The Green Canoe visits Luray in Page County

Last night I was watching MSNBC and along about 7:30 there were two ads in quick succession - one for Luray Caverns, and the second, also by the Caverns, about Luray and Page County in general.  There was a little traffic early in the month over on Facebook about that second ad, called "Green Canoe," and I've embedded in the blog header for this month.

It features a couple of our locals as actors, so it was a real treat to check it out.  For reference, I'm also embedding it in this post:

Now, there is a poll going on in Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine, and Luray is in the running for Best Trail Town.  If you've made it this far in the post, you might as well click over there and vote for us...thanks!

http://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/contests/best-mountain-towns-reader-poll-2013/

Luray-Page County - an Appalachian Trail Community!

This is the Appalachian Trail Conservancy logo
for trail communities.

Hawksbill Cabin is located in Page County, close to Luray and Stanley, Virginia, and to Shenandoah National Park.  One of the treats for me about this location is being so close to a charming, lovely, thriving small community – and the access it provides as a gateway to the park, not to mention that my hikes based out of here frequently include Appalachian Trail (AT) sections.

A couple of years ago I was talking with Howard Thompson in Appalachian Outdoors Adventures in Luray and he told me that the community was beginning the application process to become an AT Trail Town.  It’s a hard won distinction that the Appalachian Trail Conservancy awards to recognize communities that promote and protect the AT.  Here’s more from the AT Conservancy’s web site:

"…counties, and communities along the A.T.’s corridor are considered assets by all that use the A.T. and many of these towns act as good friends and neighbors to the Trail. The program serves to assist communities with sustainable economic development through tourism and outdoor recreation, while preserving and protecting the A.T.Designation as an Appalachian Trail Community™ and participation in the program is aimed to:

• Engage community citizens, Trail visitors and stewards

• Recognize and thank communities for their service to the Trail and hikers

• Act as a catalyst for enhancing sustainable economic development

• Aid local municipalities and regional areas with conservation planning

• Help local community members see the Trail as a resource and asset"

The Festival of Spring a few weeks ago included a celebration of this honor, and it was covered in the Page News and Courier.  Rereading that article now, I see where the Stanley Mayor Doug Purdham has suggested that Ed Goode Park might one day have a connection up to the trail – “It’s a big dream, and years into the future, but it’s possible.”  It sounds like a worthwhile goal, to me. 

Howard is quoted in the piece as saying, about the hikers that visit the area from the AT, "They stay in our hotels, visit our shops, eat in our restaurants - hikers have an economic impact."  He added that between 200 and 300 AT hikers visit the store during the hiking season.

Here’s to all the AT enthusiasts in our community who were part of this effort.  I’m proud of y’all.

Luray's Spring Fest - 2012 Edition

Luray's Annual Festival of Spring - 2012

This weekend was a special one in the town of Luray – it was time for the annual Festival of Spring, a great outdoor festival down Main Street that was more special than usual this year, since Luray is observing the 200^th anniversary of its founding.  There was a parade on Friday evening, followed by the big deal on Main Street on Saturday.

Mary and I had errands to run downtown anyway, so we made a point to stop by.  Although the Farmers Market was closed, we found out that that space was to be the venue for the disk dog exhibition that is one of the highlights of the festival.  

A view of the beer garden from upstairs at Artisans Cafe.

We also made stops by Uncle D’s Pools and Spas, since we are in the middle of the spring opening of the Hawksbill Cabin pool; we visited with our friends at Appalachian Outdoors Adventures and at Hawksbill Bicycles; saw some friends that had a booth set up to sell handcrafted jewelry; and finally, scouted out the beer garden for later on in the day.  Our morning adventure wrapped up with lunch at Artisans Café on Main Street. (special shout out to Firkin-Good Creatives!)

One of the reasons this event is special to me is that it marks five years since Mary and I were first introduced to the town – we were staying in the Park up at Skyland, and there was rain so we couldn’t hike.  Instead we took a little adventure down into the town, and behold, there was the fest!  I had been on a part-time search for a mountain property at the time, and soon began to include Page County in the rounds I was making on the internet.  By mid-summer we had identified Hawksbill Cabin as a property we were interested in, and the rest is history.

Beer Garden action - with Marcus Brown and the Sugartones.

We made arrangements to come back in the evening for the fest – the folks at Uncle D’s let us park in their lot since we had to pick up pool supplies, and we’d agreed to meet up with friends at five o’clock.  Five O’clock happened to be the start time for the set by Marcus Brown and the Sugartones, just one of the groups taking the stage in the beer garden.

There is also a wine garden at the fest, which we didn’t go and visit this year.  They also have live music at that venue, and there were a half dozen or more local vineyards represented, including our friends at Wisteria Farm and Vineyards.  I peaked in at around 11 a.m., and Sue was already busy pouring tastings and visiting with aficionados.

We hung out for a couple of hours enjoying the music and visiting with friends and neighbors.  Sally and Dan, from the neighborhood, couldn’t join us due to some family commitments, but I heard that Dan had a hand in choosing the beers that were featured.  For myself, I enjoyed the New Belgium variety “Festy” that was on tap.

