Compton Peak, Shenandoah National Park

 I'm just going to post the beautiful view right at the start of this post.  I cannot say enough good things about the people who work in and maintain Shenandoah National Park.  This hike, for me, was very difficult.  The ascent was 830 feet over the course of about 0.8 miles, then 0.2 of down and flat to get to the cliff's edge where we had lunch, and then a mile walk back, down down down.  It was an out and back and I read that it is a very popular hike.  I can see why - the views are spectacular, and it is only 10 miles from the start of Shenandoah National Park on the north side, making it very location-friendly for those of us who live in the DC metro area.

We were not alone on the trail today - there were two other hiker groups we passed.  One group was two older couples, I'd guess in their late 60s, possibly the "just past retirement" hiking set.  This was nice - they were on a two week section hike along the AT and were heading for the next shelter on the trail, Gravel Springs Hut.  It's much nicer, on the trail, to camp at a shelter with water and even a roof than to trail camp, or stealth camp.  You're not guaranteed water and you're really not supposed to do it - though who could blame you if you absolutely couldn't walk another step.  They'd had to do that the night before, and it was about 8 miles to the shelter, so I wish them luck and hope they made it - it did rain dreadfully last  night.

So up.  It was hard.  I ain't gonna lie - this is likely due to the fibromyalgia.  My lungs said NO STOP!  My legs said WHY ARE WE DOING THIS AGAIN?!? and my heart said HEY SLOW DOWN A BIT.  But we made it, by and by, and I was able to say hey!  This is why the guide books say it takes 2.5 hours to do this little 2.0 - 2.4 mile hike!  There were very cool things to see - basalt rock from the Catoctin Lava Flow, long before the mountains were formed and before feet touched soil.  Deer, squirrels, centipedes, hawks, I'm sure many more things but I was a little too focused on not tripping to see everything.

When we got to the top, we met our second group - three men, all the same age as the first group.  These were day hikers - they carried nice packs that had very little in them, much as we were carrying.  I was happy that everyone was using hiking poles.  Instead of my cane, when I hike, I use my hiking poles.  I also cannot say enough good things about them.  They distribute weight and help you balance, keep your hands from swelling, and make sure you don't lose your footing.  I love them.  They decided to turn left and go to the secondary lookout, and we went right.  Rock scramble and 0.2 miles later and we arrived at the edge of the cliff, pictured to the left.  Do you see that road?  That's where we hiked up from.  It felt really good to have that visual reminder that the pain in my hips was really due to hard effort and we were rewarded by having a lunch up on the rocks.  Still, I was glad I'd brought my flexeril and some tylenol, because I knew I was going to need it.  I felt like I couldn't walk anymore, and it was cold up there.  50 degrees seems warm nestled in the valley, or broken by trees, but with the wind and the cliff?  I was glad I'd brought my shawl and Aaron his flannel.

Down was easy and fast.  It really felt like 4 miles going up and 1 mile going down.  All in all, a nice day.  And we purchased the annual pass for the park, $30, because we definitely intend to do more hiking in Shenandoah this season.

Time spent on trail:  2 hours, including lunch.

Difficulty:  Hard for me, medium for someone without walking difficulty normally.

Bonuses:  The view, the silence, the wind and the wildlife.

View:  My photos don't capture the absolute majesty, but it's just wonderful.  You can see all the way into Maryland, the south fork of the Shenandoah, Front Royal, it's all laid out like a map.

Kid-friendly:  Kids would like it.  Be cautious if you bring small kids - they'll get freaking exhausted and those cliffs are really high up.  You don't want to necessarily wind up carrying them half the way.

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

I would be remiss if I didn't recommend Meadowlark Botanical Gardens as a beautiful place for a hike.  We went on a Saturday, and there were people there, true, but it was not packed with people.  Many of the people we saw were laying on blankets in the grass reading or meditating, or quietly pushing babies around in strollers and just enjoying being outside.  There is a fee for entry - it was $15 for the four of us.

