A 40 Mile Walk in the Woods

This weekend, Jay and I joined my Mom and her friend (aka hiking partner) Carol on a 40 mile backpacking trip through the Berkshires. Now these ladies are no longer the novices they were two years ago. Since then they have gone on several backpacking trips including a 2 week trip to Maine to hike the Appalachian Trail’s 100 Mile Wilderness.

Our hike this past weekend completed their hike through Massachusetts. In fact, now they have hiked the Appalachian Trail from Southern Virginia all the way through Massachusetts. If you ever hike the AT, look in the trail books for Turnip and Dr. J.

Meanwhile, this trip was Jay’s first Backpacking trip as an adult. He went with the boy scouts as a kid, but those trips were nothing like this trip.

First of all we drank water from the stream, which was delicious!! Turnip and Dr. J used the SteriPEN in Maine and loved it, so Jay and I got one for the trip. Good thing we had one too, because their PEN ran out of batteries the first night. Oops!

The best part of the trail is the cool things you see. The first day, we walked through a cow pasture. Jay loved the cows. To steep mountains and rock faces (at least those have a view).

We also get to see some really cool small towns including Sheffield and South Egremont, Massachusetts. We stayed at the Weathervane Inn (and left our car there while we hiked) and had lunch after our hike at Mom’s Country Café. We crossed through Sheffield half way through our hike and stopped at Great Finds Antiques for water. We couldn’t find a good water source, so we decided a 0.1 mile detour was in order. Apparently we were obviously hikers because we got excited by water and mini Snickers bars.

Regardless, Lisa at Great Finds Antiques was great! We also met Officer Mike and another local who helped guide us at the end of our hike. We had trouble finding the trail that took us from the AT to the road.

All in all, we had a great weekend. Now to plan our next trip!

Anyone want to go backpacking?

Two Year Blogiversary!

Two years ago today I started this blog. And two years ago today I was backpacking, exactly what I am doing to pass this Memorial Day weekend.

It is amazing how different my life is today from when I started this little blog in my parents basement two year ago. I had been living in the DC area for almost a year and had yet to find my place. Now both Jay and I have a group of great friends, we're getting married and we're trying to figure out what's next. Here is to this blog for a great two years and many many more.

No, I'm not Sorry

I am en route to Baltimore to go Backpacking for the weekend with Jay, my mom and Mrs. Carol. It should be fun minus the whole carrying everything on my back and doing my business in the wilderness.

Yup, it should be fun to unplug for a few days and enjoy the great outdoors.

I think we all need to unplug every once in a while. Me, especially as we get closer and closer to the BIG day. Thankfully a lot of things are done, but I still feel like our "To Do" is never ending. It doesn't help when people say extremely stupid things to you.

I think every bride can attest to the fact that people tell you things you don't want to hear. What a bride wants to hear is, "Yes, I will be there (and RSVP on time, not bring anyone extra, like you can count on me to actually be there so your not charged a lot of money for me to be a no show), smiling, dressed appropriately, be polite, will sit where you assign me (or not ask questions/demand you sit with whomever), have a good time and then go home or to the hotel (and not drive drunk)". I guess if every wedding guest were like that then weddings wouldn't be soo much fun ;).

I think the one thing that I try to live by in life is also so valid for weddings "Be Honest and Communicate". Yes, I am sad you can't come to my wedding (I wouldn't have invited you if I didn't want you there... (in most cases, j/k). I just need to know and don't really care about what your drama is. I really don't want to know ;) I just want a YES or a NO and I won't be offended either way.

So here you go, my wedding in numbers:

Days until the wedding: 24
Guests attending: 148
Tables: 16
MIA Guests: 5
Responses on the RSVP deadline: 36
Benne Wafers ordered: 168
Koozies ordered: 250
Guests staying in our hotel block: 46
Times I've had a great workout b/c of guest list issues: 4
Pairs of shoes at my mom's house: 7

What is the best thing someone has said to you when planning an event?

Camping with my parents

I can’t believe it’s already Monday!

It’s been a while since I blogged, my excuse: life got busy. It’s also been a while since we had roasted veggies, my excuse: none. Tonight, I got to do both as we fired up the oven and indulged in one of my favorite Fall meals, Sausage and Roasted Veggies on Millet.

Yum!

This lovely dinner is a fitting, and warming, welcome back from our excursion this past weekend in Bear Country (aka Shenandoah National Park) with my parents.

And boy did we see some wildlife, including a bear! 

And that bear does not include Jay (yes, he finally got his panda hat). We were shocked how much wildlife we saw this weekend. There were animals everywhere!!! It must be the cooler weather. We saw the bear right as we pulled onto Skyline Drive. He was quite a sight!

Plus, we saw deer along the road, at the campsite, even walking mere feet away. Above is a picture of a deer walking in front of our campsite Sunday morning! Too crazy! We are used to seeing wildlife in Shenandoah, but not to the magnitude of what we got this weekend.

But let’s flash back to Saturday when we went hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

Ever since this summer when Jay watched a documentary on the trail and coincidently my mom was hiking the 100 mile wilderness, Jay has wanted to hike the AT. While I know he would love to do a through hike, that is a little unreasonable with our other hopes and dreams. Instead, I promised him that we would start working on the trail and eventually complete the entire thing.

My mom is a hiking (and an Appalachian Trail) enthusiast, so she had no problem showing her future son-in-law the trail.

It was pretty wild on the trail this weekend with remnants of last weekends snow storm. As common as it was to see deer grazing along the road, it was also very common to see snow here and there.

