Annapolis Rocks Snowshoeing

After last week's storm, we couldn't resist the opportunity to get the snowshoes out again. We picked up a friend and her dog and and met another friend at the Annapolis Rocks parking area on US Highway 40 west of Frederick, Maryland. Fortunately, road crews partially cleared the parking lot. We've hiked up to Annapolis Rocks and to Blackrock a number of times. This is the first time we have snowshoed up there. The first quarter mile of the hike has to be the least charming stretch of the entire Appalachian Trail. The trail goes under the US Highway 40 bridge, following a ledge perched over Interstate 70. The roar of traffic makes it impossible to talk even to the person hiking next to you.

After we passed under the bridge and turned up the hill, away from the highways, the hike improved rapidly. South Mountain still had nearly two feet of snow on the ground. There was a pretty wide path in the snow from hikers who had been up to Annapolis Rocks before us. We had lunch in the sun at Annapolis Rocks. From there, we headed north to Blackrock following only one set of snowshoe tracks. Then we hiked down the hill from Blackrock. The snow was still fluffy on the north-facing slope. We had a good time glissading down the trail. At the bottom, when we reached the creek, we decided it was time to head back.

We had a great time out in the snow and we saw a total of six other people (two of whom were climbers camped at the bottom of Annapolis Rocks). On a normal day, this area is crazy busy with hikers.

Michael at Annapolis Rocks

 The view northwest from Annapolis Rocks

 Our friends snowshoeing

The view from Blackrock

 Sumac seeds

Blackrock Creek. The trail continues on the other side. This is where we turned around.

My snowshoes on trail.

 The trail and shadows in the late afternoon sun.

 Michael and our friends hiking up the last hill on the way back to the car.

Michael had to do an emergency repair on his snowshoes. The rivets on the binding strap pulled out (this is probably his third time using these...we'll be contacting the manufacturer). He used utility cord to make a field repair, which got him back to the car.

Snowshoeing Lake Artemnesia

It snowed here. A lot. Nearly 20 inches fell in our yard. It would have been nice to head out to the mountains, where they got nearly three feet, for snowshoeing, but the state was still asking people to stay off the roads on Sunday. Understandable, given the severity of the storm. After clearing the driveway on Sunday, we put our snowshoes on and hiked down the bike trail to Lake Artemnesia, a pleasant little spot fairly close to our house.

 Snowshoes on the bike path

 Dried maple seeds.

Tracks in the fresh snow

Michael on the path near Lake Artemnesia

Canada Geese on Lake Artemnesia

The bike path near the lake

Indian Creek

Another view of Indian Creek

Canaan Valley Weekend 2016: Winter's Arrival

This past weekend, we made our annual trek to the Canaan Valley for winter hiking, good food, and fun with our friends. We arrived Friday afternoon to gray, relatively warm weather, at least for that part of West Virginia. We made a couple of quick stops at Blackwater Falls State Park before picking up the keys to our cabin.

Blackwater Falls

The stream below Elkala Falls.

Our plan is always to get some snowshoeing in while we are out there, but since it had been relatively warm, none of the streams were frozen over and there was only a dusting of snow on the ground. No snowshoeing this trip. If we had been able to stay for another day or two, we would have been able to snowshoe. Winter decided to arrive over the weekend while we were out there. By Monday, there was a fair bit of snow and sub-zero temperatures.

Instead of snowshoeing on Saturday, we went for a long hike on the gravel road that leads from Blackwater Falls to Table Rock. The road winds around Canaan Mountain through stands of hemlocks and rhododendrons. There is a lot of green, even this time of year.

The view from Lindy Point. It was incredibly windy and cold out here. The temperature started out around freezing, but steadily declined over the course of the afternoon.

Crossing one of the streams.

The road we hiked on.

Hiking up in the cloud towards Table Rock (which we didn't make it to).

On Sunday, the weather at the cabin started out similar to Saturday: gray, cloudy, light snow and near freezing. We hiked up the ridge to the east of our cabin into northern Dolly Sods. As we climbed, the temperature dropped and hoar frost began appearing on the trees. Towards the top of the ridge, the trees had nearly at inch of hoar frost.

 Looking up the hill towards Dolly Sods.

 Hoar frost on dried leaves.

The group, on reaching the top of the ridge. The wind was pretty mild for winter in Dolly Sods, but that doesn't mean it wasn't windy. I came down the mountain with mild windburn. It was, of course, quite a bit colder up in the wilderness area than it was at our cabin, several hundred feet below.