We started off by having a picnic at a wisteria-draped picnic pavilion that the park provides just outside, as food and trash are not allowed actually inside Meadowlark. I cannot convey how beautiful and peaceful this picnic shelter is.  So beautiful is it that they have to put a sign on it saying, "No Weddings In Shelter."  Which makes sense, you want everyone to be able to enjoy it.   So Aaron and I took the not-small-anymore ladies and  picnicked to our hearts and stomach's content.  When we were finished, we put everything we were carrying for the picnic into the car, allowing us to bring only ourselves on the walk.  I am walking with a cane much of the time these days, and so I brought my cane and it enabled me to walk for a very long time, which was wonderful.

 Two views from within the gardens.  The paths are paved, by and large, and are accessible for anyone.  The gardens feature many different gazebos and beautiful settings, different kinds of gardens, and statuary which are really quite lovely.  Perhaps one of our favorite spots in the garden was the Korean Bell Garden, which overlooks the wedding pond and chapel.  There is a large peace and harmony bell inside a pavilion set on a hill, and korean statuary surround it, including the pond you see in the left hand photo.  The bell looks like it can be rung, but was chained to keep it from making noise.  A good thing too, because the pavilion in the middle of the lake had a beautiful wedding happening while we were there - and yet the sounds we heard were only nature sounds.  It was really quiet and surprisingly serene.  A lovely day for a lovely hike with my favorite people.

Time spent on trail: 2.5 hours, but we could've stayed longer!

Difficulty:  Extremely easy, paved even.

Bonuses:  Educational signs that help you identify each flower or tree or shrub group, sculptures.

View:  Yes, yes.  Just look at it.  LOOK AT IT RIGHT THERE.  Even better, go look with your eyes.

Kid-friendly:  Oh yes, very.  There's even a charming children's touch-and-smell garden!

Scott's Run, McLean, Virginia

I started a new job about seven months ago, and I have amazing coworkers.  My coworkers work together like a family, and I've been really lucky to be able to make friends and feel a part of something here.  I was ecstatic when they started talking about doing a group hike!  There were going to be like, 15 people there, and dogs, and we'd go at 7 in the morning, and we'd have all the rest of our Saturday and it was going to be awesome!  Right?

It really WAS awesome, but only two of my coworkers came, with one dog, and Anna and Julia and Aaron and me.  And it was a beautiful morning for a hike - crisp and really cold.  Julia, you may remember, is allergic to the cold, and so she was very bundled up.  We were prepared for her to get hives, and sure enough, she did, but we didn't let them stop us from having a good morning hike.

We opted for a trail that wasn't a trail at one point and went to a beautiful overlook of the Potomac and some lovely rocks for climbing.  Aaron and Anna had a good time climbing all the rocks, and the adults had a good time too.

The hike includes several river crossings on cement bumps in the water that are placed a wide foot-width apart.  This works very well, except for people who have to wrestle a large German shepherd who wants to go play with the numerous dogs who are allowed to hike off-leash in the park with their owners.  Luckily, nobody fell in the water.

We started off at 7:30 and got finished at 9, with a whole long day ahead of us.  There are beautiful views and in the early morning, it's really peaceful and has a great deal of solitude.  Wildlife on the trail is not as abundant,as it's a very used trail in McLean, but there are deer and squirrels and I'm sure many things we couldn't see and that's just as well.  If the snakes are sleeping, I say let them sleep.

Definitely planning to go back sometime and take the longer loop.  The trail was supposed to be 2.6 miles, but wound up being 3.2 after we took the extra leg for the cliff viewing.

Time spent on trail:  90 minutes.

Difficulty:  Easy if you're experienced, mildly moderate if not - there are rocks and roots and crossings.  No high elevation changes.

Bonuses:  Birdsong is beautiful in the trees.

View:  Lovely river views.

Kid-friendly:  Yes, easily.  Kids will like climbing on cliffs and splashing through water in warmer months.

