Ivy Creek - an Easy Day Hike

During my vacation a few weeks ago, I did three day hikes in the Shenandoah National Park. Today I will write about the second one, Ivy Creek, which begins from the Ivy Creek Overlook in the southern district of the Park. This sign about the AT greets you at the trailhead as you begin the 2.8 mile hike, which is also reviewed in the Easy Day Hikes book.

Here's a review from the ajheatwole.com (a good, comprehensive, on-line guide to the Park, by the way) site: "Take the A.T. at the south end of the overlook. You will reach the crest of a knob about half a mile from the overlook, then descends for 0.6 mile. There, with the Drive less than 100 yards uphill on the right, the trail swings left, descends, then swings right and crosses Ivy Creek—1.4 miles from the start. It follows the bank of the stream, climbing easily for nearly 0.3 mile before it swings away to the left. I find this miniature canyon delightful. The A.T. is mostly a ridgetop trail; this is the only place in the Park where it follows a stream. "

On the day I did this, the weather was hot and sunny - well into the 90's, and it was a little humid. So I had plenty of water with me. The destination here is a little pool on the creek in the canyon, I knew I could expect a refreshing cool breeze there and was looking forward to it. As the hike traces the AT its entire length, this was fairly easy going on a well maintained trail, and there was interesting scenery along the way, as in these two photos.

Here's a view of the pool that is the hike's destination. This is an out-and-back hike, so you get here, and you turn around. For that reason, and one other, I'm not sure I would recommend this hike for anyone but the most desparate for exercise.

A big negative is that you are never more than a quarter mile from Skyline Drive, and even on a Thursday when school is in, the sound of motorcycles invades the forest. Because of the proximity to big East Coast cities, the Park and Skyline Drive is practically over run by riders who come out for a relatively safe, scenic drive.

They are entitled to their recreation too, but the bikes are loud, and you pretty much hear them throughout the Park on any stretch of the AT.

As I walked back, as often happens on these hikes, a new viewpoint presented itself. The viewing angle inbound completely obscured this break in the trees and the overlook; but here it was opening up to the horizon coming back in the other direction. This view is to the Southwest, and it is a reminder of all that makes SNP a great recreation area - mountains and woods, and a view from the heights.

Pool Chores

The chores that I do during the pool open season extend beyond managing Dude, our 'bot. We maintain this blue "solar blanket" in the pool during the week, which passively transfers heat to the water but also retains some of it over night. It also helps keep out some of the leaf litter - but not all of it.

That's the first step on Saturdays, to take this thing off of the pool, working carefully not to dump any extra dirt in while you are doing it.

I should mention that there are other solar methods to heating the pool, but all of them are passive, and may not be effective for our application because of the trees and partial shade. Not to mention how much space they take up - the pool area isn't very large in the first place.

The next step for me is clean these filter baskets in the returns.
This step actually takes place after the robot is already at work. I wear rubber gloves for this, as shown - there is usually a host of dead bugs in the basket, sometimes live ones. I recently wrote about rescuing a toad, and I have seen ring-necked snakes around the pool. So the gloves are a little precaution in case I run into something very much alive and angry.

Just a note about the baskets. I learned early on to hold on to them carefully when emptying them. The slope of the hill is not clear in this picture - it's pretty steep, and a dropped basket will run all the way down to the road.

There are a couple of other elements of the chores that I haven't mentioned - mostly dealing with another filter nearer the pump, and the flushing process for after we've had a lot of rain. All totaled, the activities take about an hour. I usually take care of them while Mary heads off to the Luray Farmers' Market.

The Dude at Work

Thanks to everyone who voted in our Pool ‘bot Naming Poll – in the primary voting as well as the just completed finalist poll. Looks official – “Dude” is our ‘bot’s new name!

In honor of Dude, today’s entry will unfold the process I go through on most weekends when the pool is open (generally May through September), focused today on the robot-oriented activities. In a second post I will talk about some of the other aspects of weekly pool maintenance – at least what I have learned so far.

We didn’t buy this ‘bot, by the way, he came with the deal. He has spent most of the last two years in hibernation, but seems none the worse for wear and tear. Uncle D saw him and told us that we had a good model, then put the Dude right to work. He said, “You’ll enjoy watching him, and eventually, you will name him.” Uncle D is wise.

