House remodeling

We have been pretty busy since winter with various house projects.  The major effort involved hiring a contractor to put in shelves next to our fireplace and re-finish the fireplace itself with stone.  The project also involved refinishing the floors, new light fixtures, and a few other items.  During this time we also removed the wallpaper from the dining room and then completely repainted the main area upstairs - the living and dining rooms.  So it looks very different now!  The room is not complete in terms of decor - we are borrowing a rug, buying a new chair, and trying out various pieces of artwork for the mantel and shelves - thus the current cluttered look.

We are also working on some other projects.  We are getting a new shed in the back yard.  I hired a local guy - the same one who helped build our shed at 50C Ridge - to demo the old, rusty metal shed and build a platform foundation for the new one.  The new shed will come from a company that will bring it in in pieces and assemble on-site.  We are also having new insulation and duct-sealing work done in the attic - not flashy, but hopefully it will reduce our heating bills next winter!

Below is a photo of the finished shed foundation.  Here are a few more photos, showing the old shed partially-removed and the house from the outside with the azaleas in bloom - from a few weeks ago.  I need to upload a "before" photo of the fireplace so that the contrast is more evident!

Milestone Hike

I had a milestone birthday this year, so I decided I would conquer a bunch of hills instead of just going "over" one, and put in 40 miles of hiking in one day at the same time.  Seemed like the appropriate number of miles!  I have done several long hikes before, but they were mostly supported, organized events: the 62-mile "One Day Hike" from Georgetown to Harpers Ferry on the C&O Canal (twice); the ~40 mile "Hike Across Maryland" on the Appalachian Trail, and the 35.5 mile "End to End" hike on the Brandywine Trail in Delaware and Pennsylvania.  But this hike would not be part of an organized event, and was supported only in the sense that my very accommodating wife offered to drop me off, meet me halfway, and pick me up at the end.

I chose to do a section of the Tuscarora Trail, which is a route that runs parallel to the Appalachian Trail through the mid-Atlantic region.  It was designed as an alternate route, back in the days (pre-1968) before the National Trails Act gave official protected status to the route of the AT.  Now the Tuscarora provides a scenic, low-crowds ridgetop route from Shenandoah to north of Harrisburg, PA.  The section I hiked for my birthday starts just north of the PA/MD state line, and ends near the town of Spring Run.  I started my day with a 3:30 wake-up call in Greenbelt. The original plan had been to drive out to Hancock and stay in a hotel, but when our bus returning from a cross country meet in Delaware was delayed, we decided to scrap that plan.  We arrived at the trailhead in time for a 6:00am start - before the sun rose at 6:45.  I climbed over 1000' feet of sometimes-steep trail in the dark, and was greeted by first light as I crested the ridge.  From there the route was mostly flat for the next 20 miles, according to the map.  However, as it turned out, "flat" did not mean "easy".  The first 12 miles of ridgetop hiking had seen little maintenance since spring, and was overgrown with several species of invasive plants, and at least two species bearing nasty prickers.  There were also several long stretches of rocky, ridgetop route that made for slow going (see the photo above right).  In many places the route was hard to follow, and although I knew I would not get lost because the trail stayed on a narrow ridge, it was still slow going for an agenda that involved hiking 3-4 miles per hour.  But I did not panic, and enjoyed the clear blue sky and dry air - the first such day in many weeks - probably since my last Tuscarora Hike in May, actually. 

Around mile 10 I encountered the first of three porcupines that cross my path that day.  It was following the trail, and made a clicking noise with it's teeth because it was nervous about how close I was.  Fortunately it found a sidetrail that headed to a shelter and I was able to pass by.  I also saw a large turkey, a deer, a rattlesnake, and I am fairly sure I saw a bobcat.  It bounded away quickly, and I could appreciate why people mistakenly claim to see cougars in the eastern woods on occasion. 

After crossing PA route 16 at the 14 mile mark, the route got much easier.  Vegetation had been cleared to the edge of the trail, and the route was well-marked.  I began to make better time.  Near the crossing of US 30 was a terrific view to the west, near a side used for launching hang-gliders.  A bit further north, dark clouds appeared and it rained for a few minutes - but the rain was light and did not last long.  Soon I came upon another terrific view, this one to the east and north (and pictured here).  After descending steeply to Cowans Gap, I found Tatiana and the girls at the state park, hanging out on a blanket in the grass.  Milepost 23.5, and it was already mid-afternoon.  I hung around for a little less than an hour, then got on the trail again.  Fortunately for me, much of the rest of the route - with the exception of three miles of narrow, rocky ridge, was along old woods roads which made for quick hiking.  A few miles later I passed an intersection where the Great Eastern Trail splits off.  This trail is a work-in-progress that is intended to be a continuous hiking trail from Tennessee to New York, by way of eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.  There are several alternate routes though the mid-Atlantic, and one follows the Tuscarora for a bit.  Later I climbed to the rocky ridge where the trail crosses a mountain through which the Pennsylvania Turnpike passes in a tunnel.  I could hear the roar of truck traffic for several miles.  As I descended from this ridge, darkness was falling.  I hiked the last couple of miles along lightly-traveled paved roads in the gathering darkness.