Mason Neck State Park, Virginia

Mason Neck is a wildlife preserve in Northern Virginia, out near Quanitco.  Aaron and I were looking for a hike to do on a quiet Monday. We have several hiking guidebooks, and this time I decided, hey, it's April and it's not going to be super hot.  Let's do a hike that doesn't involve mountains.

If you're familiar with Northern Virginia weather, you know that hiking during the summer involves a heck of a lot of hot sticky disgusting weather, and not so much in the way of breezes or nice days.  On those days, it's absolutely best to ridge hike and mountain hike, because the breezes at the top are very much like heaven.  Mason Neck is a wetlands, freshwater marsh preserve.  Belmont Bay is right there, and it's extremely muddy and swampy.  The wettest parts offer a well-kept boardwalk, and there are extremely friendly park rangers around to answer questions.  There's a park ranger who helps you rent kayaks to paddle around Belmont Bay itself as well, and this park would lend itself extremely well to a long day hiking trip.  I'm pretty sure there's even camping!

We started out planning a 3 mile hike, but we needed to hike an extra half mile to refill our water bottles.  Why did we go through so much water, you ask?  Because the first weekend in April offered up a 90 degree out of the blue day.  It was so hot, but the hike was really beautiful, in a creepy marsh sort of way.  I kept expecting to see Atreyu trying to talk Artex out of sinking in the mud.  There was abundant wildlife - beavers, eagles and even a giant black snake.  (To my credit, I did NOT shriek at the snake!  I did back the heck away as fast as I possibly could, and yes, even ran, but I didn't utterly freak out!)

The drive was lovely and the hike is really nice.  I recommend it for an early season or a fall hike.

Time spent on trail:  2 hours.

Difficulty:  Easy.

Bonuses:  Extremely friendly park rangers, ample water available for drinking and refilling bottles.  Lovely picnic facilities.

View:  Really interesting.  I won't call it "beautiful" but I will call it fascinating and full of living things.

Kid-friendly:  Yes, and very educational.  There's even a self-guided tour book available.

Manassas Battlefield

Aaand we're back.

Due to health issues and finally getting a diagnosis and then learning to cope with said diagnosis, my hiking of late has been slacking.  I've been doing training walks and short hikes, less than 3.5 miles, and often just in my neighborhood, which has some beautiful hikes!

So in April, we did several hikes.  I'm going to do a post for each, just to make sure I document them for those of you looking for a nice place to hike, something after work or an early short morning hike.

Manassas Battlefield is one of my favorite hikes.  Rich with history and beautiful, open wide areas that attract breezes and have little in the way of bugs and bees.  It's easy when you're hiking there to imagine yourself transported through time, and to think of the people who fought and died there, the families, and the stories that were woven in the ground. There's ample parking, and there are hikes ranging from 1 - 6 miles, plus side trails and ways to make the hikes longer/shorter.  Very adaptable.  My children love this hike - it gives them a chance to experience history firsthand, and offers places to rest and places to run free.

Time spent on trail:  90 minutes.

Difficulty:  Easy.

Bonuses:  So much history!  And even a visitors museum.

View:  Quite beautiful, there are high and low points and very well kept.

Kid-friendly:  It's a must-hike for families with children, or dogs.  Many many dogs.

AT - Weverton to Ed Garvey (out and back, with cliff detour)

Once you fall off a horse, it's imperative to get back on as soon as possible. 



I love ferns.  They're delicious primitive fractals.



I spent Sunday and much of Monday recouperating.  A real "hike" with elevation and rocks and terrain difficulty seemed absolutely out of the question.  But we planned for Tuesday to go, hit at least 750 feet of elevation gain, and a minimum of 6 miles.  I had to re-build the confidence I had and remind myself that I am strong and awesome and won't make the same stupid mistakes again.

So we headed out to Leesburg and then cut into Maryland to park at the Weverton lot.  It's a great place to park - it's near enough to Washington Monument State Park, it's got Ed Garvey on the other side. 



Friendly white blaze!