We were lucky with beautiful neighbors and that just tops it all off for this beautiful little town. 

What’s not to like?

"All my Troubles are Little Compared to This..."

Getting back to the Rev3 Adventure Race...

Congrats to my friends at Appalachian Outdoors Adventures for their first place age group finish in this race.  They're even in a couple of cameos!

Turk Mountain: An Easy SNP Day Hike

At the summit of Turk Mountain

As I mentioned yesterday, I took Tessie out for an inaugural hike in Shenandoah National Park recently, and chose the easy Turk Mountain summit hike as our destination.  Earlier we’d warmed up a little on Calf Mountain after entering the Park from Waynesboro, and afterwards we drove a few miles north on Skyline Drive to the trailhead for the summit.

There is a more challenging Turk Mountain hike described on Hiking Upward, and linked below.  They list their version as a 10.4 mile loop with multiple stream crossings and 2,400+ feet of altitude gain.  That’s not the hike Tessie and I took – ours started at the Turk Gap parking area, milepost 94.1, and we did a 2.2 mile out-and-back with only about 480 feet of altitude gain, net.

This is a well-maintained trail that runs along the AT for part of the way.  In fact, Tessie and I encountered a pair of north bound AT section hikers taking a lunch break at the parking area.  What a wet day it was – I’m sure that was keeping that appetite up, but I didn’t have any trail magic to share with them.

Rhodies

As you can see from the sparseness of my photography on this trail, I was pretty focused on working with Tessie on her leash for the route.  Still, we did enjoy the rhododendrons in bloom, and made note of several geologic layers that the trail passes through, including a couple of talus fields.  The rainy day really brought out the colors of the lichen that covered many of these stones.

Talus field

Upon reaching the summit, given the rainy day and overcast skies, there is not a lot I can report about the views that are supposed to be the highlight of this hike.  I’m one who doesn’t mind not having the view if the effect of the weather is interesting enough, and here it was, with wispy clouds blowing through the tree branches. 

This stony ridge is narrow and tough for footing, and my little dog looked up at me for guidance in some of the areas up there.   We had a good bonding experience – I’ll take her back on the trail sometime soon, and hopefully will be able to join my friends at Appalachian Outdoors Adventures with their dogs by the end of the year.

As far as the trail goes, this one offers a very typical experience for Park visitors.  It is a good one down in the Southern District, where there aren’t typically many crowds on the trails, so it has that going for it.  A hiker who has done the research on the vegetation, wildlife, and history of the Park will certainly find a lot here; and if you take the time to dig into the geology of the Park there is a lot to ponder in the nearly 500 feet of elevation gain here – you probably cover two or three hundred million years of geological history.

It’s one I definitely will do again, and I may even take up this route from Hiking Upward:

 http://www.hikingupward.com/SNP/TurkMountain/

Return to Massanutten's Kennedy Peak

A couple of weeks back, when Chris came out for a hike, we intended to get out for one of the “75 at 75” hikes. Both of us ended up having some work chores to take care of first thing in the morning, via email, and that put us behind schedule enough that we ditched the plan for a hike in Shenandoah National Park. As a Plan B, we went to Kennedy Peak on the Massanutten Ridge in the George Washington National Forest.


See, during this time of year, Shenandoah National Park closes the entries on Skyline Drive at 5pm, reopening them at 8am, to prevent poaching during deer hunting season. If you expect that you need more than 9 hours for transit to your trailhead and to complete your hike, you run the risk of being locked in the Park. Although there are procedures for letting you out after hours, NPS cannot guarantee how promptly someone will arrive to open the gates for you.

After Chris and I took care of the emails and on-line business matters, we made our stop to check on the pigs, which I posted on last week. Then it was off to GWNF and the Edith Gap trailhead. We arrived at just about noon for the hike.

I used both the Casio Pathfinder and the “Map my Hike” app on my iPhone on this one. I calculated approximately 698 feet of elevation gain over the 5.4 mile course, which took us about three and a half hours. As with most of the GWNF hikes, the route was well marked, actually following the orange-blazed Massanutten loop for most of the distance before merging with the Stephens Trail to the summit of Kennedy Peak.

Back in January, I hiked the Stephens Trail with the AOA guys. I was stunned at the views from the old observation tower at the summit. I’ve posted three photos here of the views, looking in easterly directions to Page Valley: first to the north, in the direction of Rileyville and Bentonville; then due east across the north stretches of Luray to the Blue Ridge and Thornton Gap; and then to the south, towards Stanley and Big Meadows, where Hawksbill Cabin lies along this line.

I have a video to share, a narrated panorama that I took while on the observation tower, and I will post that tomorrow as I conclude the review of this hike.

The Urban Trout Stream

About mid-October, during the walks that Tessie and I take, I started to notice more and more folks along the banks of Hawksbill Creek, some doing traditional flyfishing and others simply casting along with rod and reel. Then I realized that we'd entered the season where that stream is stocked - from about October 15 through June 15.  The water is not really cold enough for trout for the rest of the year and so it's not stocked then.

