One Day Hike

We participated last weekend in the One Day Hike. We walked the C&O Canal towpath from Georgetown to Harpers Ferry, a distance of 100 Kilometers (62 miles). The hike starts at 3:00am at Thompsons Boathouse in Georgetown, at the end (or beginning, depending on perspective) of the canal - and also the mouth of Rock Creek, where it empties into the Potomac. I finished at 8:30, and Tatiana glided in just before 10:00pm.

The weather was perfect for the hike, and we enjoyed the scenic route in spite of some blister-y feet. The towpath parallels the canal - which was built starting in the 1830s and active less than 100 years - for the entire route. In places, the canal is full of water; in other sections, the water has drained out. In many places the route also featured a good view of the Potomac, which was rushing along at high volume after recent rains. I saw lots of other trail users, notably participants in two bike and/or running relays that were headed the other direction.

I don't think we will be doing this hike again. It's fun, but the logistics (Calista stayed with some friends of ours, who also picked us up) and dealing with the blisters make it a challenge. But I would not rule out doing other long hikes. In the past we have done the Wilmington Trail Club's "End to End" on the Brandywine Trail (~36 miles of forest, field, and old roads in northern Delaware and Chester County PA) and the Hike Across Maryland (~41 miles of the Appalachian Trail from PenMar, on the PA-MD line, to Harpers Ferry. There are several similar organzied events, including one on the Rachel Carson Trail in western PA. One challenge I would like to take on is to hike the entire Presidential Range in the White Mountains in one day.

Here are some other photos that I took on the hike. And some more on the hike's official Facebook page.

Spring break in Florida

We travelled to Florida for spring break this year. Perfect weather for the entire trip - high temps in the 70s and 80s, and low humidity. It was fun to explore new areas and to fast-forward into late spring!

On the way down, we camped at Cliffs of the Neuse state park in North Carolina. Calista had a stomach bug the first night, so we stayed in a hotel near St. Augustine the next night to do laundry and get ourselves back in order. Things went smoothly from there. We drove through Ocala National Forest (our intended place to camp) and visited DeSoto National Memorial. This site commorates the landing of Hernando DeSoto in 1539. He led the first European expedition to extensively explore what is now the Unitied States - less than 50 years after Columbus "discovered" the New World. We heard an NPS ranger discuss the evolution of weapons in native american cultures and among the Europeans, and took a short hike along the water - the park is on a bay south of Tampa/St. Petersburg. That night we camped at Myakka River State Park, which preserves a chunk of undeveloped prairie as well as wetland and river. We explored a "canopy walk" - an elevated tower/bridge combination that allows visitors to view the tree canopy of the forest. I was surprised to learn that "dry prairie" was once a common ecosystem type in Florida; most of it has now been turned into farm or grazing land.

Everglades

One of our major destinations was Everglades National Park. We made a short stop at the visitor center for Big Cypress National Preserve, which protects the bald cypress wetlands north of the "glades". Many tourists had stopped to see alligators in a canal near the visitor center. In 2002, Mike and I had hiked part of the Florida Trail starting from this point. From there, we went to Shark Valley, where we took a short hike and saw some of the famous Everglades wildlife - alligators, anhingas, and other birds. Then it was on to Flamingo, at the southern tip of the park on Florida Bay, where we camped for the night. The next morning, we explored various ecosystems along the main park road, taking short hikes at West Lake (which is lined with mangroves), Mahogany Hammock, and the overlook/tower that provides a view of the vast sawgrass wetlands that defines the Everglades, as well as the famous Anhinga and Gumbo Limbo trails. We returned to the Everglades area a few days later, camping at Long Pine Key for the night. We attended a ranger program, where Calista asked a question and earned a junior ranger badge!

Dry Tortugas

Visiting Dry Tortugas National Park is quite an undertaking. The park is 70 miles west of Key West, and the boat leaves around 8:00am. We stayed in Key West, in order to maximize convenience - and had to settle for a $50 per night campground! It was a somewhat-cramped private campground, but our site did have a nice view of some mangrove-lined water - which might have had an outlet to the ocean. The trip to the island was awesome. Water was very clear and blue. We toured the fort (Fort Jefferson, which was built in the 1830s) on our own, and then took turns snorkeling among coral reefs and playing with Calista on the beach. Calista visited the captain and even got to "drive" the boat for a moment! We had been listening to an audio recording of the Nevada Barr book "Flashback", which takes place on Dry Tortugas - so that added to the experience.

Returning to the mainland, we took another boat trip in Biscayne National Park. The concessioner had botched our reservation for the regular boat, and we ended up on a smaller boat with a group of three people who were in a similar situation. We toured a small island called Boca Chita Key, and zipped over crystal-clear water.

On the way home, we also stopped briefly at Canaveral National Seashore. We hiked up to the top of a large shell midden mound, which afforded a view of the ocean and a lagoon. We camped the final night a Faver-Dykes State Park, a bit south of Jacksonville. The park had a medium-sized, quiet campground in the woods. In the morning we caught views of a scenic river valley in the park (pictured here) before heading north. Temperatures peaked in the low 80s in the morning, but in the Carolinas we hit a cold front and by late afternoon it was in the 40s and raining! We were glad to be driving and not camping, and made it home by 11:00.
This trip included two new NPS sites for me, bringing my total to 278, approximately 71% of all the sites in the system. I am only missing 9 sites in the eastern regions, 4 of which are in the Caribbean. We also spent more time at Biscayne and Canaveral than I had at the past.

Here are the rest of the photos.

Lake Placid!