 Frosty trees on the plateau. I love Dolly Sods in winter. It looks different each time I'm there, but it never fails to impress me. This time it looked like a sugar-coated wonderland.

 Looking west towards Canaan Valley.

 Hiking south along the western edge of the wilderness area.

 The group hiking south along the trail.

We descended back to our cabin and got back in time to do a little bit of sledding down the hill behind it. Monday, five of us went tubing before making the long drive home. The high was a balmy -1 degrees Fahrenheit at the tubing run. We had a blast. A great end to a pretty perfect weekend.

New Year's Backpacking: A Windy Hike on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia

December got away from me and we were busy enough that we didn't get out for any hikes. New Years, however, was a three day weekend for us, so we took the opportunity to start the year with a backpacking trip. It was a great hike - 25 miles from Tye River to US 60. This is probably my favorite section of the Virginia Appalachian Trail of those that I've hiked. We had great company, too. We couldn't have asked for a better way to start 2016.

On New Year's Eve, we camped out with another couple on the Tye River, right by one of the access points to the Appalachian Trail in central Virginia. By the time we set up camp, it was pretty late, so we managed to stay up until midnight, just barely. In the morning, while we set up the car shuttle, the fifth member of our party arrived.

New Years Day (Day One):
All we talked about that morning was how difficult it was going to be to hike up the Priest - five miles and 3,000 feet of elevation gain. I've hiked down it twice coming through the area northbound, but I hadn't hiked up it. Once we were underway, however, it turned out to be a pretty reasonable climb. It was just long. We stopped for lunch about halfway up. A large hiking club shared the overlook with us and for a moment, we felt like we were on the summit of Old Rag with people everywhere. The summit of The Priest was cold and windy, so we didn't linger. We took a few photos and continued on our way since we still had six miles to go. We decided to skip Spy Rock because we were concerned (rightly, as it turned out) about the dwindling amount of daylight. We ended up hiking the last mile in the dark. There is something a little demoralizing about having to finish a hike in the dark when you don't plan to do so. It wasn't a crisis, but we all wanted to be done hiking for the day. By the time we arrived at Seeley-Woodworth Shelter, we were all pretty tired, hungry, and cold.

Michael started heating water for hot chocolate right away. Pretty soon, with a little food and hot drinks, all of us felt a lot better. Another party was already at the shelter, but they were staying in tents, so all five of us set up in the shelter. A third part arrived shortly after we did and one of them joined us in the shelter, making six. We tried to build a fire, but wet wood and high winds prevented that from getting very far.

A little stream on the flanks of the Priest.

 The overlook where we had lunch on the Priest.

Lunch crowd.

The trail on the summit of the Priest.

One of our friends on the summit of the Priest.

Day Two:
Our second day on trail started out with a little bit of unplanned excitement. As we were getting packed up, one of the guys who had been camping nearby came over and asked if anyone had any medical experience. His friend was having a medical scare and they needed help. We dropped what we were doing and headed over. His friend turned out to be very seriously cold and pretty dehydrated, so we set about addressing those issues. Since everyone in our party volunteer on Old Rag and have trained together, we all just jumped right into the work that needed to be done without anyone needing to be told what to do. We had the patient's friends get their sleeping pads and sleeping bags. Michael started heating water to make tea and hot water bottles (to warm the patient). One of our friends worked on getting a fire going. Another began taking patient history and I helped with that. With hot water bottles in his jacket, between his legs, and at his feet and hot tea, the patient started to improve. Pretty soon, he was chatting and asking for food. After about an hour, he was on his feet and they were headed for their car. We were all pretty relieved that everything turned out well and he was able to walk out on his own.

After all that, we still had 11 miles to hike, so we quickly packed up and got on our way. The second day's hike was truly spectacular. The first five miles gently wound around the ends of the ridges and past beautiful moss-lined creeks. We had lunch at Wolf Rocks in a sunny nook sheltered from the ever-present cold wind. After Salt Log Gap, the real climbing began, but the reward was worth it. We managed to find a sheltered spot on top of Tar Jacket Ridge for a break in the late afternoon sun where we had a great view of the mountains behind us, including the Priest. We all hiked down Tar Jacket Ridge thinking that it was pretty darn spectacular. The trail off of the ridge wound through old orchards with enormous, overgrown fruit trees. Cold Mountain lived up to its name. It was freezing up there. The wind was probably blowing around 50 mph. In spite of that, it was absolutely beautiful. From the large bald, we had a great view of the mountains all around us. The wind eventually drove us on, though, and after being out in the cold all day, were ready to get to Cow Camp Gap Shelter.

