Monthly Archives: May 2019

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Shenanigans with Sidekick Pauli at High Point SP (Day 2)

Bullfrogs and Whipporwills woke me at 4:30 am this morning. It was lovely, but earlllllly!

Turns out it was a blessing being up that early. I had my breakfast, coffee, and was ready to shuttle my friend Bear Spray to an AT Trailhead. She was completing her first section in New Jersey!

I had a shorter goal. Hike from the Visitor Center to the Monument on the AT with Sidekick Pauli. 🙂

It is a rocky, but beautiful short section of the AT, followed by a steep climb on a side trail to the Monument.

The weather was somewhat cooperating, cool, cloudy, and humid. The sky was heavy and dark with clouds that promised more rain this afternoon.

Along our AT trek we caught an occasional glimpse of the Monument, an immense obelisk at 220 feet tall marking the highest spot in New Jersey.

Arriving at the monument, we walked around the base. Clouds were slightly lifted in spots revealing green fields and small towns in the valley.

We returned by following the road down and around Lake Marcia. It was getting hotter and more humid now that the sun had come out!

Sidekick Pauli was delighted to get back to the car and wait for Bear Spray to finish her hike. I was just as joyous, taking time to read more of Radium Girls while lunching on avocados, crackers, and strawberries.

Such a privileged life 🙏

Hike on!

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Shenanigans with Sidekick Pauli at High Point State Park (day 1)

New Jersey! I will get a few more miles of AT in NJ this week and Sidekick Pauli will be right with me. 🙂

We drove up here in a pouring rain. Not the best start to a few days of car camping. I seriously thought we might be literally camping in the car tonight, but the rain stopped just as I was checking in. What luck!

I got my tent set up and hung out with my pal Bear Spray. The low hanging fog on the lake made all the edges of the trees soft and mysterious.

Bullfrogs grunted while birds sang jubilantly. Pauli went between keeping watch and napping peacefully beside me. Perfect.

After a bit, we took a walk around the lake. The campsites are very nice here!

Arriving back at our site, we ate dinner. I had a tofurkey sandwich and potato salad. I was loving that potato salad…but dinner was cut short by a roll of thunder which set me into high gear cleaning up! Oh well, that potato salad will have to wait until tomorrow. 😢

Rain is falling on the tent and Pauli is now snoring beside me. This is the best life! Hike on!

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AT – VA Dripping Rock to VA56 Tye River

Three Ridges Wilderness has been on my radar for some time now. I finally got the opportunity to hike this section Friday through Sunday of 2019 Memorial Day Weekend with the Maryland Trail Dames.

We met at the VA56 trail head parking lot, then shuttled to Dripping Rock.

Weather was optimal!

We headed south and were soon embracing a wonderful overlook without having done much work to get there.

Let’s just say we got our dessert first. I knew there had to payback, and soon enough we were rock hopping…at least the elevation was decent. Luckily, we ran out of rocks after crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway at 3 Ridges Mountain overlook. We were ready for a break!

Is that the infamous Priest in the background?

On to Reids Gap…easy, then Maupin Shelter…not so easy! All the beautiful blooming things kept me distracted and finally found myself in a lovely campsite at Maupin!

We met Fun Guy and Legacy at the shelter. Legacy is thru-hiking…Fun Guy is just running around in the woods for six months. He likes to hunt for mushrooms…hence “FunGuy”…ha, haha, …So much quirkiness on the trail!

We actually saw a ton of thru-hikers on our trek.

Next morning we made it a leisurely start. We relaxed, had our breakfast, no worries since it was only about 6 miles to Harper Creek Shelter.


OH.MY.GAWD.

Where in the world did all the rocks come from??? Am I back in Pennsylvania? That 6 miles felt like 10!!!

More great views, rhododendron, and lots of wildflowers.

We found a great spot for lunch and stretching at the summit. Thank goodness! 😂

Coming down 2000 feet to the shelter was much worse than going up!

We were all very happy to stumble into Harper Creek after a hard day hiking! Luckily, we were there earlier than most and got a good camping spot.

A roll of thunder brought an early end to our celebration! Up went my tent as fast as I could go! Once it was up, I threw my junk in, then dove in after it!

Big, big, big storm. Lots of heavy rain.

I leaned back onto my side in a very warm tent. I could nap this one out.

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Splat. What the…?

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Plop. Oh shieeeeet. The Big Angus has decided that now is a good time to let the seals pull away from the zipper on the fly.

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*sigh*

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Splash. *put folded up bandanna over head and ignore*

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*Zzzzzzzzzzzz*

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Next morning, perfect! I mean besides packing up a wet tent…cause that pretty much sucked!

The trail down to the Tye River was easy peasy. 😃 No rocks!

We deserved that nice bit! Hike on!

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Flippity, Floppity, AT Hikers are on their Way!

Ahhh…all required writing for my grad class done, I can now get back to writing for fun!

Last weekend the Maryland Trail Dames represented at the annual Flip Flop Festival in Harper’s Ferry, WV.  I have to give a huge thank – you to Queen V for organizing this event! She told me to show up with a table and my camp chair…done!

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I rolled in at 7:30ish on Saturday morning to find that the Queen had already put up the canopy.  I pulled over to drop off the table then quickly found a parking spot.  Exiting my car, I was caught off guard by a gust of wind that whipped my car door back so hard I thought it would break.  Okay, then, let me just grab an extra jacket if that is the way it is going to be!

That was indeed how it was going to be on Saturday!  The wind would blow up the hill and literally force us to hold onto  the canopy, the table, our chairs, and the handouts so they would not be tossed up into the air.  We demonstrated quite a bit of agility, let me tell you!  In between gusts we managed to stake out the canopy…gonna give myself props for some of the knots I tied…held like a charm!

Sadly, the PATC canopy next to ours did not fare so well.  A particularly ferocious gust sent their canopy cartwheeling across the lawn!  They decided to move over to the lawn of Storer College afterwards…kudos on their decision as the wind did not let up.

We persevered, but decided eventually to ditch our canopy.   It was less stressful without the wind trying to shred it with every gust!

 

We ended the day in good spirits and vowed that the next day would be better!

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Great music, both days!

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Sunday began with no wind, but rains poured down.  I was not scheduled to show up until the afternoon, but checked in with Queen V.  Everything was okay, wet, but okay.  Game on!

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Queen V recruits future Trail Dames!

The crowd had diminished to near zero by 3:30 pm, so we called it a day and dismantled our glorious set-up. 🙂

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A long time ago, Queen V had been given the name “Bag Lady”….I believe she has been rechristened with it today!

Thanks to the several amazing volunteers from Trail Dames, we have many new women interested in hiking with us!

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Side note 1: Guys, I am glad you stopped by our table…however, if all you had to say was “oh the Trail Dames, I’ve been looking for a Trail Dame”… then go find yourself one somewhere else…We don’t play like that! 😀

Sidenote 2: If you are that person, who signed up for information by leaving us a link to your porn site…we don’t do those kind of events! 😀 😀 😀

Sidenote 3: If you are the guy that came over to mansplain how we had anchored our canopy ALL WRONG and we needed to untie everything and re-do it, then I want you to know that it NEVER CARTWHEELED ACROSS THE LAWN, bwahahahaha!

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I love you guys…Hike on!  😀

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