Appalachian Trail – Splattered Brains

The Third And Last Day On The Skyline Drive

We were up early once again this morning.After breakfast, we had to pack away all our stuff into the car because we were checking out. The plan was to get back on the Skyline Drive and, instead of exploring the southern section of the park once again, head north – in the general direction of home!

It had been very quiet around the tiny home during our stay. This morning I happened to hear what sounded like birds. So I stepped out with my camera to take some pictures. The sun was rising through the trees.I managed to find the Wren that had been making the noises.

Our first stop in the park that morning was in the Big Meadows Area. This is one of the popular sections of the park. It includes a Visitor Center, and even a gas station and a lodge. Our destination for the hike was the Dark Hollow Falls trail, between the mile 50 and 51 markers. Although short, the trail was advertised as being steep and rocky with a challenging return climb. Dogs were not allowed.

The parking lot was full even though it was early in the day. The trail turned out to be quite popular. This was the first trail on which we experienced true fall colors in the park.

We descended into the woods on a trail that was challenging in places.There were older people who were having a hard time of it in certain sections of the trail, and, unfortunately, some people had even brought their dogs.

The walk was worth it. The falls were quite beautiful.
We were done with this hike quickly. We headed further north to the Thornton Gap Area. The goal was to climb up to Mary’s Rock Summit, a landmark which lay on the Appalachian trail. We would be hiking from the parking lot for the Meadow Spring trail just north of Mile 34 on the Skyline Drive. We could not find parking space the first time we drove by the lot. We could not even find parking on the other side of the road, where the trail starts.We were fortunate to find an empty spot the second time we drove past the lot. We had to drive more than a mile away from the lot before we could to find a place where we could turn around to return to the parking lot!

You could see the signs of Fall at the entrance to the Meadow Spring Trail.The trail itself was fairly steep, taking us straight to the top of the ridge, where it ended.We then headed north on the Appalachian Trail which ran along the top of the ridge. After an initial climb along the ridge line itself, we were on a trail that ran fairly level the rest of the way to Mary’s Rock. Both sides of the trail were potentially open to panoramic views on the east and west sides during this part of the hike. Unfortunately most of the view was obscured by the vegetation.

There were signs of autumn along the trail. This part of the hike was easy. We got to Mary’s Rock without too much delay. The view from Mary’s Rock Summit was spectacular!We could see the Thornton Gap below us, and we could see US Route 211, the highway that we were going to take to get out of the park, at the point where it intersected with the Skyline Drive.

The hike back to the car was uneventful.

We had not prepared lunch for the day. We ate the leftover meatballs and spaghetti from the first day of this trip, and filled our stomach with other stuff.

We were able to head back home immediately after this hike. I thought we would make it home early. Unfortunately, we hit rush hour traffic by the time we got close to the city. It was not a good combination – being tired after all the activity of the day and then sitting in heavy traffic. I was quite exhausted by the time we got home. It was a stressful drive!

The Second Day On the Skyline Drive

We woke up quite late that morning in our tiny home in Stanardsville. The previous day’s activities had worn us out more than usual. It was however still dark outside in the woods, a phenomenon to be expected at this particular time of year in our part of the world. There seemed to be no point in rushing to the park to get an early start for the activities of the day. But, at the same time, there was nothing much to do in the tiny home other than having our breakfast and packing some food for the day. We were on our way to the park sooner than I expected.

Stanardsville was close enough to the park that we were were able to get to our first destination of the day shortly after 9:00am. We were visiting a section of the park in the South River Area, close to the Swift Run Entrance to the park. This was the same place we had exited the park to get to Stanardsville the previous evening.

Once we got back on the Skyline Drive, we headed south towards the Hightop Mountain Parking lot that was close by.

It was still early enough in the morning that there was enough space in the small parking lot for our car. The place also happened to be far away from the more popular sections of the park. Perhaps there were less people that hiked this trail anyway. The goal was to climb Hightop mountain that morning. We would be on the Appalachian trail for the entirety of this walk.