Dude is a straightforward, functional machine. He’s mostly plastic, with a few metal items in his internal organs and for structural support. There is a blue power cord, connected in such a way that you can actually lift the ‘bot with it. This connects to a transformer that plugs into the power source, while we keep this unit away from the pool, it can withstand rain and is for the most part waterproof.

There is a hatch where the Dude’s filter bag is installed, accessible as shown in the photo here. Fortunately, the Dude is not sensitive to strangers viewing these parts, and if he knew I was publishing this photo, I know he would say, “Get a good look, city boy!”

All kinds of stuff ends up in the bag, mostly leaf litter and the like, some dirt – but sometimes there are insect carcasses, and last weekend there were two or three dead night crawlers in there. I simply remove the bag and dump it out in the yard.

Next step is to reinstall the bag, close up the ‘bot, plug him in, and lower him into the pool, as seen in the step-by-step photos here. Then we turn on the machine and it’s off to the races.

The ‘bot’s vacuum generates enough suction that he evens climbs the walls of the pool, and I must admit it is very pleasant when he comes up to greet me this way. I generally let him work on the pool for two hours in the morning before we put Dude away.

A final note on footwear during these chores. A lot of your outdoor recreational activities require special gear and pool chores are no exception. I’ve got my Foot Joys for golf and my Vasques for hiking. For the pool action I chose some Croc knock-offs that I picked up in the Outer Banks last year. Ankle-high white socks are optional.

German Fast Food

When I was in Berlin in the ‘80’s, we used to love a couple of German fast food items that you could find in little street side stands called imbisses. Now there is a little stand in Leesburg at the old Mighty Midget kitchen where you can find this food - we stopped in after the cabin work day Sunday.







One item was called currywurst – a beef sausage cut into slices, topped with a curry-ketchup sauce, and served with fries. This was served hot, so it was great to find an open imbiss after a night-time bar hopping expedition – even better if it was cold out, and you were near the bus stop back to base.

As second item was called doner kebaps (this is often spelled in many different ways). The origin of this item is Turkish – overseas, the stands were mostly in the style of a storefront diner rather than a little food stand. This is because they used a rotisserie as part of the preparation and I guess there wasn’t room in a little imbiss stand for it.

Whenever some of us get together from the old days, these delicacies are sure to be one of the topics of conversation. I often associate the food with an event for some reason – the currywurst from the little stand near the train station where we caught overnights down to Frankfurt, or at the one that was exactly halfway between the Irish Harp and Nada’s – two nightspots we went to.




Or the doners from the little joint up the street from Tempelhof, walking distance from base, where you might head late night after a swing shift. Or the one at the Alt Mariendorf metro station, where we would call for carry out – surprising a helpless one-person kitchen with an order for 50 sandwiches! When Mary and I visited in 2001, we grabbed a doner in the Potsdam train station before heading out to Sansoucci.

The doner stand in Leesburg is near the train station and they have a website at “doener-usa.com”. Here are some photos - of bratwurst, currywurst, and the style of doner they prepare. Seating is beer garden style (their pamphlet hospitably and correctly spells it "biergarten") and they have Warsteiner on tap. Take this as a recommendation!

Valley Star Farm

We had a work day at the cabin Sunday…very likely the hottest day of the year for it. Honestly couldn’t get much done in the heat and humidity – it reminded me of the old days in the south, waiting for a hurricane. I know so many of my friends across the country were dealing with a storm this weekend, and our thoughts are with you.

More on the chores we were taking on later this week. On the way home, we made two stops I want to write about today and tomorrow – one, about a farm in Luray that has a pumpkin patch, and two, about a doner kebap stand in Leesburg – doners are a fast food that originated in Turkey, that is very popular in the large German cities such as Berlin. My friends from those days will regale any willing listener with stories about our adventures looking for a good doner.

The Valley Star Farm in Luray opens a “pumpkin patch” every year at this time – starting September 5 and running through the beginning of November. It’s a couple of miles north of Luray on US 240, you can’t miss the pumpkin patch signs up that way. As shown in the photos, they have a ton of varieties to choose from, and many decorative and edible squashes as well. Sometimes there is other produce, although the sweet corn is over by the time they open. Yesterday they had McIntosh and Fuji apples.

