower stalks on A. muscaetoxicum don't branch like they do on this flower. Finally, a random PDF on the web which lists some of the species in Dolly Sods led me to the right flower. It is rare enough that only one of my books actually lists it. It has sort of a weird distribution: A few counties in the West Virginia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee mountains and then coastal New Jersey and New York.

Platanthera ciliaris (Yellow Fringed Orchid). In looking up the identity of this flower, I learned that no two flowers have the same fringe pattern on their lower petal.

Platanthera clavellata (Small Green Wood Orchid). I nearly missed this one growing beside the path in some grass.

Gentiana linearis (Narrow-leaved Gentian). This flower is only found this far south at the highest elevations in West Virginia. It is much more common further north. The West Virginia population is a classic remnant population.

Anaphalis margaritacea (Pearly Everlasting).

Rhododendron maximum (Great Rhododendron). There were some late-blooming Rhododendrons on the road at the end of our hike.

It was a great hike. We only saw four other people and it never did rain on us. We will definitely be returning to Roaring Plains to explore further.

Garden Update: Beans

The garden has been a bit of a mixed bag. I feel like we are losing a pitched battle for the tomatoes with the squirrels. Just as the tomatoes are ripe, the squirrels come in and rip them off of the vine, take a single bite out of them, and scatter them around the yard. Most everything else is doing well, though. We have several kinds of beans planted and all of them are producing like crazy.

These are Christmas Lima Beans. We planted them from seed we saved last year. They are just starting to come in. These beans are about the size of a quarter. Unlike many other colored beans, these actually keep their color when they are cooked.

Bird Egg Beans or Cranberry Beans. These are one of our favorites. They have a wonderful creamy texture when cooked. We picked the last of them this week.

Fresh soybeans. I planted three waves of these because they all get ripe at the same time. I picked a gallon of them on Thursday night.

The brussels sprouts are getting bigger. They probably have another month or so before they are ready. They are probably the slowest growing plant in the garden aside from garlic.

Our last head of savoy cabbage.

One of our Dutch Crookneck Squash, a large winter squash.

Kale and spinach for fall. I planted a bunch of kale, cauliflower and brussels sprouts this week.

Dill flowers.

A hot Serrano Pepper. My peppers have done terribly this year. They really like heat and it just hasn't been that hot this summer. All of the plants are still small and not producing much.

Riding Skyline Drive: Bear Cubs!

I wasn't going to put up a post about our ride on Saturday. We've ridden Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park a lot and even thought it is one of my favorite places to ride, there isn't much more to say about it. We usually stop at the same places, so I don't even get particularly different pictures. Well, we stopped in the shade to rest briefly on a long climb and I saw this lady hanging out on the side of the road about 25 yards ahead of us:

She stood on the road, looking back and forth. A car came by and she sort of ducked back into the woods. We figured she was gone, but we were pretty thrilled to have gotten the chance to see her. Then, a minute or two later, she came back out and started looking back and forth again. She must have decided it was safe because she looked back and then decided to cross the road.

She was followed by these two little cubs! They were so cute (click to enlarge). I wasn't quite quick enough to get a picture of them on the road. They moved pretty fast. They had to run to keep up with their mother. It was impressive to see how careful she was about crossing the road.

The summer flowers were impressive on Saturday as well. Summer wildflowers are in full bloom on the roadside in the park.

Lilium michauxii (Turk's Cap Lily). These lilies are stunningly beautiful. The ones that I saw on Saturday were nearly six feet tall, growing up over the rest of the underbrush.

Another example of L. michauxii

 Coreopsis verticillata (Whorled Coreopsis).

Helianthus divaricatus (Woodland Sunflower)

 Rudebeckia hirta (Black Eyed Susan)

Impatiens pallida (Pale Jewelweed)

Monarda media (Purple Bergamot)

Local Exploring: The National Mall

We engaged in some local tourism this past week. Michael's sister and brother-in-law visited early last week and we had a blast. We started Monday morning with a Segway tour of the National Mall, from the White House, up to the Capitol and back down the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial.  The tour was a great way to get an overview of some of the most prominent landmarks in the city. We were even lucky enough to see a presidential motorcade on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The tour group while we were waiting to cross 17th street. The segways were really easy to use and control. The tour guide did a quick introduction and everyone picked up on it right away. It was definitely less tiring than walking all over the city, but that said, standing for three hours is still standing for three hours. Also, the platform you stand on is constantly moving, so you are constantly stabilizing it with your calves and core. By the end of the tour, my calves and lower back were definitely tired. Overall, rolling through the city was really, really fun.

On my segway in front of the White House (photo taken by Michael).

The U.S. Capitol from the east side. The scaffolding is part of a massive renovation of the dome (which is made of cast iron).

Michael and his brother-in-law on their segways on the mall near the Capitol. The tour was a lot of fun and even Michael and I learned a few things from the tour guide. I would definitely recommend it.

After the tour we ate lunch and then headed over the Museum of Natural History. We looked around a bit and then walked back down to the Lincoln Memorial, pausing at the Washington Monument along the way. One of the things I really liked doing when I worked downtown was running on the National Mall. I would often finish my workout with run up the hill to the Washington Monument. It is hard to appreciate how big it is from far away. The day we walked to it last week, the dramatic clouds behind it made it even more impressive.

The reflecting pool was filled with Canada Geese (photo taken by Michael).

After visiting the Lincoln Memorial, we decided that we were done for the day. The next day, we headed to the National Archives and then the Museum of American History. I am somewhat embarrassed to say that, after living here for 9 1/2 years, I had not visited the exhibit of the founding documents. We took care of that. We even managed to get there early enough that we didn't have to wait in line.

After exploring the Museum of American History for a few hours, Michael's sister said they enjoyed the segway tour the day before so much that they wanted to do another one. Only one segway tour operator's website listed a night tour, so we went with them (It turned out that several companies offer night tours. A note to tour operators: If your website doesn't list a tour, it doesn't exist.). After a birthday dinner for Michael, we set out on two wheels again.

The Jefferson Memorial at sunset. This tour did not go to the Capitol, but it did get down to the Jefferson Memorial and the Tidal Basin.

 The Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial.

 A quote inscribed in the stones at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial (photo taken by Michael)

 Lincoln lit up at dusk.

 The Washington Monument at dusk.

 The Lincoln Memorial from the World War II Memorial.

The National Archives lit up at night. This was on our walk back to the metro.

We had a great time with Michael's sister and brother-in-law and it was a lot of fun to explore the city for a couple of days.