Memorial Day in Locust Springs

Friday night was spent packing, Saturday morning was spent driving. We left the park-n-ride around 7am. Ellen remembered to take her food out of the fridge about 4 hours too late. We stopped on the way to the trail to restock on food for Ellen. Traffic wasn't as bad as it could have been, and the drive wasn't so much slow as it was long. Four and a half hours later we arrived at the trail head. Keith, Tuna, Ted & Mary, Terri, Ellen, Justin & Judy, Jada, Cadance and myself. I don't know why, but I was generally agitated for most of Saturday. The long drive, the heavy pack, the dogs getting tangled up, I think a combination of several things was putting me in a bad mood. The hike in was short and within an hour or two we were set up by the river. The rest of the group decided to do a day hike. I stayed behind and took a nap. When I awoke, I was feeling better, but still not quite chipper. We had a good time sitting around the fire joking and chatting.

On Sunday, we awoke and started hiking up Slabcamp trail. This was less a trail than a bushwhack with trailblazes. It was fun but after awhile, the slow going started to wear on me. I was carrying Jada after the first mile and a half. After a while, I was tired of searching for the trailblazes, so I stopped and waited for the rest of the group. Once we made it to the top, I decided to hike a different route than the group. We split up, and the girls and I hiked back to the cars to get more beer.

After splitting from the group, my agitation started to dissolve. I began to relax and the hike was extremely enjoyable. I think I just needed a little reflexion time on the trail without logistics and stress. This trail was more trail-like, easy to follow, a beautiful river hike. The weather was perfect the entire weekend. After hiking 3 miles back to the cars, I hiked 4 miles to our base camp. With 8 beers and a 5th of Jack Daniels. When I got back, everyone was still gone, so I decided to go swimming. The water was ice cold, but it was refreshing and it felt good to clean up and cool off. That night, sitting around the campfire, I got to hear about the other hike. Tuna gave a good imitation of Keith's reaction to a snake. Something about screaming like a little girl and jumping 4 feet in the air as Tuna watched a 6 inch water snake slither off into the water. Then he gave a hilarious imitation of Ted's reaction to a charging grouse. "IT'S ATTACKING!!" I would have loved to see Ted running down the trail with a tiny grouse flapping after him. Must have been one of those rabid grouses. That night the beer tasted good and the food even better.

Monday morning we all ate breakfast and packed up. We reflected on the weekend and decided that the weather was a huge success. We had camped in a grove of Rhododendrons and most of us thought it would be worth coming back during the blooming just to see all the color. A brisk 4 mile hike back up Laurel Run Trail back to the cars. Even though I was in a bad mood upon arrival, it only took a few hours for my spirits to improve and the weekend was a great time. Traffic on the way back wasn't as bad as it could have been. All in all, it was a good trip. Justin and Judy - hope to see you both again on more ODC trips. More pictures of this trip on Cham's page.

Sugar Knob Cabin Wrecking Crew

Saturday 20May06 - 9:15am at Larkin's country store.
Our raggedy group formed. Keith, Catherine, Terri, Ron Smith, Valerie, Leena, Sam, Suds, Tuna, myself and two pugs. 4 men, 5 women, 3 dogs. Age range 25-83. Suds unloaded 4 very large bottles of wine out of his delapidated Prius. As Keith started handing out supplies, we stood around and gawked at all the gear. Paint cans, tools, brushes, buckets, a case of beer, a box of food, a 10 foot aluminum gutter. I started unloading things out of my pack to make room.

We started our hike along Little Stoney Creek. The weather was beautiful. About 90 minutes later we arrived at the cabin. The trip in was uneventful, but beautiful. The cabin is small with a large fire pit in front. It sits directly on the trail, and about 100 yards away from a cool spring. We placed the beers and wine in the river to keep them cool. After setting up camp and eating a sandwich, I started to paint.

About 3 hours later, Suds was still not with us. Keith had gone back down the trail to look for him and neither one of them had made it to the cabin yet. We all worried a bit, but figured Keith had everything under control. About 5 hours after we had started on the trail, Keith and Suds made it. Apparently there had been an altercation with some timber rattlers, and Suds had to go bushwhacking around the hazard. Luckily, everyone survived unscathed, including the snakes.