Just for fun, here are some of my endurance "personal records", which I reflected on during this hike:

62 - most miles hiked in a day (C&O Canal, "One Day Hike")
28 - most miles hiked with a full backpack - on a day in Maine
27 - most miles run at one time (Boston and Marine Corps marathons - for the Marine Corp I jogged from the Pentagon metro to the start line because I was late - that was at least an extra 0.8)
75 - most miles biked in one stretch (I need to do a century sometime) 
18 - most miles cross-country skiing (not sure about this one - there was an all-day loop that we used to do at Susqhehannock Lodge that I think was 18).

I have now hiked almost 150 miles on the Tuscarora Trail, which represents 58% of the entire route.

What do I want to try next?  There are supported "endurance hike" events held on several other trails that I would consider.  I would really like to do a one-day traverse of the Presidential Range in New Hampshire.  

Here are the rest of my photos from the day.

Organization time!

It's been a while since I had a chance to post anything here.  There's been a lot going on - moving to our new house, getting ready to sell the old house, getting ready for the new baby!

But we have made some progress towards improvements in the new house.  We have done a lot of work in the yard.  Our back yard, in particular, in a case study in invasive plants - we have English ivy, Poison ivy, Multiflora rose, and a particularly pervasive species called Japanese Knotweed.  So far I am mostly using mechanical control, waging war against the invaders.  We want to eventually plant some of our favorite perennials and bushes, but most of that will need to wait until at least the fall.  I started taking photos tonight after the major rainstorms hit, so I don't have any photos of the yard to show off.

Instead, I have some photos of rooms that are in relatively good shape.  One of the rooms we are most excited about in this house is the mud room/laundry room.  It was already painted this bright red color, but we have added vertical bike storage (that was quite an operation, trying to figure out which sections of the wall would support the weight of the bikes!).  We are also happy to be using all of this extra storage space for tools and other stuff.

Here you can see my bike and the charging station for my electric lawnmower - another new acquisition, since at the old house I could mow in 5 minutes using a mechanical/non-motorized mower.

 We are also excited about being able to store all of our outdoor gear in a more accessible and temperature-controlled environment.  Everything was in the attic before.  I have converted a closet in the guest bedroom to a gear storage space (the rest of the bedroom is not finished yet, so no photos!)

 We have a large "common room" in the downstairs area.  Mostly it's a play space right now, but it has the potential to be multi-purpose.  Here is a corner with some organized space.

 I also have my desk and files pretty much in order.  Here's a couple of parting shots of that area.  Not exactly pretty - Tatiana has been talking about replacing the desk for years - but it's functional.  Tatiana has an office in one of the bedrooms, and it's functional but needs some work be to "done". 

We also painted all four of the bedrooms.  We have big plans for the main room upstairs, but we are not quite ready to execute yet.  Hopefully it will soon see some built-in bookshelves and other improvements!

Lament for a lost winter

It's been a rough winter for snow-lovers like me. There have been few opportunities to ski or play in the snow. In DC we had snow a couple of times, but never as much as even an inch, and it all melted almost immediately. When we visited Michigan at Christmas this year, we could not even find sufficient snow for skiing in Cadillac, normally a great place to ski. We cancelled our annual trip to Lake Placid because of weak snow conditions (they had some, but it was icy and the temperatures were forecast to be above freezing all weekend). We did get out to Canaan Valley for one of the few weekends with good conditions, so I was greateful for that.

In this spirit of wishing for a better snow season in 2013, I decided to compile a list of my favorite places for cross country skiing. Later I plan to do a post on places where I would like to ski, in the spririt of my "top 10 places where I would like to backpack" list.

So here's the list, in countdown format:

Runner-up status go to McKenzie ski trails in Michigan and Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia

10. Cadillac Pathway is a trail system just outside the city of Cadillac, less than 2 hours from where my parents live in Michigan. I have only skiied there a few times, but on our most recent visit we experienced excellent conditions, with fresh powder and great gliding through forested, moderately challenging trails.


9. New Germany State Park is in western Maryland, in the mountains of Garrett County. This region rises significantly from the east to nearly 3000 feet, and gets substantial winter snows. The state park has an nice compact system of trails, with some fun downhills and a very scenic stretch through hemlock forest, paralleling a creek. There is a small warming hut with rentals and light food during busy times as well. It's one of my favorite places for a quick trip when conditions are good.

