Bluff Spring Journal
New Appalachian Trail Stories. Scroll down to Latest Addition
June 1st, 2007
I've been training teachers all day since 8 am this morning. They are a great group and this is a bitter sweet session in that some of the teachers are graduating their training course that has spanned the past two years. I know I will still see these teachers from time to time but will not be with them during the same extended training time as we have shared together. Also, one of them is leaving the district to take another job and this is her last day with us. Changes are hard but necessary as each of them continue to be great teachers in the classroom.
All day in the back of my mind I have had other thoughts going. As soon as today's session is over my beautiful wife and another couple is picking me up to go directly to the air port. We're flying to Memphis, then D.C. to spend a couple of days touring D.C. then onto the Shenandoah National Park to hike a 25 mile section of the Appalachian Trail.
BBQ in Memphis-yum, yum. I would never think that you could find real BBQ in an airport but I was surprisingly mistaken. Jim Neely's Interstate BBQ has taken the 'Airport' out of airport food. A great start to a great vacation.
June 2nd, 2007
We arrived without incident and on time in D.C. last night and checked into a great hotel. Today we've off via the Metro to D.C. to see some of America's landmarks. The Metro is a great way to travel the city with stops just about anywhere you might want. $7.50 a day-can't beat it. Our first visit was to United States Botanical Gardens. What a tremendous variety of plants. There was a whole room dedicated to orchids and I was like a kid in a toy store. I must have spent 45 minutes just taking pictures of orchids. We could have spent the entire day here but had to press on as our time was limited.
Orchids
Our Capitol
Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial
We even got to meet one of our national icons, Bob Dole. He was gracious enough to have his picture taken with my lovely wife.
June 3rd, 2007
Today was raining but with our great planning we had scheduled to see the National Cathedral. This massive structure was built entirely with private funds and is a architectural marvel.
Here is one of the many stained glass windows throughout the building.
I noticed as I was taking an interior shot that the building did not line up straight from one end of the sanctuary to the other. This sort of bothered me and made me wonder if I was really correct in my observation. As you will notice from the picture below I have aligned the stained glass window in the center of the shot but I am not on the center line of the floor tile.
Could have been the tile, could have been the structure I was lining up in the center of the frame etc... So.. I asked one of the guides as a group was passing by--and... She stated that it was done on purpose. The architects believed that if you were to stand in a straight building you wouldn't be able to fully comprehend the size of the structure. So they offset the building from itself, broken axis was her term, so that standing in the back of the room you could see the side walls of the most distance end of the room.
Pretty smart guys I'd say.
June 4th, 2007
We drove to the Shenandoah National Park last night and spent the night in a scenic cabin. Brookside Cabins on Hwy 211 to be exact. What a great way to go to sleep and wake up with the sound of a gurgling brook outside our window. The small little stream provided just the soothing sounds we needed after a hectic week and a couple of days on the road to get to this great part of the country.
We had never been to Shenandoah National Park and were in for a great treat. Such dense foliage and diversity of plants. The next 5 days would be a needed change of scenery for some city weary folks.
You know how every now and then you come across a person who just turns out to be a friend the first time you meet them. Well, Bobby Jenkins is one of those folks. Bobby had spent thirty years working in the park for the safety and security office. His job included rescuing folks who became lost or injured in the back country of the park. What stories he could tell, and he did tell to us about the history of the park. He was a delight to be with as he shuttled us from our final destination to our put in point on the Appalachian Trail. I'll post a picture of him later. He sure was a character. His stories of hikers, gardens, insects and wives kept us in stitches in entire time we were with him. One of his lines was that, "I've spent 30 years with my wife and I've gotten used to her but I haven't figured her out yet". Bobby was a great introduction to the park as we wished him good luck and set out on the Appalachian Trail with our packs stuffed with too much stuff and our muscles not knowing was about to beset them.
We encountered several wild flowers along the way. Below is Mt. Laurel in the shape of a cross that I thought was especially interesting.
June 5th ---Hiking the trail was a great experience. We got to meet some thru-hikers who were hiking the entire approximately 2,175 miles of the Appalachian Trail. They ranged from a therapeutic masseuse to an IBM'er who was taking a leave of absence from the security division to hike the trail. They all have trail names that they've selected or were given to them. The masseuse was "Kiwi" and the IBM'er was "M & M".