We painted and sanded into the late afternoon hours. Around 6, happy hour began. Beers cracked open, the wine flowed, cheese and peperoni and chocolate and salsa, steamed trout, Suds' homemade bread and whiskey. It was an extravaganza. Catherine returned from her trail maintenance trip around 6. She had been hiking all day with four single male 20-somethings, and she didn't invite me along - so Catherine and I are no longer speaking. Seven younger hikers on their way through stopped to have a drink. Four of them stayed and partied with us through the night. The highlights of the evening were Suds' singing, Tuna's chair collapsing, the imitations of Ron Eshleman (aka Ben Finklestein) "I can't make it, I have to study...." and the story of Keith's dumpster-diving in Jefferson. Tuna had Catherine laughing hysterically. The most notable highlight of the evening was the birthday cake that Keith had packed in for Terri. The cake was in the shape of a cabin, complete with an edible roof with awnings and decorations. The cake was delicious. We all sang happy birthday and drank and joked. It was a good time.

Sunday 21May06
Sunday morning began the most extravagant effort of community breakfast making I've ever seen. There were 4 stoves and a full blown fire going to cook pancakes and eggs and ham. There was orange juice and breads and jams. The meal was wonderful. Terri's pancakes were very good. Almost as good as Art's apple pancakes. The 4 drifters who had decided to stay for happy hour were treated to a bed and breakfast. They ate and then continued on their way, probably discussing amongst themselves about those crazy old people with all the food. After breakfast, Tuna and I hurried to finish our painting so we could hike up to Big Schloss. Tuna was telling Valerie about his Nano Schloss, and Val wasn't impressed. So he gave up and Tuna and I headed off to the Mill Mountain trail with the two pugs. About 7 miles into the trip, Jada refused to walk any further. I picked her up and slung her over my shoulders and hiked the rest of the way down the Big Schloss Cutoff Trail. Tuna and I made it back to my truck by 2pm. We were back to the Baltimore area by 5.

It was a great trip.

A Full Moon Night At Halfmoon Lookout

Saturday, 13May06

It's 7am at the designated meeting spot and we see other hikers meeting to head off in different directions. Ellen and I were ready to hit the road. We were headed to the Great North Mountain region of the George Washington National Forest.

Bristol and Heather made the 5-hour drive from Virginia Beach to Columbia's Furnace, VA. We left Wolf Gap Recreational Area at 10am. After a short climb to get the blood flowing, we reached the ridge and every 40 yards or so, you could see the valleys on either side and the ridgelines of the neighboring mountians as we hike along the Virginia/West Virginia border. The weather was beautiful on Saturday, unlike the forcast for Sunday, so we decided to check out the Big Schloss views as we passed. Breath-taking scenery. Worth every minute of the 2 hour drive and the 1 hour hike up to the top. Our group seperated slightly for the first leg of this trip. Bristol and Heather stopped to take lots of pictures of the beautiful spring flowers. We didn't see many hikers on Saturday.

Ellen and I arrived at Halfmoon Lookout around 2:30. We set up camp on the peak and chatted while admiring the views. After a while of waiting for Bristol and Heather, we decided to nap for a while. A brief, light rainshower blew through the area while we were napping. Around 6:30 we awoke and ate dinner. Bristol and Heather had set up their camp on the cliff below. They came up to the peak and we all sat on the west side of the peak to watch the sun set. Then we built a fire and chit chatted into the night.

I slept out by the fire, watching the moon rise over the heavy clouds to the east. The temperature when the sun went down didn't sink below 55. It was a comfortable and breezy night with the trees slowly moving across the moon. It was absolutely serene. I climbed out of my sleeping bag to go out to the cliff's edge and look across the valley below in the moonlight. It was lit brightly from the moon with shadows from the clouds darkening some areas. A light fog had decended in the valley, and with the moonlight, the town looked like I had dreamed it.


Saturday, 14May06 - Happy Mother's Day Mom & Marianne

I remembered it was Mother's Day. I stood on the very edge of the peak holding my cell phone as high as I could while I watched the sun rise. I couldn't get any cellphone service, so I just had a cup of tea and reflected on the morning. It was beautiful. At 6:30am, there were no clouds - the sky was blue and clear for as far as the eye could see. By 7:30am, the entire peak was wrapped in low-lying clouds. You could barely see the trees along the edge of the trail in front of you. We broke camp at 8am.

We hiked down along Stoney Creek out to the gravel Road 92. Here, Bristol and I hiked up the Big Schloss Cutoff Trail and across the top of the ridge while Ellen and Heather continued along the road and then bushwacked up the side of the mountain to the road. We finished the hike about 2pm and hit the road. We were back to the Baltimore area by 4:30. It was a great hike and I'll be leading this route again in the September/October timeframe.

For the record, Bristol, it was 1100 feet over 1.9 miles in 43 minutes (48 for you) and then 3 miles over 1 hour. You need to make time to get out or else you're gonna be huffing on the easy ones. (I'm done lecturing).

View pictures from the trip at Cham's page (check May 14th's entry).