8. Fahnestock State Park is in the Hudson Valley region of New York, only about an hour north of New York City. We have skiied here a couple of times on the way up to the Lake Placid area. They have a nice network of trails through woods, as well as some that go over a frozen lake. The area is highly scenic, and features a mountainous ridge along which the Appalachian Trail travels.
7. Susquehannock State Forest is in north-central Pennsylvania, in one of the least-populated regions of the eastern US. It is heavily-forested and mountainous. I have skied here multiple times with the Wilmington Trail Club. Our excursions usually featured skiing along the Susqhehannock Trail, a long-distance hiking trail that makes a ~80 mile loop through the forest. None of this area is groomed, so the skiing can be challenging if the snow is deep or icy. But in good conditions it's a great place to ski, with scenic and lightly-travelled trails. The image above right is from the Susquehannock Trail in 2007. Also nearby is the Pine Creek Gorge, which features a rail-trail through the bottom of a scenic canyon.

6. Lapland Lake cross country ski area is northwest of Albany, in the southern section of the Adirondacks. The is a groomed ski resort with many miles of fun trails, and an opportunity to ski fast. There are some steep hills that are quite ski-able because of the groomed conditions. Trails wind through hardwood and hemlock forest and along the edge of a large lake. Also nearby is backcountry skiing on the Northville-Lake Placid trail. We have skiied here numerous times with the Wilmington Trail Club.


5. Winona State Forest in upstate New York. This area is a lot like Big M, with a trail system through forested land on varied terrain, in an area with low population density. The trails are groomed by local volunteers. Winona lies in the Tug Hill Plateau snow belt, in the area north of Syracuse, between Lake Ontario and the Adirondacks. Thus it gets buried in snow every winter and conditions are usually quite good. I skiied there several times with groups from the Wilmington Trail Club in Delaware, though not recently. On one memorable ocassion, the snow was coming down so hard that our cars were stuck in the parking lot after we came back from skiing! This trail system does not benefit from any warming huts or day lodges, so trail lunches are brief to prevent freezing fingers!

4. Big M in Michigan. This area is part of the Manistee National Forest, north of my parents house, between Ludington and Cadillac. It's in the middle of nowhere and thus is rarely crowded - I don't think we have seen more than 10 cars in the parking lot. They have a warming hut with a wood stove, which is nice for breaks between loops. The trail system is scenic and has some moderately-challenging sections with some nice hills. Most trails run through secondary-growth woods with moderate-to large sized trees. Volunteers groom the trails when snow depth is sufficient. One of my best memories from Big M was a couple of years ago when several of us were skiing there as snow drifted down out of the ski and we glided through silent woods.

3. High Peaks/Adirondack Loj. The High Peaks region of the Adirondacks has been a magnet for both summer and winter backcountry travel for many years. When I was a student at RPI I spent making weekends hiking in these mountains. In recent years we have visited in the winter, and I have enjoyed exploring the mountains during winter conditions. The Adirondack Loj (so-named 100 years ago as a result of a "spelling reform" movement) is the base of operations for trips into the wilderness. The snow is deep and the scenery outstanding in most winters. We have skiied and snow-shoed in this area. The High Peaks would rank #1 on this list for scenic value. The photos at right is from one of the trails near the Loj in 2011.

2. Whitegrass is a ski resort in the Canaan Valley of West Virginia. This area features the unusual combination of groomed trails, backcountry loops, and serious hills in one compact area. There are miles of groomed trails ascending over 1000 feet from the valley floor to the top of Bald Knob and the nearby high plateau wilderness area known as Dolly Sods. It's great fun to ski through hemlocks and red spruce in the backcountry regions at the top of the hill, and to cruise down the return trails to the bottom, especially the gradual downhill trail called Powderline. We visit this area 1-2 times per winter, since it's relatively close by. Whitegrass is pictured here.

1. Mount Van Hoevenberg and the Jackrabbit Trail. The Lake Placid region is fantastic for skiing, and these two areas combine to form my top ski destination. Mount Van was the olympic ski venue in 1980, and continues to be managed withe a great network of groomed trails - some are easy routes that amble along creeks or through snowy woods, while others have challenging hills and curves. The groomed trail center is connected to several other skiing areas by way of the ~40 mile long Jackrabbit Trail. When we have stayed in the area in the past, we have been close to this trail, which crosses a combination of groomed and backcountry stretches on the way to Mount Van. It's a fantastic place to ski.


Well, that's it for my top-10 list. Later I will post a wish list of places where I would like to ski - with destinations in Vermont, New Hampshire, and various western National Parks topping the list.

Canaan Valley

We spent the weekend at Canaan Valley, West Virginia with some friends. I have written about some of our past trips before - it's an annual trip for us, sometimes multiple trips in a winter. This year the weather has been a bit unwelcoming for lovers of snow. The temperatures have been mild, and most precipitation has come as rain. This could be related to LaNina conditions being experienced in the equatorial Pacific this year. It's been particularly difficult for us - we drove to and from Michigan for Christmas through snow each way, but found little to no snow on the ground while we were there. No skiing at Christmas this year.