There is also honey, fruit trees – potted or fresh-dug, mums, corn stalks, and straw. For family fun, they set up a corn maze, and they have four or five goats with a shed and some climbing rails, which is a lot of fun to take a look at - seen in the background of the photo with the big pumpkins. The farm sells Christmas trees later in the year, and these fields are the main thing you’ll see as you drive up. They have a URL at valleystarfarm.com – there is a photo gallery along with a Google Map.

Here are some highlights from our stop yesterday. It’s a beautiful place, reminds me of the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley. The mountains in the background of these photos are Shenandoah National Park.

For Sue and Nancy, this is the same farm we stopped at last year during your visit.

OSU @ USC

In case there is any question about who I am cheering for tonight - the game is on at 8pm!

These photos are of the Tommy Trojan statue on the USC campus, and the Marching Trojans at an event in July '08.

Fight on 'SC!

Summer Flowers - miscellany

Well, we're getting our money's worth out of this title...I am posting about trees and fruit more than flowers under this category. And here we go again.

Two highlight photos this week - these acorns I found on the Stoneyman hike last week - set on a lichen covered piece of greenstone there in the Park. Leave no trace principles mean I've left these behind, hopefully a bear or deer has found them by now and had a little snack.

Also, I've mentioned the apple tree and how it attracts so many deer. Here is a photo of a couple of fallen apples gathered in front of our frog. This is about two hours' worth - it's a pretty constant racket out there, hearing them fall out of the tree!

Stony Man Summit - an easy day hike

Stony Man was the first hike I set off on during my vacation last week. It was a toss up, deciding between a waterfall destination of a summit, but I decided I might like to be around the Skyline area afterwards and Stony Man won. Besides, having driven past it so many times, and with it being visible from our part of the valley, seemed like I had to do it. This first photo is of the mountain as you approach it from Skyline Drive.

Stony Man is the second highest peak in SNP, but you wouldn't know it from this hike: the route is less than 2 miles, there is only 350 feet of elevation gain, and it starts from a large parking lot in the Skyland complex. I think it would be very crowded on weekends, but it would be a good hike for families - there is a nature trail quality to the path, with numbered stops. This is the first time I encountered two blazes on the trail - the blue for SNP trails and the white for the AT.

After a fairly quick climb you soon reach the summit. Here are three photos (views to center, left and right, respectively) in various directions from the main rock terrace up there. Incidentally, there is a hitching rail right at the top, as there is a riding trail from the stables that traces the ridge here. The small barely visible lake in the lefthand photo is Lake Arrowhead, a reservoir in Luray that has nice recreational facilities...on any given summer day you might encounter a family reunion or even a wedding reception going on there, recently, the swim event in a triathlon was held there.

I met and chatted with some folks visiting from Leesburg at the top, doing my impromptu ranger guide speech about the view to the valley. They were retired and had a good story to tell about a hornets' nest they'd encountered earlier in the week - there were plenty of buzzing insects around (no hornets though) that reminded them of the story.

One other highlight of the climb - at one point, marked by this sign, this trail is the highest point on the AT within the Park. Soon afterwards, the AT splits off northward.

After summiting, I followed the horse trail for a few dozen feet, and found myself at another vista point - this one with no other people present. I took some time to enjoy the views...funny, I also got a work cell phone call up there. It was a refreshing place for the conversation we had - dealing with some final technicalities on publishing a deliverable.

It was so hot last week during the golf round and the hikes that I looked forward to getting back to the cabin for a dip in the pool. A great reward after the exercise!

Day Hikes

During my vacation last week, I did three day hikes...all of these from the "Best Easy Day Hikes, Shenandoah National Park" book, written by Bert and Jane Gildhart. I picked up my current copy from Evergreen Outfitters, but we have an earlier addition that we bought at the Big Meadows visitor center in SNP.