The hike was challenging from the start.The mountainside was all green. In spite of all the green, there were were signs that the leaves were beginning to drop,

In the midst of all of the vegetation, we passed a few random rock formations that appeared unexpectedly beside the trail. It made you wonder how they even got there. The geology of places can be interesting. The Appalachians happen to be an older mountain range (when compared to ranges like the Rockies and the Himalayas). They have been worn down with time.There were touches of yellow on some trees in the higher reaches of the mountain.The view from the viewpoint on Hightop mountain was not exactly what I was expecting to see from my reading of the literature.I had expected something more dramatic and panoramic. We went further along the trail hoping for other viewpoints from the mountain but did not find any. It turns out that a more expansive view might have been possible from the place where we had stopped if I had gotten above the vegetation level to to the right of where we were standing. Perhaps, winter is a better time for such a view.

Hightop mountain is the highest peak in the southern section of the park.

After the hike, we drove further south into the park to the Loft Mountain area, stopping at the Doyles River Parking lot (just beyond Mile 81). Once again, there was enough place to park in the lot itself. After lunch in the car, we headed for the Doyles River Trail to see the waterfalls. The trail marker to the right of the picture below is typical of what you will find in the park.The bands around the top of the post have information about trails that intersect, and about distances to destinations.For a change, instead of heading up a hill after parking the car, we had to hike down a mountain ridge to get to our destination. After all, significant waterfalls are not likely to be found along the tops of the ridges of mountainsides.

The way down was quite steep. We knew that we were in for a challenging time returning to the car.

We had walked just a short distance before we found and took a spur trail up a hillside to the Doyles River Cabin.The Doyles River starts in the vicinity of the cabin, probably as a spring. There is a spring supplying water at the place where the spur trail to the cabin meets up with the main trail to the waterfall.

Much further down the mountain, Browns Gap Fire Road crossed Doyles River and our trail.

The trail also crossed Doyles River just beyond the bridge.

We went all the way down to both the upper falls,and the lower falls.The trail was somewhat difficult in these parts. The waterfalls were also a popular destination, but they were not too crowded.

There were asters blooming everywhere we looked, and all along the trail side.

The climb back to the parking lot from the falls was as difficult as we had anticipated.

We were done with our hiking earlier than I expected. We had been making good time on the trails in spite of the challenges they presented.

We were tired and immediately headed back to Stanardsville. We had to stop at the grocery store in town to buy something that we had forgotten to pack – toothpaste! It had been quite the experience the previous night and in the morning improvising in the absence of toothpaste! Something like this does not happen often.

Getaway had left some goodies in our tiny home when arrived the previous day, including some marshmallows that could be melted over a campfire – to be served as a sandwich with crackers and melted milk chocolate. We could buy firewood and starter material for this purpose from Getaway. (They were stored in the plastic box in the picture below.)We decided to try it out. My attempt at starting a fire was not very successful. We had to settle for one partially melted marshmallow!The wood would not catch fire! One of the logs was smoking a lot, as if it had moisture in it.

We had to abandon our attempt to sit outside beside the campfire for an extended period of time. I was a little upset about the whole experience the rest of the evening.

Dinner that evening was an Italian Wedding soup with turkey meatballs and chicken sausage that Teresa had made at home and brought for the trip. It was delicious and hearty, and went down very well with a couple of beers after the long day in the park. I actually did some reading that evening before going to sleep.

And I was also happy to be able to brush my teeth that night.😊

Re-engagement and Re-connection

The re-engagement process started in earnest last weekend. The period of time after my return from India had been difficult. I had mostly been in recovery from some strange ailment that had hit me towards the tail end of my travels. The doctors at home could not figure out what I had caught, but whatever it was had thrown a few of my systems off-kilter. I lost a lot of weight – still have not made up the deficit. I was feeling a very strange lack of energy, and, other than a few isolated cravings, had no desire to eat or drink stuff that I usually enjoyed. The situation had kept me indoors most of the time since my return home.

