Great Falls Loop with Difficult Run (VA side of Great Falls)

Aaron and I have Kate, a friend of ours who wanted to go hiking with us.  We are always happy to hike!  And we had planned a large loop at Sky Meadows on Sunday, but Kate hasn't been hiking in a while, and so we decided to start out with something easier, but with known beautiful views and thereby rewards for the hard work.  Great Falls is close to home, and it was a gorgeous day, so we set out there.

We began down by Difficult Run.  Our intent was to follow Difficult Run to where it loops with the Ridge Trail, then to River Trail and then the Visitors Center, Old Carriage Road and Swamp Trail and Ridge Trail and a jog back to the parking lot.  This would have worked out to be a nice easy hike of 5.1 miles - except for the river washing out the path.  With our detours it was harder and 5.7 miles.

We were walking by an adorable family with two kids half-climbing a cliff that was half roots and half Virginia red dirt and much rock.  The dad said to us, "This is the easy way."  We laughed and then looked around the bend ahead.

He was right.  That was the easy way.  We investigated continuing - and then I thought of Kate.  I thought even Aaron would have a hard time going down then back up on these craggy rocks that had no actual path anywhere nearby and it looked like you had to hand over hand it across a section.  I thought, hey.  Up's easier than down.  We headed back to the place the little kids, who must've been part mountain goat, were still working on.  Up I went, then Kate and then Aaron. 

According to Kate's fitbit, approximately 170 feet elevation later we stopped climbing it.  She said, "Man we should've taken photos.  Nobody's going to believe we did this."  There was an unmarked unofficial trail, but clearly well worn, up to Ridge Road.  We took it, then went right on the road.  We should've gone left - but we met a nice group of friends who were hiking as well, and the view of the Potomac is breathtaking, really, from most of Ridge Road.  We corrected our course and kept on going.

My rating of the hike is sub-optimal because there were approximately 9,673,223,100 people who decided today was THE DAY to go hiking at Great Falls.  I prefer my nature with a good dose of quiet and peace and focus.  Andy, the poodle we met in our travels that day, didn't agree - he seemed to be having a grand time running around and meeting people.   (Approximately 1/4 of those people brought their dogs, you see.)

But the views of the river were gorgeous, and it was fun to watch people from our vantage point of the VA side scrambling up the Billy Goat Trail on the MD side.  I decided I don't actually want to hike it - the challenge wouldn't be really anything harder than climbing the path-that-was-not-a-path, and there was literally a line that looked ten minutes long to continue up a section we were watching.  Not my thing.  But everyone was dressed so colorfully!  And it was like watching cars on a highway from the overpass above - an endless stream of people - which has a beauty of its own.

I loved the valley of trilliums we passed through after the Visitor's Center.  I did love people-watching, during snack break - I love to try to imagine everyone's back-story and just how did they come to be where they are now?   I love that each of these people has a full story, and events that shaped them, and that to them?  I'm as much a crowd face as they are.  That's part of the beauty of hiking, actually - when you're out in the woods, you are a small thing - and you feel the world as a large thing.  Sometimes in our city lives, we get caught up in work and friends and just our own process of everyday living, everyday decisions, everyday framing of the ordinary.  The extraordinary can get overlooked.  When you're hiking, and you've been working to get to that ridge, up there, the view from there seems to be somehow more - more amazing from being earned, and more coveted from being attended fully.  It is a reminder to pay that sort of attention to things in our non-hiking lives - to fully attend each thing and try to be a participant in its beauty.

I guess that's why the scores of people on the trail don't bother me much at all, in retrospect.  That was their moment to work for and appreciate beauty.

Time spent on trail: 3.5 hours (including a long stop for snack and many photos)
Difficulty:  The planned hike was easy.  The executed hike had a very difficult 15 minutes, and the rest was easy.
Bonuses:  The view is stunning, the photo opportunities endless.
View:  See above.
Kid-friendly:  Yes, though you'll have a heart attack when they climb the cliffs of insanity.  Maybe start out NOT at Difficult Run.

Bull Run Mountain

Having discovered that yesterday, Monday, was over 80 degrees, Aaron and I decided to pack it in just a tiny bit early from work and go to Bull Run Mountain.  At the moment, I have not started my new job, and he is able to work flexible hours, so we were able to head out at 3:00 PM.  We knew it was hot, and we didn't care.  Skimpy tank top and jeans and good shoes?  Check!  Pints and pints of water and gatorade?  Check!  Bandana for sweat control?  Check check!