This book has 26 hikes in it, spread between the North, Central, and Southern District of the Park. Almost all of them have trail heads on Skyline Drive. According to their rankings, from easiest to most difficult, they are:

• Limberlost
• Story of the Forest
• Fox Hollow Trail
• Snead Farm
• Traces Trail
• Loft Mountain Loop
• Betty's/Crescent Rock
• Blackrock Summit
• Calvary/Chimney Rocks
• Calf Mountain
• Pocosin Trail
• Miller's Head
• Lands Run Falls
• Stoney Man
• Byrd's Nest 4 Loop
• Corbin Cabin/Nicholson Hollow
• Mary's Rock
• Hawksbill Summit
• Bearfence Mountian
• Rapidan Camp
• Lewis Spring Falls
• South River Falls
• Powell Gap
• Dark Hollow Falls
• Ivy Creek
• Whiteoak Canyon

Scanning the list, I've done ten of these so far - and covered most of those in the blog. I'm making it a goal to do the rest by December 2009...I'll be sure to report on these as we check them off the list.

Tomorrow, I will begin the write-ups for Stoney Man, Ivy Creek, and Whiteoak, the three I did last week.

The tech-watch geek returns

Last month I mentioned the Casio Pathfinder line of altimeter watches, which includes multiple features besides altimeters, such as barometers, compasses, and even phases of the moon. As part of my vacation reading I picked up “National Geographic Adventure” (from the cover story, “Where to Live and Play Now,” I thought I might fit into the demo for this, but I found it to be exceptionally consumerist, what with all this adventure tourism and the like…not much info about sustainability or conservation...jees, who pulled up this soapbox for me to stand on?) which happened to include the Casio Pathfinder ad but also had a review of a Tissot timepiece.

The watch is the Tissot T-Touch Expert, and it is also an altimeter watch, with barometric pressure, temperature, chronograph, compass, and alarm. It is designed to be less clunky – the reviewer says the others look like “wrist-top robots” – he calls this boardroom bling with a crystal face, titanium bracelet, and minimal flair.

It retails at $1,095, so price is one thing the Casios have on it…not to mention their solar battery and atomic timekeeping features. This one does have a touch screen, so all navigation is done from that interface, which might be better than dealing with the buttons on the Casios...still, I think I will check this one out, next time I come across a Tissot dealer.

By clicking on the label "Tech-Watch Geek" you will be taken to the entire series of altimeter watch reviews.

Herpetology

As the week is coming to an end, I decided to get the jump on my pool chores Friday morning before setting off on a hike, and also because there was a forecast for tropical storm rain and wind. This hike, the third and final of my vacation, was going to be White Oak Canyon, which is over on the east side of SNP. As I went about the routine of setting up the robot and cleaning out the return baskets, I found this little toad swimming around against the suction that would have eventually brought him down.

He was gray from the cool water and from being submerged in it for so long, and seemed a bit swollen and waterlogged, so I didn’t know if he’d make it. So I set him on the terrace near the path to keep an eye on him while the work continued. Sure enough, after a few minutes, he’d warmed up and taken on a brownish color and hopped away. I took this photo just as he was preparing to go back into the yard – I hope he makes it.

After I got back on fairly level ground in the canyon yesterday, I nearly stepped on this snake basking on a rock (see the gravel? I stepped THERE). The photo doesn’t really show the colors of this one, but there was a distinct pattern…so I’m thinking back to Howard’s advice, “Once you have seen the copperhead’s pattern, you never forget it.”

But this snake wasn’t aggressive as I would have expected from a copperhead, the markings didn’t form the distinctive hourglass that I have been told to look for – and the colors here were pale red and yellow. In reading my Peterson guide, the one I’ve come up with is Northern Water Snake, which ranges from Maine to Colorado and south to the Gulf of Mexico. There is also a Southern Water Snake, but it’s range is described as extending only to the Carolinas and west to Texas, plus the colorations are a more distinct pattern.

While the northern water snake is harmless and is described as timid, the field guide says that “it can be found in virtually every unpolluted swamp, marsh, bog, stream, pond, or lake in its range.” That's for all my snake-fearing friends, you've probably been as close to one of these as I have at some point!

Wild, wild life

After the golf outing Tuesday, I decided to take a short hike yesterday...and there was a tentative golf plan today, back in Fairfax, but one of our threesome dropped out for some reason (involves a USAir flight to Hartford or some excuse) so we bagged it. So I hiked again today.

First a shout out to Howard and co. at Evergreen Outfitters - good seeing you yesterday, and if our discussion of the Caverns Country Club course means you might be up for a round some day let's work on it.