Wildflowers were in bloom along the trail which added a touch of spring for us midwesterners, whose spring was cut short by the late freeze. Azaleas were in abundance. Along with butterflies who were having a feast.
Latest Addition. June 4th- We made our destination camping spot for the first night at Mt. Lewis Campground. After setting up our tents and checking out the campground we proceeded to cook dinner. We had brought dried pasta and chicken in foil. Sounds like a simple dinner but I can't tell you how good it tasted after hiking the hills of the Shenandoah. Our trusty Jet Boil System made hasty work of boiling the water we needed for the pasta. 0 to 210 degrees of boiling water in about 2 minutes is all the time it takes. Best money I've spent on cooking systems. We were also trying out some 'flat ware'. These are plates and yes even cups that are a flat piece of plastic that you fold to make serving ware. We had bought a cup and a plate and they worked great with the extra benefit of being very light for backpacking. After a very filling meal Terry, one of our hiking partners, decided that pop corn was in order. I don't know if you've ever tried to pop popcorn over an open fire, but it's something I wouldn't attempt. Needless to say it was quite a spectacle. For humor's sake I will say that Terry treated us like Idols with his popcorn. "Burnt Sacrifices" was what the popcorn turned out to be. After it caught fire he made a hasty withdrawal of the the popcorn from the fire and proceeded to apply much blowing the put out the flames. All in all it wasn't too bad if you didn't reach real deep to the bottom of the pan where there were really charred kernels.
We spent the rest of the evening sharing good times and big stories around the dying embers of our campfire. After hiking all day bed time came early and I can't tell you how good a therma rest sleeping pad and a thin sleeping bag can feel after a long day on the trail.
June 5th--Up and at em'. Thank goodness for quick setup and take down tents. Our 'Mutha Hubba' tent goes up and comes down in a hurry. Kids now days have it too good. I remember the old tents that required wooden poles, canvas walls and no floors. Now days you can get a three person tent that weighs about 5 pounds-tent, fly, floor poles and stakes. Why a three person tent for my lovely wife and I? Well, there's the issue of two Welsh Corgis that love the tent. They weren't along on this trip but they really love the 'den' feeling of the tent.
After a 'hearty' breakfast of a couple of Cliff Bars we were off on the trail again. And, again we were greeted with hard climbs that ended in beautiful vistas, well worth the effort. This part of the Appalachian Trail is well maintained by various volunteer hiking clubs. We appreciated their hard work as we 'enjoyed' the breathless views. And I do mean breathless in two ways. One-the state we were in after the hard climbs and Two-the breath taking scenery we were privileged to experience.
Our destination goal for the day was Mt. Hazeltop and wilderness camping. The park has strict rules about camping in the back country that are designed to preserve the beauty of the park. You can only stay one night in a location and you can't camp within 100 feet of the trail or a water source. Our plan was to hike to Mt Hazeltop and find a place to spend the night. After 6 miles of hiking we summited Mt. Hazeltop and thanks to the keen eyes of my loving wife we found an excellent camping spot. We quickly set up camp and proceeded to have a delicious meal of dried tomato pasta and chicken. This is bear country so we followed the 'bear-muda triangle rules'. You cook at least 50 yards from your campsite. Place your food in a tree 50 yards from both your campsite and your cooking area. You also keep no food or perfumed items in your tent so as not to attract the bears. Having abided by all the bear rules we retired to enjoy the great view from our campsite. This view was literally 40 feet from our tent door.
The 'vista'
The 'vistees'
Night of the 5th. I can't say what it was but it was big. Something was outside our tent in the direction of our bear bag and it was making a lot of noise in the leaves. I quickly located my bear mace and moved to into the center of our tent. I had read that sometimes bears will simply bite through a tent's edge to see if what they smell is edible. I didn't want to be that 'edible' thing and spent the next half hour waiting to hear more and not wanting to hear more. Finally a sufficient amount of time had passed with no noise and I cautiously drifted back to sleep. The next morning our campsite mates had also heard the noise and by their story the noise was directly outside their tent. Needless to say there were some prayers being sent heavenward. Janice was praying that while all day she had wanted to see a bear, right now while inside her tent she really didn't want to see a bear that bad. Needless to say we survived the night with thankfulness that all were safe.