(A schedule of stream stocking dates is maintained by the state of Virginia here:  http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/stock/)

Small fish are nearly always visible in the stream along the Hawksbill Greenway, and some of the murals illustrate the species you can find there, namely sunfish, bass and trout.  On the day I took these photos, apparently the stream had just been stocked, and obviously the leaves were still up - it was early in the fall.  But I saw a number of keepers in the creels.

On a walk a few weeks back Mary and I ran into our friends from Appalachian Outdoors Adventures working over the creek on a Sunday morning.  They weren't having any luck this morning, but Howard broke out his phone to show us a couple of recent catches - big ones, each one easily filling the pan for two people!

I guess it's time to break out my copy of A River Runs Through It again to have a look.  And maybe to be on the lookout for a trout dinner somewhere soon!

Thru-hikers on the AT, and at AOA

There was a recent FB post by Gary over at Appalachian Outdoors Adventures about Appalachian Trail (AT) thru-hikers; apparently he had a couple of folks in the store and they were enjoying their break in town with a stop at the store. I’ve seen a couple of hikers out on some AT sections already this year – about this time is the beginning of the peak for this part of Virginia, so I wanted to make a point of taking a look at the AT log that they keep in the store.


Now, for those who aren’t familiar with the AT, here are a few fun facts: The trail runs approximately 2,165 miles (the figure is constantly revised, as the route changes slightly from year to year for various reasons) through 14 eastern states, from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. It is estimated that between 1,500 and 2,000 people attempt to thru-hike every year, and as many as 25 percent may complete the journey, but most estimates put the number at around 20 percent. There have been as many as 5,000 hikers who have completed the AT thru-hike.

I compiled that information from various sources, there is general information at the Wikipedia link below. There are a number of good books on the topic of thru-hiking, including “AWOL on the Appalachian Trail” and “A Walk in the Woods” – I may add Amazon links sometime in the future.
Sunday afternoon Tessie dog and I were making our rounds, and we made a stop at the store. Linda showed me the log and told me that it seemed like they’d already had a lot of people in this year. I made a count and found 26 so far – they may have had some that didn’t sign in, or just didn’t record the visit for whatever reason.



-





The first “north bound,” or no-bo, hiker this year was “Trail Blazer” – he was at AOA on April 4. I assume he’d gotten an early start, and that he was trucking through the miles. In any case, he certainly picked an appropriate trail handle.

The log book showed that a south bound (so-bo) hiker was in on March 14, but I couldn’t make out from the entry if this was a thru-hiker or not. It was hard to figure out, since at the normal pace that hiker would have started in November or December, and I don’t think you could get through the Maine and New Hampshire sections at that time of year. So I didn’t count that entry in the total.

There were quite a few interesting posts in the book and I enjoyed reading them. There was an entry from a hiker that had left a fleece jacket along the Trail back in April – with cold days (the estimated annual “frost fee” date in Luray is May 14 (thanks, David Sours), and we are at least 1,000 feet below the trail as it winds through Shenandoah National Park) still ahead that is a needed item – who offered a reward and a description.

On Saturday this week, a couple of my Northern Virginia friends were in the store to pick up some supplies for a camping trip they were in over at GWNF. They reported running into two thru-hikers in the store during their visit. Maybe they were the very same thru-hikers who recorded being in town for “a couple of zeroes” – zeroes being zero trail mile days – and a movie, along with a hockey game down the street at Uncle Bucks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Trail

Adventure Racing in the Valley



Epic shot of Gary crossing the low water bridge in Shenandoah River State Park.



Howard preparing for the biking descent from Edith Gap.



Page County has a wonderful combination of assets – mountains, country roads, and the river – that make it perfect for adventure tourism. It’s proximity to the DC area and other mid-Atlantic population centers make it an attractive venue for triathlons and bike races, and after just a few years of developmental efforts, we already have events on a half dozen weekends annually. I’ve written about this before, but I think this is an exciting addition to the area’s economic mix – it’s something that planners should carefully integrate into any forward looking strategy for the area.

A new event came to town last weekend – adventure racing. Our local folks at Appalachian Outdoors Adventures (AOA) were sponsors, and they fielded a four person team in the event. The sport mixes biking, trail running, trekking, and water sports with navigation skills, making for a very challenging adventure that the word “epic” perfectly communicates. As you can see from the pictures AOA’s Gary Drum shared with me here, it’s a very rewarding experience that brings out the best in the individual and team participants.



The team at the finish...something like 3am, I'm told.



Another team shot, working out a plan.

 The AOA team was comprised of Gary, Howard, Kris Haynes, and Chris Spiller, and they were signed up for the Epic race, which staged from Shenandoah River State Park. There was a canoeing stage of the event that was cancelled because of the rain – I’ve spent a few minutes to myself thinking of all these folks out on the race course while that weather was going on around them, probably not realizing for the most part how dangerous that system was on the whole. It was a relief to hear that the participants made it in safely – still looking for confirmation of one possible storm related injury.