Cow Camp Gap Shelter is a full half mile down a side trail off of the Appalachian Trail. That might explain why we had it completely to ourselves. The wind was even stronger that evening than it was the previous. We were able to get a fire going, though, and we had a pleasant evening.

Packing up at Seeley-Woodworth Shelter

 Frost flowers along the trail. We saw a lot of these along the trail on the second day.

 More frost flowers.

 Looking south, through the woods at Wolf Rocks, towards Tar Jacket Ridge.

More frost flowers on Cold Mountain. I could have taken pictures of these all day because they are so interesting (but we never would have made it to the shelter).

The view to the northeast from Tar Jacket Ridge.

 Just below the summit of Tar Jacket Ridge.

The summit of Cold Mountain

 One of our friends hiking on Cold Mountain.

 Cold Mountain in the late evening light.

 One of the western overlooks below the Cold Mountain Summit at sunset.

Day Three:
By now, you've probably guessed that is was windy and cold. The wind did not abate overnight. It had actually gotten stronger. We used a lot of fuel making breakfast. Once we were back on the Appalachian Trail, we had a pretty uneventful hike up and over Bald Knob (it isn't bald). We were busy chatting away as we were walking when I turned my ankle fairly hard. That's what I get for not paying attention. After a few minutes, I was able to put weight on it and hike the last mile or so to the car.

Looking northwest from Bald Knob.

After retrieving all of the cars, we had a great post-hike dinner at Devil's Backbone Brewery, followed by a cider tasting at Bold Rock. Happy New Year!

Fifth Annual Hike Off the Pie: Waterfalls and Rocks

Every year, I go hiking with friends on Black Friday. This year, there were three of us and the weather was unbelievable: highs in the upper 60s. As usual, we managed to find an epic off-trail adventure.

We started at eastern boundary of Shenandoah National Park on the Rose River Fire Road. As soon as we crossed into the park, we took a fisherman's path down to the river. We needed to cross the river and take the first significant side stream that entered from the north side of the river. The water was too deep to cross without changing shoes, so we just looked for a wide, slower spot in the river. The water was cold. Not surprising - it is November, but still...brrr. We would not have attempted this hike if the temperatures had been closer to normal for this time of year. It was bad enough when the air temperature was in the 60s. Feet dry and boots back on, we hiked up the side stream, reaching Climbing Rose Falls in relatively short order. The falls were really pretty, well worth the trip. I would like to go back there early in the morning or late in the evening to take more pictures.

From there, we hiked straight up a crazy steep hill towards the top of the ridge, where we would take a right and head across a saddle to Buzzard Rocks. The climb was tough and the leaves made it hard to find footing in a lot of places. It wouldn't be a Hike Off the Pie without a memorable climb, though. We ran across some old farm ruins along the way, which was a neat surprise. You can see similar ones throughout the park, but this one was a little bit unique. In other areas of the park, often there is evidence of old roads near the ruins. Not in this case. Whoever lived in this spot reached in solely on foot or on horseback. A little bit later, we reached the saddle, where we found a footpath that led all the way to Buzzard Rocks. We had lunch there. I tried to reach the top of the rocks, but didn't have any luck. I got a point where I would have needed climbing gear, but not before a pitched battle with mountain laurel and greenbrier.

After lunch, we headed west towards the Skyland-Big Meadows Horse Trail. This involved climbing 2.5 miles over Spitler Hill. It seemed to go on forever and there must have been 15 false summits before we finally reached the trail. The walk was very pretty, but by the time we reached the trail, we were all tired of route-finding and wading through briers. We took a break on the trail and then began the long hike back to the car. We paused again at Dark Hollow Falls before heading down the Rose River Fire Road. We finally reached the car an hour after sunset. It was a great hike. I definitely want to check out Climbing Rose Falls again.

Crossing the chilly Rose River

Upper Climbing Rose Falls.

I used this log to brace my camera when I was shooting the waterfalls. I looked down and happened to notice the crawdad claw and head. Something caught the crawdad and had a meal on the log, leaving a few bits behind.

The ruins we found near a spring.

Wild grapes tangled in greenbrier.

The view from my high point on Buzzard Rocks. The peak in the distance is Stony Mountain.

 Lichen on rock.

 A little bird nest.

Lower Dark Hollow Falls shortly before sunset.