The drive was short.  Bull Run Mountain is the nearest climbable mountain to Washington DC area, and it was a good target - being against traffic on the return trip, unlike some Maryland climbs.  The elevation gain from where we parked to the overlook was 700 feet.  That's 70 flights of stairs.

I approached this with the air of one going to take out the damn trash.  It's a thing that must be done and therefore, by god, I'm going to do it.   Readers, one thing you must know about me is I am not in prime shape.  I'm getting there!  And I have made a commitment to undo years of exercise neglect my body has gone through.    I believe for someone in peak shape, a 5.5 mile hike with 700 feet of elevation gain would be a walk in the park.  For me, this was a supreme challenge but on my quest to eventually be a hiker for weeks at a time, I need to be able to conquer elevation.

My inhaler, my ibuprofen, my husband and I all climbed this mountain together.  Each time I stopped to drink and catch my breath, I didn't feel a failure for stopping - I felt a success for keeping moving.  I felt a brilliant glow of accomplishment for taking those steps up that mountain.  Each time I stopped just reminded me I am human, and I have to keep moving to find my stride. 

That's really what this journey is about - my stride.  I have a partner whose stride matches mine, and I am so very, very lucky.  We need to find the rhythm that makes our bodies sing.  For me, that's being outdoors with the sun and the wind and trying new things, hard things.

And so I won't pretend that this wasn't hard.  It was - the way up took twice as long as the way back down.  But at the top, we stopped and sat on an outcropping of rock.  (I climbed up the boulders to sit!  Another thing that I never would have done three years ago!)  My feet were at the edge, and just past them, raptors flew up and down the ridge.  They would glide through the sky, their outstretched wings seeming to be motionless, though they were making swoops and dives.  I couldn't see their nests, but just to be among them, almost conversant...

That was the theme of the day.  Amazing.

Time spent on trail:  2.5 hours
Difficulty:  Moderate-hard - if you're good at climbing, moderate.  If not, it's a toughie.
Bonuses:  Self-esteem and accomplishment.
View:  Raptors!  Hills!  Valleys!  Ridge lines! 
Kid friendly:  Yes, for older children.  It's tough and would exhaust most small ones.

Prince William Forest

I am a few days behind, I regret to say.  This hike actually took place on April 3.  It was the first actually genuinely nice warm lovely day in the Washington DC region.  The weather was cool at first, and I wondered if I should bring a jacket.  I wore layers, a paper thin shirt under a t-shirt and a fleece over that.  Within 10 minutes, the fleece was in the pack, and within 30, the under-layer came off as well.  The sun filtered through the trees and looked as much like elfin dancing beams as I'd ever seen.

The Prince William Forest is a young forest.  If you look at the photo above, there is a sameness to the landscape which is fascinating.  The trees are mostly short, and it allows a good bit of light in - especially in the young springtime.  I'll be excited to see how it greens up when the season turns.  The trail is beautifully maintained, and in fact as we arrived, there was a woman pushing what looked for all the world like a unicycle for a cat.  This was, as Aaron informed me, a trail measuring device.  I wanted to know how she planned to ride it, you see.

About half a mile from where we parked was a campground.  A quaint old, old water tower was there, public restrooms, picnic facilities.  There were tiny cabin-looking structures that were public science experiments!  I'd love to hear someone talk about the kinds of experiments going on in those tiny sheds. I thought from a distance they might be really nice, rather new looking out-houses, but no - they even have a window box and a tiny paned window, and are more narrow than the door to my deck.

The day was quite quiet - people were around, but not many.  It felt like a well-kept secret.  Easily the best part was the waterfall.  We chose it, approximately three miles in, as a snack and rest stop, sitting on the sun-warmed rocks right at the edge of the water.  We could've dipped our feet in, had it been just a hair warmer than it was.  These photos of Aaron and I were taken at the waterfall area on our stop. After our break, we decided to not go the entire 8.5 miles we'd been planning, as the traffic around this area can be quite horrible late in the day and we wanted to make sure to get home in time to make dinner.  And get home on time we did!



Time spent on trail: 2.5 hours
Difficulty:  Easy
Bonuses:  Waterfall, nice clean bathrooms and easily accessible water, myriad options for hike length and setting-out points
View:  Foresty - not spectacular, but the walk is pleasant enough that it's not view-motivated
Kid friendly:  Very