AOA’s sponsorship included providing maps for the navigation challenges, and the store served as the packet pickup location for the nearly 300 participants. Gary tells me there were 33 teams in the Epic event, and the AOA team completed the course in in 19 hours for 16th place overall – pretty good for only their second race.




Waiting for the shuttle at the River checkpoint, since the canoe portion was cancelled.

  Gary said that being in last year’s race provided some important lessons about how to prepare, including being sure that you’d provided proper nutrition – comparing some of the photos from last time to this, which you can do by checking out Gary’s or Howard’s blogs (links below) will show how far they’ve come with the sport already. Granted, only three teams even finished that first race they were in!

I asked Gary what his favorite memory of the event was, and he said the slog through deep water and mud on the state park’s Bluebell Trail was best. The most challenging part was the mountain bike course there in the park; this biking portion was in addition to a 40-mile extension that was added to the course to replace the canoeing when it was cancelled.

Gary says that AOA is looking forward to sponsorship activities for future races, and that yes, with all of the fun they had as a team in this race, they’ll likely do another when the time comes!

Here is a link to some addition photo highlights:  http://www.daddiophoto.com/AdventureRacing/Rev3-Adventure-April-16-2011/16655105_2sRS49#1255610238_QBG8fjm

Here’s the homepage of the race organizer:  http://www.rev3adventure.com/

Gary’s blog (often includes reviews of gear and adventures): http://runtechinthevalley.blogspot.com/

Howard’s blog (often includes reviews of events and other adventure activities): http://adventuresinthevalley.blogspot.com/

Kennedy Peak: A Moderate GWNF Day Hike

(Photos are corrected now - added 2/18/11)

Last Friday I got into town a little bit earlier than usual, and I went directly to the Food Lion for some supplies. Before going in, I checked the iPhone and found that that my friends at Appalachian Outdoors Adventures had planned a hike at Kennedy Peak for Saturday – also known as Stephens Trail. Then, as I was checking out, CFM walked into the Food Lion…it was sort of like an omen, so I felt compelled to join them.

Now, Hiking Upward has this hike as being at its best in the early spring, before the leaves start to bloom. However, on a number of these summit hikes in the GWNF it’s a good idea to knock them out early in the year, not just because of the views. You want to get them in before the weather heats up too much because of all the critters that will likely be sunning themselves on the rocky summits.

We began our hike by meeting at the store at 10:30 – I arrived a few minutes early, only to find everybody already there and ready to go. Gary, Howard and CFM had made the plan, with me as the straggling fourth, and the dogs would be joining us on the trail as well. I’ve got a photo here of the three of them at an icy patch on the ascent, and then photos of the dogs as well. The one of Howard and the girls is at the summit.

Referring again to Hiking Upward, they have the trail at 8.5 miles, while we have the route as 9.2 miles...I don't have a way to reconcile the difference at this point, so I will go with Gary's and Howard's measure. I rushed out this time without my altimeter watch, so I couldn’t verify the altitude gain, but it’s listed at 1,390 feet. The trail is a big loop that ascends gently through one of the valleys in the GWNF before turning to climb along the ridge. As you approach the peak, the trail steepens until you are working up to the summit, where there is an observation platform with a little shelter built into it. The panorama, shown above, is 360 degrees and includes beautiful views of Page Valley.

I learned a few things on this hike – in some cases, it was info passed along by the AOA guys, but in others, it was just assimilating hiking experience. For example, they showed me an alternate parking area that provides shorter access to the summit, making an out-and-back of about 6.5 miles. And in another case, while I knew that during the winter, the leaf litter in GWNF accumulates in the trail footpaths on north-facing areas, I didn’t understand that these areas are the last to melt after snows, and can be filled with hard-frozen ice hidden under the leaves long after the precipitation has fallen.

There weren’t that many icy patches to deal with in any cases, and most of the climbs were long, gentle stretches – sometimes a couple of miles long, in fact. I have a couple of views looking at Fort Valley here, taking during one of these climbs. The last stretch to the summit was probably steepest, and then a mile or so in the shadow of the mountain was the iciest. But, there were no falls, although there were some close calls.

We took a break near the top, and everyone broke out their lunches. Gary had his backpacking stove there and fixed up a hot meal – read the gear review on his blog at: http://runtechinthevalley.blogspot.com/2011/02/kennedy-peak-loop-gsi-telescoping-spoon.html. One of the highlights of this stop was the peanut butter and raisin sammiches that CFM shared. Just one more little thing I learned on this pleasant walk.

Near the top, there were traces of a fire from the summer – I’ve done some follow-up research on this and will have a post tomorrow. And then you reach the summit with the observation platform and those views; here’s photo here of me up there.

The AOA team maintains a solid pace on these hikes, and we did the 9.2 miles in about 6 hours, about 1.5 miles an hour. That’s quicker than my usual team does these routes, we plan for a mile per hour. I think I learned a few things that will help us with the pace, which in turn will give us more planning flexibility for the summer hikes ahead.

I have wanted to do this hike a long time – Kennedy Peak simply dominates the Page Valley view, and so it’s been a destination for me since I started coming here. Now I’ve got it checked off (and the neighboring Duncan Knob, last photo), and I’m looking forward to getting a few more folks out there with me.