So my two hikes so far were the Stoneyman Summit and Ivy Creek, both up in the Park. I have a number of photos to upload and will post next week; still logging in from the Panera in H-burg.

In the meantime, a wildlife report. This photo is of the old doe that leads the herd into our yard during the morning and night. On this occasion she was alone, but she's brought along as many as 5 others with her at times. They are eating all the hostas (the variegated ones, anyway) and really feasting on the fallen apples. In fact, it's unusual to find an apple on the ground out there, the deer eat them all.

Also, when I was driving up to the Stoneyman summit yesterday, two sitings: a young black bear climbing over one of the stone walls and onto Skyline Drive (he turned and ran as I approached - my greeting: "watch it there, big fella!") and a six point buck there on one of the shoulders. Pretty fulfilling, as all I'd been catching site of, for the most part, has been chipmunks and bunnies.

Nature Fest

As I mentioned last post, I am on vacation at the Cabin. The other day, we saw this praying mantis clinging to the window in the hallway (it was out, we were it). That's as close to one as I've ever been - these guys are pretty fearsome. I'd hate to be the bug this guy was stalking!

I've heard they're good luck....I could use it.

Golf in the Valley

A quick post tonight...I'm taking a week off and don't have internet at the Hawksbill Cabin, so I am posting from the Panera in H-burg.

Today my buddy Dennis came out for a golf round. I've been wanting to try some of the local courses - we were going to the Caverns Country Club, but it's closed for maintenance. Instead, we went to Shenvallee in New Market (Google for a link if you are interested).

It's a nice course and I have no complaints. It felt good to be out, pulled off a couple of pars on the front nine. The photos here are from the tee and from the second shot lie on par 5 #8 of the Old Course there - that is Massanutten in the background.

They had ice cold Amber Bocks waiting for us in the clubhouse afterwards. And I took a swim in the pool when I got back. What's not to like?

Summer Flowers - Curly Willow

Actually this entry is about a tree...this photo is one of a curly willow in the backyard in Alexandria. The story here is that this tree has been grown from a branch, really no more than a twig, that was part of the decoration in a flower arrangement we received a few years ago. From that, we have a tree of nearly ten feet in five or six years.

These trees have been planted recently at the Hains Point Golf Course in DC, and at a neighboring apartment complex in Alexandria, and they have all grown fast and succeeded in their environments.

My plan is to start a few cuttings of this and plant them near the stream at Beaver Run, which runs through one of our lots and cuts across in front of us at the bottom of the hill. This stream collects a lot of water from the neighboring hills and eventually feeds Hawksbill Creek, the Shenandoah, the Potomac, and ultimately Chesapeake Bay. I want to put a couple of good riparian plants in there to help protect the watershed.

There's more info on the watershed topic at http://www.purewaterforum.org/?p=93 -

Pool 'Bot Naming Poll - Runoff

Thanks to everyone who voted for our Pool 'bot's new name. Now it is time for a runoff vote on the top three vote getters...Dude, Robo Pool Cop, and Wallie. Please vote, this time you can only vote for one. The poll is over there ----> in the right hand column.

World Wide Web

While the blog is approaching the one year anniversary of its start, it's really been an interesting learning experience. Besides the learning part of it, the discipline of writing 200 or more words in the morning before work for now almost 200 entries has been fun. And last month, I added some statistics tools so that I could have a look at what kind of traffic this boring old thing attracts...really, it's an honor that people from all over the world are reading.

The tools are a Site Meter and Cluster Map, and they are both over in the right hand column, at the bottom. The Site Meter keeps the traffic count on a continuous basis, but the Map will accumulate location hits on a monthly basis, and start over. But here is a snapshot of the traffic from Site Meter for August: first graph is by continent share, second by country. There were visitors from all continents except Antarctica (the data granularity doesn't indicate this, so I verified on the Cluster Map - there were visitors from South America and Australia)...and there is a wide range of countries represented.

In the words of World Party, from the Goodbye, Jumbo CD - "Thank you world."

Not a political post...

We abstain from political commentary here on the Hawksbill Cabin blog, but media criticism is sometimes a topic. If you post a comment, be sure to steer clear of overtly political stuff.