It'd been raining the night before, with light rain in the forecast, but we figured hey, what's some rain?  We dressed appropriately, and we brought plenty of water.  The hike itself is challenging to normal folks - I believe for thru hikers it'd just be a nice climb - but for those of us who have not yet reached that near-immortal state, it's a slough.  There's an adorable kids hike, which is about 2/3 of the climbing, called the Weverton Challenge that's embedded in this route.  It's actually going to be awesome to take my kids to - it will challenge them but be something completely attainable. 

The way up contains a series of 15 switchbacks over the course of a mile which climbs the bulk of the hill.  At the top of this mile is a junction - you go right for gorgeous cliffs and some fun climbing about, and you go left to continue on the Appalachian Trail.  We decided to do the trail first, and hit the cliffs on the way back.  I'm fairly sure Aaron's thinking was that if I was exhausted and the climbing had been too much, we can skip the steep but short descent and ascent from the cliff. so best to do it second and not first. 

The terrain is the sort that is a combination of medium to large rocks you need to hop between, for about a mile, once you get past the cliff off-shoot.  This gets tiring on your knees after a while, and I sat down and thought, "Is it really worth it?  How much longer is it going to be before good solid ground?"  The breeze was great on the ridge we waited for a bit on, and we continued on.  Then we hit the ideal trail - giving ground, few rocks or roots.  Okay.  It was muddy as hell.  We came back completely spattered in filth. 

We passed by a few weekend section hikers, and a father-son team in Minnesota matching sweatshirts.  We stopped at Ed Garvey shelter for lunch.  It was hilarious - on the floor, dead center, was a graphic novel.  The title:  "I knocked up Satan's Daughter."  I can't really put into words how much that tickled me.  The log book was full of people who'd written their destination, their life philosophy, their attack of the munchies, their warnings of rattlesnakes in the privvy (!!!).  You could tell general ages based on the type of writing "Maine or Bust! Bring the Weed!"  Yes.  That was likely an 18 year old who's taking a break before college.  "Celebrating our fifth anniversary by hiking the trail!" young couple.  There's a feeling that the majority of AT hikers are either very young or just post-retirement.  The evidence matches this, but there are anomalies.  We're not the only 30ish year old hiking couple out there.

The hike back was easier, and the cliff view was spectacular, mostly because the cliff itself looked like it wanted to dive forward, to leap into the air before coming to crash into the Potomac below.  It was a good formation.  The rocks everywhere else were wet and therefore looked black crossed with the brilliant green that signifies new spring growth, but the cliffs were pale grey and gleamed with white quartz streaks in the newly-broken through sunlight. 

We got back to the car and headed for tacos.  Because tacos. 

Time spent on trail:  4 hours 20 minutes, including lunch.

Difficulty:  Medium-hard.  Medium if you're experienced.  Hard if you're novice.

Bonuses:  The Ed Garvey shelter is awesome!  The log book is exceptionally entertaining. 

View:  The cliffs are gorgeous.  The AT itself is a nice walk in the woods.

Kid-friendly:  Slow and steady wins the race.  If your kids are physically active, the 7 miles should be doable but it's going to be tough.  Prepare to carry them at points.

Dehydration + 50 degrees = hypothermia and other assorted ills

The subtitle of this post:
AT - Pen Mar heading north

This post is actually really hard for me to write.  Aaron and I were setting out on a four day backpacking trip and there were several critical error points.

Critical Error Point #1:  We met our shuttle from Pine Grove Furnace to Pen Mar and went and had lunch.  After lunch, I realized we forgot our trekking poles. I'm blind in one eye.  I do not hike without trekking poles.  I said, you know what, it's only 40ish miles.  We'll be fine. We couldn't turn around - at that point, we would not have made it to a shelter in time to pitch the tent and make dinner before dark.

Aaron brought us each two big bottles of Gatorade.  We also have a good water filter.  The intent here is to drink the Gatorade bottles, then fill with water, minimizing the stuff we have to cart around.  Have I ever mentioned that I don't tolerate processed foods well?  Gatorade is intensely processed food and I started coughing, fairly regularly.