Strickler Knob: A Moderate (and incomplete) Day Hike

Our hiking group set out on the enterprise that is Strickler Knob a few weeks back. We had just heard too many good things about the trail from the gang at Appalachian Outdoors Adventures, and the reviews of the hike on Hiking Upward were very tempting. Never mind that we chose possibly the very coldest day of the January to make a go of it – the temperature was 20 degrees at the trailhead – or that I was still a bit jetlagged from my trip to Japan. I can never resist a mountaintop view of Page Valley, so it was easily decided.

 

With Tom and Andy coming down from Leesburg, and Chris and I setting off from Hawksbill Cabin, we set up a 9 am rendezvous at the Southern Kitchen. On the way to the meeting point, Chris and I drove by the trailhead parking area to make sure that Chrisman hollow was open – it was; we also continued on down to Scotthorn Gap to make sure that we could park there, since I thought we might reconsider the main route for the day.

 

Our plan was to use the Massanutten trailhead and hike down Waterfall Mountain to the gap between it and Strickler, head to the crossroads where Scotthorn Gap trail comes in, and then up the spine of Strickler Knob to the summit. Hiking Upward (no link today because their site won’t open, I’ll correct this later) has the total distance of 9.5 miles for this hike – very aggressive for our first hike of the season, but Strickler has been looming over us for a couple of years now and the gang was chomping at the bit to complete it.

 

This hike also has pretty significant altitude change, so I was prepared with a Plan B and Plan C when we met the guys at Southern Kitchen:

 

• Plan A – the whole shebang, 9.5 miles, from Hiking Upward;
• Plan B – the shorter, 5.5 mile trail from the trailhead at Scotthorn Gap; or
• Plan C – a car shuttle, starting from either trailhead after leaving cars at both, shortening the trip to 7.5 miles.

Over a hearty breakfast, we chose Plan C…we’ve come down from Duncan Knob and Old Rag in the dark before(in fact Chris and I did the last 3 miles of Half Dome in the dark in 2005), something we didn’t want to repeat, and we decided that 9.5 miles would guarantee that same result again. (FYI, a link to Southern Kitchen is here: http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=427 )

 

I’ve already mentioned how cold it was starting out. I had prepared with long underwear and flannel lined jeans, I knew I had to be careful of getting them wet, but the streams were hard frozen and that wasn’t going to be a problem. The other guys chose technical hiking pants over long underwear – I think everyone was okay for the cold, but as we warmed up from hiking it was challenging to stay comfortable.

 

From the Massanutten Trailhead, Strickler is a hike that doesn’t cut any slack. About a quarter of a mile in, there is a half mile long descent that plunges 800 feet in a series of switchbacks on a rocky trail – challenging footing with winter leaf litter still covering the trail and with icy spots here and there in the shade. Andy and I synchronized our Casio Pathfinders and both got good readings on the altitude change, I’m glad to say. Chris didn’t fire up this feature of the Suunto, so we didn’t compare Tech Watch results.

 

From the bottom of that descent to the next waypoint, the crossroads with the Scotthorn Gap trail, is about 2 miles. There is a gentle climb over this distance, and the path more or less follows a stream, which you cross twice in this valley. It was very pretty in this hollow, given the cold and the fact that the leaves were down. But you could hear the happy little stream under the ice, and nobody was complaining about the trail difficulty at all.

 

From our past experience, our worries about running out of daylight were driving us. Our usual pace is about a mile per hour on these hikes, and we knew that wouldn’t be good enough – it’s why we made alternate plans. Still, at one point, we did one of these miles in a half hour. I think it was part of one of the old furnace roads, and footing was tough, but we really covered that distance.

 

At last we reached the way point, slung off our packs for snacks, and reconnoitered our situation. We were at the start of the ridge trek for this trail, with about an hour to 90 minutes of daylight left, with 3 miles of rock scramble to look forward to before getting back here, only a mile to a mile and a half on an easy fire road trail from the car. The math wasn’t working, so we had to bag it.

 

Still, all in all, a good workout of about 5.5 miles, and now we are more familiar with this trail’s logistics. We’re going to take it on again at some point this winter, maybe early spring (we prefer not to do the rock scrambles in the summer due to snakes sunning themselves on the rocks).

Byrds Nest Summit and Byrds Nest Shelter Number 4 - An Easy SNP Day Hike

This trail ended up being my final hike out of the Best Easy Day Hikes book, number 26 of the 26 that are reviewed there. Both the Easy Day Hikes book and Heatwole describe the Byrds Nest Summit and Shelter Number 4 as an easy hike through pleasant forest scenery, and I couldn’t argue with that. Although the Easy Day Hikes book outlines a circuit of 3.2 miles and climb of nearly 500 feet, I added in a little section of the AT that passes through here, freelancing off of the trail map I picked up at the entry station – so my hike was probably a little longer and had more altitude variation than their review had.