June 6th
We packed up our campsite and said our good byes to Mt. Hazeltop and headed on northward on the Appalachian Trail. Today we were going about 6 miles to a much anticipated real bead at Big Meadows. Again we were challenged with a serious of climbs and descents that tested our muscles and fortitude. The Appalachian Trail has been nicked named the Green Tunnel. The reason being that the vegetation is dense and ferns are prevalent along the trail.
We did have one exciting time on this section of the hike. As we rounded a bend in the trial I looked up from watching my steps to realize we were being watched. A black bear was on his hind feet about 50 yards ahead, right in the middle of the trail. I was in the lead as we were hiking and I quickly motioned to the rest of our group to look ahead at the bear. Anita got a good view, Terry got a view of the bear turning tail and running and Janice missed the bear all together. Of course, last night she had prayed that she really didn't want to see a bear that bad while she was hearing suspicious noises outside her tent. I guess with a great prayer life you'd better be careful about what you pray for.
As we neared the end of our hike the humidity was high and with physical exertion of climbing several vertical feet we were all sweating buckets. Oh, excuse me, the ladies were perspiring, the guys were sweating! Either way I wouldn't have wanted to pass this crew on the trail without a face mask. We finally hauled into Big Meadows just in time to grab a hamburger from the restaurant before it closed for the afternoon. I did notice that the waitress set us as at a table that was away from the other patrons. Good for them as I'm sure the smell from our group would have made for an unappetizing food experience. But, it didn't bother us as we chow ed down on some of the best burgers we had ever tasted. The only things better were the shower and the nap I got to take back at the room.
Big Meadows is a grand old lodge with cabins, campsites and a first class restaurant. The lodge has a huge deck where we enjoyed a cup of coffee and yellows and oranges of the sun setting behind Massanutten Mountains.
June 7th
Back to the trail. This was to be our last day on the Appalachian Trail as well as our longest hike. The trail was beautiful as usual with wildflowers and several different geographical examples of the weathering and history of this region.
Again it was a hard day but we were constantly rewarded by great views of this beautiful land. Kind of like life. Often the climb is hard and the going is tough but the rewards of wisdom and beauty couldn't be reached any other way.
June 22, 2007
It's been a while since we have really spent a relaxing evening. So.. tonight was extra special. As we slowed down from our usual break neck pace we realized just how good it is to relax and enjoy life. Of course, grilled steaks and the company of good friends also helps. Even if Pam beat us at dominos. Yeah, I know, if dominos is my idea of a good time I must really have an 'exciting' life. Oh well, time for bed.
June 23, 2007
A hot cup of coffee and blueberry muffins out on the deck is surely the best way to start a day. A cool breeze and the occasional whisper of humming bird wings just adds to the peace and quiet. I think I could get used to this lifestyle. The only thing better would be a trip into the woods with my lovely wife. So.. that's just what we did. We packed up the dogs, threw in a couple of bottles of water and headed for the hills. The dogs were excited and knew that a good day was in store for the 'herd'.
Some of our friends had told us about an area called the High Place by the locals that promised to be an interesting exploration. This area was considered sacred by Native Americans and also has a cemetery near by with graves from the 1800's. It took us about 45 minutes to get there and included a 7 mile stretch of dirt road that really got interesting the last mile. We finally found the small cemetery and were reminded that life was much tougher in the 1800's. Most of the graves were of small children and even the adult headstones showed the passing of what we would consider middle aged persons. The unmarked graves outnumbered the marked graves four to one. We could only imagine the silent stories marked by these small stones.
1877-1897 (9 is backwards)
On the drive back down the road to home we came across a brilliant mushroom just begging to have his picture taken.
Of course I obliged.
We also located some interesting rock formations in the High Place, as the locals call it. Indian relics have been found in this place they consider sacred. There were signs all around about not disturbing any archeological finds. Of course the signs had all been shot with a shot gun. It's hard for me to understand the fun in destroying objects. Anyway, we didn't let the ignorance of others deter us from admiring the several interesting rock formations. Including the fractured rock below.
This rock fracture went for about 40 yards before opening at the top of the High Place. This view above is looking down from the top of the fracture.
We also happened upon a mushroom that I had never seen before. I have named it the Golf Ball Mushroom until I find out the real name.
We also found some beautiful butterflies that posed for me. Usually butterflies are very fickle about having their picture taken but these two posed perfectly.
On our way back to the cabin we had a good discussion about the value of taking time to slow down and enjoy the beauty of life. Just not having to be anywhere or be anybody was nice for a change. Our dogs think we're great and that's all we needed today.