But things could not stay this way indefinitely. I was getting stronger. I had to get out of the house and re-engage with my daily routines. I had to figure out how much I was really capable of doing.

What finally forced my hand was a trip that had been planned about six months ago. We had made arrangements to go down to the Shenandoah National Park to enjoy the autumn colors, staying a couple of nights at a place featuring tiny homes parked in the woods. The booking at the Getaway Outpost was not refundable. Making a reservation so far ahead of time to see the Fall colors had been a gamble.

As it turned out, we were, unfortunately, a little early for the colors of Fall. We could see the beginnings of change in the park, especially in the higher elevations, but the rest of the space was still green and lush. But how could that be a bad thing?! Regardless of the colors, you cannot go wrong visiting the Shenandoah National Park, especially if the weather cooperates. We enjoyed three gorgeous days in the park. We had clear skies all the time we were there. The mornings were quite chilly, more than I expected, especially when compared to home, but the days warmed up nicely for hiking. We had a wonderful time!

We drove to different locations along the Skyline Drive, stopping at a few of the overlooks along the way that provide views of the valleys below the ridge line, but spending much more of our time hiking on trails that started from beside the main road. The park was less crowded than I expected it to be. We were always able to find some place to park the car. We would split the day into a couple of somewhat shorter hikes, having lunch in-between – either at a picnic bench or seated in the car itself. Even though the distances covered in each of these hikes during the day were shorter, they were pretty intense hikes for novices like us, with steady climbs and descents. We covered about 16 miles, and did over 4000 feet of climbing and descending. We pushed ourselves, even when on the rough and rocky trails that we sometimes encountered, taking breaks as needed. We learnt more about our capabilities and limits as the days went by. We were really capable of doing more than we initially thought we could.

A lot of our time was spent on the Appalachian Trail that runs all the way through the park. Destinations on the trails included mountain tops and waterfalls. We walked up to the highest point in the park. We went down to what might be its most popular waterfall. Since the park runs over a hundred miles north-to-south (or south-to-north, depending on your point of view!), we were able to find trails at several spaced-out locations along the Skyline Drive, far away from the park entrances where the crowds tend to gather. We had a lot of time to ourselves on some of these trails, while some of the more popular ones got a little bit crowded. But, surprisingly, even the popular trails were not as crowded as I expected this close to the phenomenon of the autumn colors. We were usually walking in solitude in the woods by ourselves – surrounded by the thick forest vegetation. Whether we encountered signs of autumn was a matter of luck.

This is the year I finally became eligible for the America The Beautiful Lifetime Senior Interagency Pass. I made sure that I got the pass before we set out on this trip. This pass gives me access to all Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of R eclamation, and US Fish & Wildlife Service sites all over the country that charge entrance or standard amenity fees for the rest of my life! I guess this is one of the few perks of growing old in the USA.

Thanks be to Gravity (9/14/2008)

This is a highly edited version of something I wrote many years ago. These days, I am also more comfortable with adding pictures and links directly to the narrative. Ain’t technology da bomb!

********************
If you take the exit to Keep Tryst Road from US Route 340, (it comes up close to Harpers Ferry, just before you cross the bridge over the Potomac from Maryland into Virginia), and then follow the road all the way to the the bottom of a hill, it ends up next to tracks for the CSX railroad. At this point the road makes a U-turn and heads back up the hill to rejoin Route 340. This place next to the railroad tracks is where people park their cars to head out on hikes. The place is called Weverton. From this location you can follow the Appalachian trail (or the AT as it is fondly known) up to Weverton Cliffs, or you can cross the tracks and head down to the towpath towards either Brunswick or Harpers Ferry.