I should note that I had some photos taken in June 2010 to accompany this post, but failed to upload them…when I dropped the Moto RAZR last week I lost them. Maybe sometime I’ll revisit Byrds Nest Shelter Number 4, and if I do, I’ll post photos at that time.

Interestingly, looking at the Heatwole guide (my copy is the 1988 fourth edition), Henry describes the facilities at the shelter as having a pit toilet and a water faucet, but I either didn’t see or didn’t notice these during my visit…Heatwole also mentions a couple of nearby viewpoints that should be only a couple of hundred yards away, but I think they are overgrown now, and Henry goes as far as to qualify the description of them with the remark, “if they are still there.”

For a few minutes I considered the quality of this location, and then I chuckled to myself remembering a couple of passages in Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods.” In one place, he mentions a shelter somewhere south of Byrds Nest Shelter 4 where some Boy Scouts arrive shortly after he and hiking buddy Katz arrive. The Boy Scouts set to work, are cheerfully incompetent, and are “better than TV.”

In another passage Bryson describes coming to Gravel Springs Hut, which is north of Byrds Nest 4, again with Katz, but this time arriving in the rain. They are joined there by a group of six day hikers who have decided to “rough it” in overnight in the shelter, complete with libations.

Upon encountering Katz and Bryson in the shelter, one of the women says, “Ooh, do we have to share?” and things rapidly go downhill from there. Katz gets a form of revenge at the end of the story as they part ways – and that’s what gave me a laugh as I looked out on the meadow in front of the shelter. Gravel Springs Hut is probably another dozen miles north of Byrds Nest 4, but still, I was happy for the little memory.

Things were going nicely for a short while, and the shelter was a very nice facility, looking out over a little meadow. The weather was changing, it was growing overcast, and then I heard some thunder rumbling off in the distance. Growing concerned, I sped off into the woods.

With so many trails coming into the shelter area, I must have made a wrong turn somewhere along the way, and found myself on a side tail that I could not find on the map in the Easy Day Hikes book (I keep it in my pocket for reference when I do these hikes). I decided to put that book away and exclusively use the Park Service map, combined with the trusty compass on my Pathfinder watch, in order to navigate back to Skyline Drive.

It was very dark in the woods for the remainder of the hike, and my anxiety about the wrong turn made the walk seem very long – even though it really wasn’t. I remember that this was quite a beautiful part of the forest, as a matter of fact, in a hollow on the west side of the ridge, and not yet fully leafed out. At those times where I could put the worries out of my mind I enjoyed the views, and thought that a car shuttle hike doing a few miles of the AT through this area could be nice.

For all the anxiety, this pleasant memory of a book well read and the glimpses of natural beauty made up this into a not-so-bad experience. I exited the woods at Skyline Drive, and quickly assessed that I was south of where I had parked the car. I hiked a couple of hundred yards along the Drive back to the parking lot.

The moral of this story is simple – while it is relatively difficult to get lost in Shenandoah National Park, since you are always only a few miles away from Skyline Drive if you are on a blue or white blazed trail, you should always take the precaution of having a map, a compass, and some extra drinking water with you. Given the terrain, there are still a lot of areas where cell service doesn’t reach. Even so, it shouldn’t be too difficult to survive here with these things, and being without them will probably more likely mean you are in for some discomfort rather than in an actual life-threatening situation.

So that’s a lesson I’ve taken to heart – even though I will scamper off on many of the Easy Day Hikes book’s hikes sans backpack, I will typically have extra water, a couple of maps, and my trusty Casio Pathfinder with compass on hand. Since I use my cell phone for photographs, I always have it with me, too, although I don’t expect to have service much of the time on the hikes.

To close the post, here are Amazon links to the Easy Day Hikes book and the Bryson book, both mentioned above. Appalachian Outdoors Adventures in Luray often has them in stock.  You can also find a link to the Casio Pathfinder over there - - > in the right hand column!

Lewis Spring Falls Hike - June 2010 Version

This hike was the 24th I had taken out of the 26 that are reviewed in the Easy Day Hikes book. I was anticipating the finish of that effort, one I had begun about two and a half years before. At the same time, I was feeling a little confident of my ability to navigate the blue blazes, and since many of these hikes are short, not too strenuous, I combined this one with the Story of the Forest Trail, which I posted about last week. The result was a stitched together hike with a short AT section of about a mile. This route is easily found on the NPS trail maps in the Big Meadows area.


I happened to be wearing my technical fabric AT tee shirt (shout out to the gang at Appalachian Outdoors Adventures) that day, with its distinctive white blaze marking…about half way along the AT section on my way to the Lewis Spring Falls trailhead I encountered a group of four thru-hikers who announced that they probably should turnaround and “follow that white blaze” – since that guy probably knows where he is going.

Heatwole describes the Lewis Falls trail as about 3.3 miles as a circuit – or out-and-back – hike, with an altitude change of 990 feet – pretty steep. In the Easy Day Hike book, they review the same route; as I am looking at the two books while writing this I realize that I went a third way the first time I took the trail, since I was freelancing a combo with the little Story of the Forest Trail. Mary and I have also done this hike from the parking area at the Big Meadows visitor center, using the fire road as a part of the hike.  My route that day may have totaled five miles.