It was definitely cold enough for the snow to hang around. While both nights in the tent were cold, we were very surprised to see ice form on both our tent and car Saturday evening. I know my parents were thankful to be out of the harsh environment, as they gloated to us the next morning how warm their room was back at the lodge.

Thankfully we had the proper equipment and were warm. Honestly, I am still trying to figure out how to prevent the cold air from leaking into my sleeping bag every time I rolled over.

All in all we had a great time this weekend with my parents. I think next time, we will definitely take them up on getting a room in the lodge if we go that late in the season. I just hope the rooms are as warm as their breakfast is delicious, not that I doubt they wouldn’t be!

What did you do during this first weekend of November?

The Billy Goat Trail

Today, Mary, Jay, Will and I decided to start our holiday weekend with a short but strenuous hike. We drove the 20 miles out from Arlington to Great Falls and hiked the Billy Goat Trail. Great Falls Park is in Virginia, but we hiked on the Maryland side of the river.  Because of this, I haven’t technically been to Great Falls Park, but you better believe it has been added to the “Must-do-in-DC-List”.

The Billy Goat Trail is located in Maryland between the Potomac river and the C&O Canal. There are three parts, but we only hiked the first (and most strenuous) part.  This trail extends from the Great Falls Tavern through 3-4 miles of trails which include rock scrambles, wood trails, beaches and (practically) paved roads. 

It was pretty cool to see the donkey-drawn canal boats on the river and 18th century locks still working on the Canal as we walked to the trail head.  It was great to see the efforts they took to preserve the original feel of the area!

This hike reminded me of Old Rag, just a very tame version.  You can wear hiking boots (like me) but this trail can be done in tennis shoes or even flip-flops… Yes, a girl was actually hiking in flip-flops… (though I would not recommend it!!) If you are considering driving out to Shenandoah, try this hike first and then imagine it on steroids, that is Old Rag.

The pictures above just do not give this steep slope justice. I was so glad we went up it, instead of down.

Will was a fun addition to our little hiking group. As we finished this nice little slope, he says “Yeah, I’d like to order an egg, bacon, and rock scramble”. I think the women behind us were going to die of laughter.

The last part of the trail is just a leisurely walk along the C&O canal. We were amazed how tired we were!!! We still managed to enjoy the scenery and see Bambi along the way.

Jay got some great shots of this guy. We were amazed how tame he and his buddy were! They were about 20 feet away from the main trail and didn’t pay any more attention to us than a glance. Guess they’re used to tourists…

I would definitely recommend hiking the Billy Goat trail to all my DC friends!!

How are you making your weekend active?

Old Rag Mountain

As I mentioned Saturday morning, a group of us went out to Shenandoah National Park to hike Old Rag Mountain.

We picked the perfect time to go! The leaves and the scenery were beautiful, making the drive fly by.
This hike is the considered one of the most popular hikes in Virginia, but also one of the most dangerous. The hike is an 8 mile loop, with the more strenuous part toward the beginning. The first 2.5 miles are all uphill until you reach the 1 mile of "rock scramble." Then the last 4.5 miles is all downhill. I would only consider the first 2 miles downhill to be a hike and the remainder is a nice 2.5 mile stroll down a Fire Road. By the time we got to the Fire Road, all 7 of us were walking in a nice compact group playing 20 questions.

Below you can view all of my pictures of the hike. I highly recommend this hike to anyone in the greater Virginia area with caution. If you do not think you can do the rock scramble, you could walk up the Fire Road to about 2 miles of uphill hiking to the summit of the mountain.

Since, I knew what was coming, once we got on the trail I started working on my Builder's Bar by Cliff Bar. This is one of my favorite energy bars because it is packed with protein, but looks and tastes more like a candy bar! YUM!

The first 2.5 miles was the incline I mentioned above, so once we got to our first overlook we stopped for a little lunch.

I think my sandwich enjoyed the view as much as I did.

There are no pets allowed on Old Rag Mountain, except this guy. This is a local dog that lives across from the Trail Parking Lot (or so his tag told us). His tag read something along the lines of "I know where I am, please do not take me. I live across the street from the Old Rag Mountain Parking Area." We were pretty amused.

After we saw him, we began the real rock scramble. My mom warned me, but I was still amazed by how many children (aka Cub Scouts) there were on this hike. The parking lot that holds 250 cars was full when we pulled up at 10 a.m. We ended up parking in a locals field that they opened up to the Public. We were pretty thankful!

When we started off, we knew we would be enjoying this hike with others. What we were not expecting was the up to 35 minute waits at the top. Thankfully our first wait was with this guy and only lasted 15 minutes.

This was the line for, in my opinion, the most challenging rock scramble between the second and third overlook. Total wait time: 35 minutes.

We thought it was worth it! And were very glad to have a rope.

Some of us had an easier time than others :/ But, we all enjoyed it!

The third major overlook!

Some of us are also braver (eer... or stupider) than others. This is a good example of why this hike is considered so dangerous.

And, finally at the top!

See the three major overlooks? Isn't it beautiful!

On our way back down the mountain!

We munched on our GORP the entire hike. I finally finished mine on the way down the mountain, along with my Granny Smith Apple Slices.

Overall, it was a great day. We had a great group that was prepared and upbeat about the entire experience until the car... when they crashed :).

Our total time on the mountain was just over 6 hours and that is with all the waiting we did at the top. Our group calculated that we probably spent a total of an hour waiting at various points along the rock scramble. Shenandoah National Park recommends that hikers give themselves 7 to 8 hours.

If you are from Virginia, have you hiked Old Rag? If you are not from Virginia or have not hiked Old Rag, what local hike would you call your State's most popular hike?