Critical Error Point #2:  I decided to lay off on drinking and catch up when we made it to a water source.

 Our day started with a climb of about 1,100 feet.  Total elevation gain was approximately 1,500 feet for the day. My lungs, with the Gatorade, were unhappy.  I was wheezing, and my chest was very tight.  I had to hit my inhaler several times.

Critical Error Point #3:  I hit my inhaler a few too many times, but I needed to to breathe.  This causes dry mouth and dry throat.  Muscle cramps.  Insomnia.  It's not going to kill you - but it's not awesome.

Now, the bonuses.  The hike was gorgeous.  I felt very awesome about myself after the climb, and even as my legs trembled towards the end of it, I felt like hey.  I'm going to be able to do this.  The stream at Antiem Shelter is beautiful, really lovely, and criss crossed by this network of tiny bridges to get from place to place.  There's a freshwater spring about 3 miles back on the trail from Antiem which has a nice place to sit and rest.  The ferns are amazing. 

But back to my tale of errors.

When we got to camp, Aaron set up the tent while I boiled water to make rice for dinner, and dehydrated pea soup.  I put on a layer of clothes as it was about 58 degrees, nice fleece warm pants, a long sleeved shirt.  I was dizzy, and very tired.  I made food and my teeth were chattering as I worked over the small fire camp stove.   Hot food would warm me up, I said.  I still didn't drink much.  I did, some, but not enough to replace all the coughing water lost, the sweating, etc.  I ate my soup - all 150 calories of it - and didn't feel like eating more.  I forced down a few bites of nutella and crackers, and brown rice.  I knew 150 calories was not enough and I would wake up utterly miserable.  But I was cold.  I climbed in the tent and put on two sleeping bags. 

Critical Error Point #4:  I began to cry.  I was cold, and I was scared, irrationally.  I should have recognized this as a Sign Of Trouble, but I didn't.  I don't cry.  I'm not a crier.  But here I was, crying away.  What the hell - and I didn't flag it at this point.

So I put socks on my hands, nice thick wool ones, and I wrapped scarves around my head to prevent heat loss.  I added more shirts.  I had on pretty much every article of clothing we brought with.  Aaron was in his hiking shirt and his lightweight shorts.  He was warm enough, no problems.  I felt like it was 20 degrees - in reality, it was just over 50. 

My teeth chattered and there was no hope for it.  Aaron called the shuttle driver who gave us a lift earlier, after we spent two hours in the tent trying to sleep and warm me up.  I was chattering non-stop.  I tried to take a benadryl to help me rest, even, and maybe tamp down my cough a bit.  Nope.

He agreed to pick us up - he's amazing, named Mike, and he's a hiker-rescuer.  He came, and it took about an hour because the high concentration of deer on the backroads requires slow, deliberate driving. 

I felt like a damn failure at this point, but I still didn't know why I was so cold.

I got into the car and slowly warmed enough that I fell into a confused sleep.  Aaron transferred me to our car and I slept fitfully, screaming every couple of minutes to "watch out!"  One conversation went, "Slow down!" "Why?"  "I don't know!"  And I was asleep the whole time - I have no memory of babbling.

We got home at 3 AM and I was so sick.  So sick, and dogged miserable, our housemate took me to the ER where they re-hydrated me and my body learned to control its own internal temperature once more.

So here I am on day 2 of my AT hike.  In my pajamas, on my couch, sipping coffee, having napped most of the day.

Tomorrow we're going out again.  Tuesday we're going out again.  Lessons learned are important and we don't grow without making mistakes - but man.  Newbie mistakes almost caused huge health problems.

The trail was gorgeous and peaceful.  The other distance hikers we chatted with were friendly, and two had dogs carrying water packs with them.  Despite all the critical error points, I call the day a success.  It afforded the opportunity to show that I can recover even from really dumb mistakes, I can survive even when making really dumb mistakes, and I can do better next time by not making the same mistake twice.