Weverton used to be real town many years ago. Very few people live in the area today. Back then an intrepid developer decided that he could harness the power of the waters of the Potomac for energy in order to develop commerce in this area. The concept did not work and one of the reasons for failure was the regular flooding of the river. I have read that you can see the remains of the old town of Weverton if you leave the towpath and head towards the river. I have not been successful in finding these ruins so far. Weverton is also a switching yard for the railroad, and the location from which a spur line used to branch off towards Hagerstown. You can still see the remains of the railroad bridge for this spur line under the bridge for Route 340.

I arrived at Weverton early in the morning before the fog had lifted to do a hike to towards Harpers Ferry and Maryland Heights. My timing for the start of the hike was perfect. As I walked towards the railroad tracks to cross over to the towpath, I sighted the headlights of the freight train through the fog. It was heading in my direction. At the point where the path crosses the railroad the tracks curve away from you and as a result you get a head-on view of the approaching train. I got a lot of pictures of the train in the fog as it switched tracks and approached rapidly. And before I knew it the engineer was blowing the horn to make sure that I did not step on to the tracks,and the train was rushing by shaking the ground under me.It was moving quite fast and even picking up speed as the freight cars thundered by, with the hundreds of metal wheels screeching like a thousand banshees as the rail cars pushed against the rails and struggled to stay on the tracks as they rounded the curve and accelerated at the same time.I stood by just next to the carriages, which seemed to be much bigger and higher than what I imagined them to be when I had seen them from a distance, and felt a rush. I was screaming but nobody could hear me.

The objective for this trip was to climb Maryland Heights on the Maryland side of the Potomac river next to Harpers Ferry. From the lookout point on Maryland Heights one gets a nice view of the town of Harpers Ferry. This hike turned out to be an unexpected mental challenge for me. I began to feel tired even as I started up the steep slope from beside the main road. Perhaps I was really not in good shape. The early part of the climb was quite strenuous and the last time I had done this was when family had visited from India, when we had walked halfway up the hill. I walked up slowly, stopping frequently, and stopping by the meadows along the way to enjoy the sight of the many white butterflies fluttering around.It was a humid morning and pretty soon I was sweating quite profusely. I did not really feel any pain but I was feeling nervous because this was the first time in a while I had pushed myself in this manner since the big event. I almost turned back at one point.

But in the end I persevered. I was going to reach my destination one way or the other, whichever destination it happened to be – the Pearly Gates (being the eternal optimist that I am) or the Scenic Overlook over the river! I made it to the latter destination feeling a sense of achievement. I spent some time taking pictures of the river and the valley below. There was a butterfly sitting in the sun on a rock that did not move even as I approached and took close-up pictures of its eyes! (There are some wonderful experiences waiting out there for you if you are willing to relax and pay attention to what is going on around you.)I ran all the way down the hill on my way back to the towpath. I wanted to sing a song – He’ll be running down the mountain when he comes! It was a nice outing and I got some pictures of some flowers and creatures that I had not seen before. A woodpecker also obliged me by landing on a tree trunk next to the trail and staying put while I took its picture.I also got some nice pictures of the fog.All in all, another excellent outing to the river!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Narrow

This week’s response to the challenge is a tale of three travels.

We saw a “Close” for the first time during our most recent trip to Edinburgh in Scotland . Basically, these are narrow passageways between buildings, or small streets that are dead-ended. A lot of the closes in Edinburgh are found on the Royal Mile. Here are pictures of a couple of closes.

Last year, my sister, older daughter, and I, hiked the Little Haystack-Lincoln-Lafayette section of the Appalachian Trail in the Franconia Ridge section the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The trail running along the mountain ridge looks narrow enough to be scary, but they are OK to traverse on a day with good weather. This hike was one for the ages, at least as far as I was concerned, and something that I realistically hope to able to revisit at least a couple of more times while the body is still able.

Finally, these pictures are from a hike in Ditinn during our trip to Guinea in 2012 to meet up with our daughter (who was a Peace Corps Volunteer in that country at that time). I think every picture in the sequence below talks to the theme of this week’s challenge, perhaps in different ways.