Things did not look much brighter as our planned weekend excursion approached last week. It was mild and wet out in West Virginia, with no snow base as late last last Thursday morning. Then a cold blast of air came through, along with roughly 6-8 inches of white stuff - just enough to cover the trails and create ski-able conditions at White Grass, where years of maintenance have cleared rocks and stick from the trails. We got some fresh powder overnight Friday and Saturday, which meant the conditions were surprisingly good for skiing all around the mountain this weekend. Of course we had a great time hanging out with everyone. Group dynamics have changed a bit over the past few years - though the participating families/couples have varied somewhat, we set a record with 5 kids in the house this time - and with three expecting couples, this same group will have 8 kids next winter!

As for plans for future ski outings, we will be somewhat limited for the next three weeks as Tatiana works towards her comprehensive exams. We do plan to return to Lake Placid for President's weekend.

Here are some photos from the weekend and also from Christmas.

A lousy day for a race

Last Saturday was the WCAC championship in cross country. My team competes in this event every season - and we have won the championship for the past three years. As the event approached last week, the weather forecast continued to worsen. A storm that dumped 16 inches of snow on the Front Range in Colorado was headed our way. On the morning of the race, the temperatures hovered in the upper 30s and a cold rain had been falling all night. The course, covering a mixture of grass and dirt trails, was in awful shape. Two features of the course were particularly problematic this year. The course features a crossing of a ~20 yard wide creek, which is normally ~6 inches deep at the most. Swollen with the rain, the water was turbid, obscuring the bottom, and reached several feet in depth. In addition, a downed tree forced a detour on another section of the course, resulting in a steep descent on what soon turned into a very muddy hill.

As the day continued, conditions worsened, such that by the time the varsity team toed the line, sleet was blowing in on a stiff wind, and the temperature had dropped to below 35. At the end of the race, several of my runners huddled in warm vehicles to recover from the extreme shock their bodies had received. In addition, a runner in the freshman race injured his toe on the creek crossing, and many athletes went home with muddy, soaked clothing.

These were the worst conditions I have seen in 16 years of coaching. Several of my assistant coaches, with an additional 40+ years of experience, agreed with this assessment. I have run in below-zero temperatures with snow on the ground (MIAA championships in college) and in many other instance in the rain and mud. The New Castle County Championships had to be postponed one year after the first couple of races because the course was too dangerous. The Prep Classic in 2009 faced a similar situation. But Saturday, Oct 29th will go down in my memory as the most brutal conditions to date.

Glacier National Park!

Last winter, I saw a notice in a newsletter about a workshop being held for biology teachers in Glacier National Park. I thought it looked like a great opportunity, so I signed up to go, even though it would mean missing 3 days of school.

I had visited Glacier two times before. I was there with my family on a summer trip, when I was 14. Then, in 2001, I drove out to Montana during the summer and spent about a week in the park, including a 5-day backpacking trip.

The group for this trip included roughly 30 teachers and a few spouses. A few were retired, but most were currently teaching biology (and many also environmental science) at high schools. A few were teachers at community colleges. We were led by a retired teacher from Colorado who has been organizing trips to natural places for student and teacher groups for more than 30 years.

We had many great opportunities to learn about Glacier National Park as an educational resource, and about scientific research being done in the park. Sessions were led by enthusiastic park staff as well as USGS employees - who are based in the park and may as well be considered park employees too. The experiences included talks/discussions on the famous grizzly bear study in the park, which involves capturing hair samples for DNA analysis; studies of melting glaciers and other impacts of a changing climate; and fascinating research on wolverines. We also took a guided hike with a fire ecologist specialist who works for the park, and learned about the alpine zone and about regional geology with a park naturalist. We saw mountain goats and elk, but did not manage to catch site of any grizzlies or wolverines. We did see quite a bit of bear scat, including evidence that a black bear had become prey . . . perhaps for a grizzly.

It was a lot of fun to meet other teachers, to see the park from a new perspective, and to discover unexpected "small-world" connections. Many park facilities were closed for the season, and most others would close the day that we left. The weather was cool during the day and quite cold at night (and at Logan Pass, where wind chills were well below freezing), and some of the aspens were turning yellow. Peak fall colors won't hit DC for another 6 weeks, so that was quite a nice treat. I also met a ranger who had worked with my brother, and found out that the workshop leader had met one of my brother's friends when he worked as a seasonal naturalist many years ago. Any my roommate, a teacher from Indiana, vacations in northern Michigan and drives through my hometown of Grant on the way there.

I could go on, but I will stop there because anyone who has made it this far is probably not interested in any more details! Here are the rest of my pictures.