The route from the visitor center will take you through ferny glades and flowery meadows. Later, when Mary and I repeated the hike to the falls, a few weeks after my spring hike, there were butterflies all around, including tiger and black swallowtails, and monarchs.

The trail to the falls gets interesting fairly quickly. You pass a well house and then step into the woods, descending through a series of switchbacks along a ridge. During the summer, the undergrowth can be thick in places along the trail due to the plentiful moisture. On my first trip, there were glades of wild hardy geraniums (my guess, any botanist readers can correct me after checking out the photos!).

At last, you arrive at a level spot at the head of the falls – there is a sign warning visitors not to explore the cliff due to the danger. Instead, continue a few hundred yards further on a pathway marked by an iron railing – this will take you to the view point. The falls is at the top of a ravine that cascades on down the mountain, and from here the stream becomes Little Hawksbill Creek – one of the sources for the Hawksbill Creek that runs through Luray. In fact, little Hawksbill becomes a boundary for the Wisteria Vineyard and Jordan Hollow Farm Inn properties in the neighborhood of Hawksbill Cabin.

The steepness and rockiness of this trail can offer tricky footing, but the switchbacks definitely keep it navigable for most casual adventurers. I like this hike very much – in fact, of the 26 day hikes in the Easy Day Hikes book, I’d put this one in my top five…I guess I just made up two future posts out of this topic – top five and worst five (I should say “five least favorite, actually).

Here's the link to the Easy Day Hikes book...and remember, you can also pick up a copy at Appalachian Outdoors Adventures in Luray.

GWNF/Massanutten Fire - Update 11-19

I've gotten into town early today and as I crested Thornton Gap coming over the Blue Ridge I immediately saw that our fire is still going on over on Massanutten Mountain.  As I understand it, it smoldered after the rains this week, but never really went out.  While I don't have confirmation yet, it is likely a back fire was lit to burn some of the fuel to help accelerate it's going out.

Looks to be a couple of hundred acres now.  Still high up on the mountain, but since it is hanging there right above town obviously a lot of people are watching it.

I'll post a new status on this one Sunday night - we'll see what happens with it over the weekend.

Thanks to Gary, Linda, Howard and Andy at Appalachian Outdoors Adventures for the wireless hookup today!  (...and the background music is MacArthur Park...excellent!)

After Action: Luray Triathlon 2010

Just a quick note this morning to say congratulations to all the participants, organizers, and town of Luray for bringing off another excellent edition of this event.  With 600 participants on both the Saturday and Sunday triathlons, the event was fully booked.  I hope everyone had a great race and will come back next year.

For our part, Mary and I joined the United Way volunteers to be part of the rest of the action - we were part of a variety of fun tasks, and I have to admit it's very rewarding to be a part of it all.  Among our activities - making PB&Js for the participants to quickly refuel after they finished; course guide on the water (Jim) - in a canoe with one of the lifeguards; and transition area bike checker at the end of the race.  I don't know that I will ever participate as a swimmer, biker, or runner - or all three, but there's no lack of fun stuff to do behind the scenes.

Also a big kudos to the AOA gang today - everybody there took part in the races:  Andy, Gary, Howard and Linda.  That's a real commitment to adventure tourism, gang!  Congratulations!

Team AOA and the Odyssey

On Sunday, as the weekend at Hawksbill Cabin was winding down, I decided to drive into town and visit with the Appalachian Outdoors Adventures team about their recent 24-hour Odyssey adventure race. Both Howard and Gary have posts up on their blogs – links below, and the photo is from their gear shakedown run up on Duncan Knob – I think they have a little more news to share, but I wanted to hear about the experience in person.

Here's just a preview of the skills competitors needed to have to participate, taken from the Odyssey website (race details are at http://www.oarevents.com/events/2010/Odyssey_One_Day_2010.shtml) :

• Boat/paddling maneuvers - Peel out, ferry-forward, back ferry, eddy turns, stop (within reasonable distance), positions-sitting/kneeling- rocking/balance, forward in a straight line.
• Paddle strokes - Forward and backstrokes, draw stroke, cross bow draw, bow sweep, stern sweep, stop.
• Reading water - V’s-upstream/downstream; recognizing: rocks, horizon line, ledges, strainers, eddies, hydraulics.
• River rescue/safety - How to swim in moving waters, foot entrapment prevention, aggressive swimming-self rescue, avoiding obstacles/strainers, broaching/pinning; communication: paddle signals/whistle use, rescue priorities (people, boats, gear), hypothermia: prevention and treatment, how to receive a throwrope, proper clothing; lifejacket: fit, types, (location of whistle/knife); helmets, bailers. Strainer drill, throwrope use: re-stuff/re-throw/belay position; boat over boat rescue; lining a boat/portage, rigging: gear attachment, throwrope location, load distribution

Howard rolled out one of the maps they used in this race and we took a look at the route through the first four checkpoints – I couldn’t believe what I was seeing there. Just getting through one of those checkpoints is a more vigorous adventure than what I usually plan for a day hike.