A Study in Visual Perspectives

I had the opportunity to hike the Franconia Ridge in the White Mountains of New Hampshire recently. The 8.8 mile trail that we tackled started in the Lafayette Place parking lot in the Franconia Notch. It took us up from the valley to the ridge and the mountain tops and back in a loop. If you do this loop in a counter-clockwise direction, you climb up to the ridge using the aptly named Falling Waters trail. You break out of the forest near the end of this trail at Little Haystack Mountain. You then take the Appalachian Trail (AT) along the ridge for a while, proceeding to Mt. Lincoln and Mt. Lafayette. This part of the hike is completely above the tree level and feels very different from the climb and the descent which are through the woods. At Mt. Lafayette, you descend the mountain to the Greenleaf Hut following the Greenleaf Hut trail. At this point one takes the Old Bridle Path trail back to the parking lot.

This is an amazing hike. It is quite challenging with the steep slopes and the rough terrain, and it takes a good part of the day to complete the hike. You have to be well prepared, and the hiking conditions also change with the seasons. We did encounter a little bit of snow on the trail even in May. If the weather is bad, and I have heard that it can turn bad in a hurry even on a good day, you will be completely exposed to the elements as you walk along the ridge.

I took at lot of pictures during the hike, but the ones I have been coming back to look at most often on my computer are the ones taken along the ridge. Because it is quite open out there above the treeline, you get a good lesson on visual perspectives. I have pictures of certain sections of the trail taken at different times and from different distances. When you look at something from a certain distance you get a certain picture in your mind of how the terrain might be and of the distances you will be covering, but as you get closer you may realize that the picture did not accurately represent reality. Often times, you do not even realize the size of what you are up against until to get close to the object. Here are a series of pictures focusing on the slope leading up to the top of Mt. Lafayette. (In viewing these pictures I found that I could use the size of the patch of snow on the side of Mt. Lafayette as a reference of some sort.)

The first three pictures were taken from Mt. Lincoln by zooming in with the camera.

The next three pictures were most likely taken from the small crest in the ridge closest to Mt. Lafayette. You can see this crest in the first and second pictures in the series of the three pictures above.

In both of these series of three pictures, I think it is the size of the people that could give you a better perspective of what you are dealing with.

Here are a couple of pictures that I think help with providing a better perspective of the vastness of the space that one is dealing with, especially because people are present in the pictures.

The first picture below may make you think you are actually walking along a narrow edge for this section of the trail, but the picture below it clarifies that the edge is really not that narrow after all. In fact, as you walk along the ridge you do not get the sense of this being a risky endeavor, a perspective that could prove to be incorrect and quite dangerous on a windy day.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

When you get up to the ridge at Little Haystack and look north along the trail you see Mt. Lincoln in front of you. Mt. Lafayette is hidden behind Mt. Lincoln even though it is the taller of the two mountains. If you were unfamiliar with the territory you would not know which mountain you were looking at and heading towards. Some people may not realize until they get to the top of Mt. Lincoln that there was still more ground to be covered to get to the last stop along the ridge. It is all a matter of the visual perspective. Here is a picture that provides a little bit of that perspective.

I think it is actually quite difficult for a person who is only looking at pictures to truly grasp what one is dealing with in reality. You will appreciate the real challenge you are up against only while you are in that space. You might try to capture the nature of that space with a series of pictures, but that is not the same thing as being in that space.

Here is a picture of the Franconia Ridge taken on the way down the mountain. (Click through to see the picture in its full size.) At this point we still had a long way to go to get back to the parking lot from where we had started the hike. The Old Bridle Path trail from the Greenleaf hut descends along the ridges of the hills to the left of the picture. The three peaks that dominate the picture are Mt. Lafayette (5249 ft), Mt. Lincoln (5089 ft), and Little Haystack (4760 ft). We walked the ridge from Little Haystack to Lafayette, a distance of about 1.7 miles.

If you are interested in viewing more pictures of the hike, follow this link.