Last night during the DNC Convention, a poignant film in honor of our veterans was shown. (Disclosure: I did some campaign events with the Virginia Veterans for Kerry in 2004.) My wife and I watch the Convention on PBS (second disclosure: we met as volunteers during the 1992 Clinton campaign) - I tire of the navel gazing on most of the cable coverage.

I think the film did a great job of staying away from political discourse, focusing instead on the sacrifice so many are making, and the fact that when they return from very challenging service they need help from us all to return to a normal, American life. The news stories that we continue to see about appalling conditions in medical facilities; about the need to be sure that medical care is there when needed, including the types of counseling they'll need; the support the families need when the troops are away (there is a remote Army base in Alaska, where the troops have served three Iraq tours in many cases, can you imagine the hardships these families face? And that is typical in the lower 48 as well)...this film was a call to action to pay attention to this issue and let's be sure to get it right.

Towards the end of the film, I did a quick cable check and found that it was being aired on PBS, CNN, MSNBC...but not Fox. Instead, Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly were blathering about something. They clearly weren't supporting the troops last night, in any case. So, a rhetorical question...when they say "Fair and Balanced" what are they really talking about? How much air time these two blowhards take up?

Page County Fair 2008 Part 2 and Final

While we are still getting to know our neighbors and make friends out in the Valley, the Page County Fair (and the Heritage Festival in October, and the Festival of Spring in May) makes for a great occasion to celebrate a lifestyle that is really growing on us. This is the last of two blog entries on the Fair.

There is plenty of livestock to be seen, as I shared yesterday. This year, I don’t have any of the prize-winning bulls or calves, but later when we are at the Fairgrounds for the Heritage Festival, I’ll take some photos of the sponsor boards and the sales records for the 4H-ers that compete raising these animals.

Here are some llamas, which lately have been showing up at the farms in the valley. While some breeds are prized for their fur, for the most part they share the pastures with flocks of sheep, where they are good guard animals.

It is pretty striking to see one or two of these taller animals out across a field. But whenever we drive by one, I can’t resist quoting Napoleon Dynamite, “Lucy! Come and get some ham! You fat pig!” (Not to disparage pigs-please don’t take offense-love the pigs).

Local businesses also show their wares at the Fair, and our friends from Uncle D’s had told us about their plans to have a booth in Page County and in Shenandoah County – a busy late summer few weeks. Here they are at the booth. Their first year has been very good, and Mary and I can attest to how great their work is…I’m planning to spend a good part of next week enjoying our pool in fact.

As the summer wanes, their business will turn to pool services and closings, and hot tubs. We’ve been thinking about this as a possible addition to our situation at the cabin – I’d like a sauna or hot tub out there, and was thinking about the benefits of wood-burning ones versus the conventional ones. I’m still tossed up about it, and of course, Uncle D has some great models to choose from. But it’s not highest on our list of Fall projects – at least not yet.

Page County Fair 2008 - Part 1

While I stayed in Alexandria last weekend, Mary was out at the cabin to do some errands and relax. She got by the Page County Fair for some fun, and brought back photos of a couple of the things she did and saw. I’ll post them on these next two entries.


She took this one of a brightly-colored carnival ride while she was on the midway. Even though we don’t take in any of these amusements at the fair I always like to walk through the midway…brings back some pretty good memories. The ones that come to mind first today are of Oktoberfest in Munich – I went down there twice from Berlin on two separate 3-day trips in 1985. One word: Lowenbrau! Four words: Triple-loop roller coaster! Alas, that was a long time ago.



The big deal at the Page County Fair for me is to see the FFA and 4-H projects, where the kids have taken on raising livestock. Here are photos of some sheep and pigs (pigs are good luck, hopefully these will bring some for the readers).

Last photo, in the plants projects hall, here are some photos of hay bales – this is a pretty interesting exhibition because it includes other types of produce contests, such as beans, cucumbers, and the like.









On a cross-country trip in 2006 I stopped in at the County Fair at Goodland, Kansas. I spent most of that visit in the vegetable hall (when I wasn't marvelling at the Kansas landscape! I swear I could see Ft. Worth from there!)

Another feature of the Page County Fair is all of the sponsored booths. Last year we met up with the Page County Democratic Party out there, and met a fellow with the same name as me who was running for the county commission. I sure wish I could have made it out.