This past weekend we embarked on what has become an annual trip to Lake Placid. We stayed at cozy cabin located near the edge of town, situated on the Jack Rabbit Trail - a ~40 mile skiing route. We skied at Mt. Van Hoevenberg - site of the 1980 Olympic XC ski events - for two days. The groomed trails there are lots of fun. I also skied from the cabin to Van Hoevenberg one morning. On Monday we explored the area around the Adirondack Loj, which is a gateway to the High Peaks area, managed by the Adirondack Mountain Club. I tried out my new snowshoes for the first time, and made it to scenic Marcy Dam and back, round trip ~4.5 miles, in under two hours. We delayed our trip home a bit because the forecast was calling for a winter storm warning in the Albany area, lasting until early afternoon. Traffic was smooth and roads clear until we arrived in Delaware, when to our surprise, snow began to fall. By the time we reached the Susquehanna River, the snow was coming down hard and the highway was getting slick - and with lots of trucks around, we felt a bit nervous. Thankfully, the BW Parkway turned out to be a better route home. Snow diminished dramatically in the last 5 miles before we reached home, although it was enough to delay the opening of school by 2 hours this morning. More photos of our weekend here (look for Calista skiing with her new best friend "Clifford" the dog).

Hiking and travel links

For years, I have had a personal website. Recently I am having some trouble with it - I can't upload new files. I made the mistake of trying to upload an updated main page, which did not work - but now my main page is blank. The rest of the content is there, but there is no easy way to get to it.

At least as a temporary fix, I am providing links to some of my content below. I also have created some permanent links on the blog, to the right.

Our photos on Picasa and Flickr

Appalachian Trail backpacking journal - with separate pages for each major trip/segment, lost of links and photos, plus Google Earth versions!

My trip journals - covering backpacking, camping, and other trips since the mid-90s

John Muir trail trip report - with a Google map and Google earth versions

Pacific Crest Trail trip in 2010

Winter wonderland

Every year we make several weekend escapes to go cross country skiing. This year we managed some skiing in Michigan on several days while we were there, although conditions deteriorated before we left. But last weekend, we experienced the joys of true winter again in Canaan Valley. Canaan, which usually experienced the best snow cover reachable by weekend trip for those of us in the DC area, is blessed with a quirky cross country ski resort called Whitegrass. This resort has miles of groomed trails traversing nearly 1000 feet of elevation rise, with access to many more miles of backcountry trails.

This year we stayed in a rental house with some friends, and enjoyed swishing through fresh snow for three days. On the second day, I traded off with Tatiana and did a long ski in the afternoon, which provided me with a first-ever opportunity to reach the overlook at Bald Knob while it was bathed in late afternoon sunlight. Conditions were calm, and the snow and ice on the trees was truly beautiful. I also found, for the first time, the connection between the backcountry Cabin Mountain and National Nordic trails. I have more photos here (not many "people" shots this time . . I took all my pics while out on the trails. Still need to coordinate photos from Tatiana!).

We will return to Canaan at the end of February, and also plan to ski at Lake Placid in a few weeks. Thanks to God for snow!!

Christmas

We spent the first part of our Christmas vacation in Hampstead, hanging out with Tyson, Sarah, and Tatiana's parents. The earlier part of the month had been very hectic, with Tatiana finishing multiple projects relating to her first semester of the PhD program, while I graded exams.

From Maryland, we made the 12-hour drive to western Michigan on Dec 27th. No problems on the trip, since the major snowstorm coming in that day stayed well to the east, along the coast. In Michigan we were able to ski several times before the weather warmed up, including a nice all-day outing at Big M. Mike and Susanna were around for several days too. We were able to visit other family too, including Aunt Helen, and Uncle Gord and Aunt Saramae. On the way home, we took an alternate route via I-80 in western PA and Us 322 to Harrisburg - a nice change from the usual turnpike.

Now it's on to other winter challenges, including the start of a new semester (for me) and prepping a new class for the UD semester that starts in a couple of weeks (for Tatiana). And for the fun stuff - we have three weekend ski trips to WV and NY planned during the next two months. Yeah for snow!!

Shenandoah

Since I moved to the East coast after college, I have come to cherish autumn weekends spent in the mountains. We typically spend several weekends backpacking, camping, or taking in the fall colors. This year was a bit difficult, because my foot injury prevented me from doing any hiking. Finally, this past weekend, we got out to the mountains.

Shenandoah National Park has been a favorite location, in all seasons, for both me and Tatiana. We did our first backpacking trips together there in 2001, and have returned multiple times. Both of us had spent considerable time there before we met, and we have hiked the entire Appalachian Trail through the park.


So this weekend, Shenandoah was a great place to see fall colors! We drove out on Saturday morning, and completed a short (~2 mile) hike to Dark Hollow Falls. Calista hiked the whole way without assistance (except with getting over the rocks). Today (Sunday) we hiked to Stony Man Cliffs, one of our favorite spots in the park. Calista climbed the rugged trail with us, approximately a mile round trip. It was cold enough on the exposed ridge for ice to have formed in some of the rock crevices. Later in the afternoon, we completed a 3.3 mile loop hike to South River Falls, 3rd-highest in the park - with Calista along in the backpack this time. These falls lie near the South River Picnic Area, where I started a backpacking trip with my brother Mike (in 2000?), but we did not have time to journey to the falls on that trip. So it was fun to see them now. My foot help up pretty well - it was by far the most walking I have done since the injury.

You might be able to tell from the rest of the photos that the colors were best at lower elevations, while most of the leaves in areas along the ridgetops have fallen already.