Not to mention what I recall as the final leg of the route to the 3rd checkpoint on their map – after a 20+ mile bike ride, enter the Jefferson National Forest, bike four miles on forest trails, while climbing 1,000 + feet…

In the end, the AOA team wasn’t one of the three teams out of 36 that finished the entire race. But what they did achieve is pretty awesome! Congrats to them - Steve, Kris, Howard, and Gary - and looking forward to future news on these adventures!

http://adventuresinthevalley.blogspot.com/2010/07/odyssey-one-day-adventure-race.html

http://runtechinthevalley.blogspot.com/2010/07/24-hour-odessey-adventure-race-tech.html

I Know I Look Like A Tool

But for some reason you find that you are a little envious.

The reason?  Because this is what I drove by to get to work today.

We were working most of the day on parking lots and drive ways, so we had to wear the high visibility gear.

Here is an action photo of a pothole I had previous assessed.

Also you can seen that the new Vasques are working out...here's a shot out to the AOA gang! 

Gearing up for Yosemite

When I first got news of the pending assignment to Yosemite, I decided first thing was to get some new hiking shoes, since I knew I would need them for what promised to be a lot of walking around, and standing, while we fill out reports. So I talked to Howard at AOA and we decided on some Vasques…which have to be special ordered in my size.

These are actually VST trail running shoes. Very functional and stylish.

Finally picked them up last week and have broken them in with about 10 miles of walking, including the Storybook Trail in Massanutten and a couple of round trips to the office.

Turns out, I’ll need some heavy duty shoes in some cases, and they recommend steel toes, according to the project safety plan. And a safety vest, a hard hat, and some protective eyewear. The team is providing most of this equipment, along with GPS and some other special items, which I will post about later. I am still looking for the shoes.

I know I haven’t said yet what I will be doing on the trip, but we’ll get to that.

I’m a consultant, you know – most of the time it is about the knife and fork, but sometimes, it’s about the gear. They don’t send the big guy out for this stuff as much as they used to, so this is a real treat for me. The important thing is, I’ll be able to wear the new Vasques for most of the time, and I am looking forward to it.

The Tech 4-0 Trailheader - a Tech-Watch Geek guest post

Today, I'm re-posting from Gary's gear blog (  http://runtechinthevalley.blogspot.com/ ) - he's been using a Tech 4-0 watch on his adventures and recently put up a review post.  With his permission, I edited it slightly to fit my blog.

Gary's blog is a companion blog to Howard's Adventures in the Valley blog, which is  here:   http://adventuresinthevalley.blogspot.com/

Although they have the watch in the store in Luray, for reference, I have an Amazon link at the end of the post.

"I am going to blog about the gear that I personally use for running and cycling here in the Shenandoah Valley, what I like, don't like and why. These are just my personal opinions. I am a triathlete (for a number of years with two ironman races under my belt) and have recently started trail running and now adventure racing. I hope this blog can be helpful to anyone who is looking at gear and equipment for being outdoors.

The first piece of equipment I will talk about is the Tech 40 Traileader Pro watch. I had been using the Freestyle Nomad and the first thing that I noticed about the Traileader was that it is noticeably lighter on the wrist than the Nomad. As with all of these multi-function high tech watches the learning curve is a little steep, for me anyway. It took me about 3 hours to get the watch set up and using it in a basic way. The pictures in the directions do not match the watch face so it is a little confusing.

The Traileader has two menus, a time menu and a trail menu. Once you get the hang of it you can switch back and forth fairly easily. On the time menu you can run through the altitude, barometric pressure, and temperature quickly without having to go into the trail menu. It also has a running distance/running time mode which I really like. No more pedometers! The watch face is large which I like also because I can read it without having to need my reading glasses.

All in all I prefer the Traileader over the Nomad and it is now my Adventure watch.

"Thrive Outside"
 

Upcoming Adventures

The gang at AOA have a couple of blogs that I have been enjoying quite a bit lately - one is adventure oriented and the other gear oriented.  Both are in my blog roll to the left.

I'm going to borrow one of Gary's posts about his Tech 4-0 watch later this week for the Tech-watch Geek series.  And Howard posted about a training ride they did the other night in preparation for a twenty-four hour adventure race coming up...

http://adventuresinthevalley.blogspot.com/2010/07/adventure-race-gear-shake-down.html

Looks like I have a couple of adventures coming up myself.  First, next week I have a work assignment in Yosemite.  I won't get to do the famous cable route, shown here from Chris's and my hike in 2005 (click to enlarge-those are people), but I count myself lucky on this one and will work above and beyond to get the deliverable right - there could be some downstream projects at other National Parks.  Way cool.

And my hiking group - we've done Signal Knob and Duncan Knob in Massanutten, as well as a hike in Shenandoah National Park - is trying to put together a wilderness overnighter in Dolly Sods (link is  http://fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5090664.pdf ), an adventure that is going to test the limits of what I've experienced on our hikes and adventures.

But I'm looking forward to these...as they say at AOA:  "Thrive Outside."