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My son came home from college for the Thanksgiving weekend on Amtrak. We got to talking and he mentioned the train had gone over this really cool aqueduct he had never known about just before getting to Point of Rocks. I said, “Oh, that’s the Catoctin Aqueduct! They just finished refurbishing it…I keep meaning to […]
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Out with the Trail Dames today! I thought I was going to have to cancel this hike because my ankle has been causing me a little trouble, but the podiatrist gave the okay…sweet. She taped up my ankle and sent me on my way! My ankles just don’t work right is all…big time pronation. Anyway, […]
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What do I want for my birthday, more than anything else? A sunrise hike. Luckily, I was able to set out with Sidekick Pauli this morning to explore the trails on Worthington Farm, part of the Monocacy National Battlefield, in Frederick, Maryland. Too bad Little Caesar had to work 😦 or she could have come […]
Saturday morning I headed out at 8 AM for Sugarloaf Mountain. I was leading a hike for Trail Dames (Maryland) at 9 AM and wanted to make sure I had enough time to get there to meet the Dames as they arrived. Well, it was a good thing I left a little early as I was greeted with a full wind shield of frost on the car! Now, my car is 10 years old and the heat…well, the heat is sporadic at best. Actually, manic – depressive is probably the most apt description. I either get hit with heat so hot I have to crack the windows, or air that feels like I have opened a freezer. Anyway, the point is, defrosting the window was going to take a little time! 😉
Luckily, the coin flip was in my favor and soon I could see out the front window! Off I went to Sugarloaf to meet the Dames.
It was going to be a beautiful day. The sky was blue and as I passed a few farms along the way, I sighed in content at the frost covered corn fields. Yes, this was autumn. The crisp air, the sharp smell of wood smoke, and the rattle of bare branches on trees as the cold wind of winter tried to bully its way in. I was really enjoying the morning drive to the mountain…of course, my heat was working which added to my contentment! 🙂
On the mountain I found 3 Dames already in attendance. We waited for the rest of the group and after two rounds of introductions, we got moving…30 degrees this morning! We followed the blue trail down the mountain. Many of the leaves had fallen, which, in addition to the rocky path, made for slow going. The leaves were a little slippery and a wrong step would have resulted in a none too pleasant fall on quite possibly a very pointy rock!
Once down the mountain we crossed Mt. Ephraim road and started the climb up to White Rocks. Now, at this point, you may be wondering why I haven’t illustrated my post with some trail pictures. Well, here’s the thing. I did take my camera and it had a memory card and fully charged battery but when I took it out and tried to snap a photo of the Dames I got this message “the memory card is locked”. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? How does that even happen? Anyway, I will insert one pic of the Dames at White Rocks which I stole from Boomerang. (I made Boomerang an official co-leader on this hike, so it is only right that the leader should steal the co-leader’s pics when her own camera fails her 😉 )
Trail Dames at White Rocks
We made it to White Rocks and had a moment with the beautiful view to the west of Sugarloaf. I say a moment because it was really too cold and windy to stay up there for long! I suggested we head to the big cairn in the woods to have a break. The Dames were in agreement so we continued down the blue trail rolling up and over the hills. The cairn is on a lesser summit and turned out to be a lovely spot for a break! Great logs to sit on and the cairn provided a little shelter from the occasional gust of wind.
After our break, it was back to the ups and downs. In the summer there are no views along this part of the trail, but in winter, wow! We could see the surrounding ridges and countryside throughout most of the hike. The sky was so blue and the sun shown through golden leaves that had yet to fall. Just beautiful!
We finished our hike 4 hours after our chilly beginning, it was now a balmy 53 degrees! Lovely day with a great bunch of women! So glad we were able to share this time together! The Maryland Trail Dames rock!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Early last Thursday morning, someone hit my car and luckily left a note. What started as an “oh crap” day quickly turned into a “oh yes, I get a nice rental car, and I don’t have to pay for it” day! Right then and there, I decided that it was high time for a road […]
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10/18/2013 Ensign Cowall Shelter to Pine Knob Shelter It rained off and on all night! So happy I was in the shelter as I kept hearing acorns and small limbs hit the roof of the shelter. The front that had moved in left us with a chilly, damp morning. This was the kind of morning […]
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10/17/2013 PenMar to Ensign Cowall Shelter (10 miles) This was a tough 10 miles! No surprises there…lots of rocks and then there was the climb up Quirauk Mountain to High Rock. Boomerang, Google, V. and myself started off from PenMar at about 10:15. We trekked north about a quarter of a mile to the Mason-Dixon […]
I met my hiking pal at the West View parking lot on Sugarloaf Mountain in Montgomery County, Maryland for our training hike. I had everything in my pack except food in the bear vault.
We started downhill with full packs hoping to make this loop before the heat set in! Temperatures were to soar to 85 degrees on this sunny October day. The pack felt good…actually better than I anticipated. But then again, I was going down hill, and a nicely graded downhill at that!
After dropping about 500 feet we crossed Mt. Ephraim Road and started up! I kept waiting for the worst, but it didn’t come and we made it easily to the view from White Rocks after a rocky climb of 300 feet.
And then came the roller coaster as we traversed another 200 feet up to one of the lesser summits on the blue trail at an elevation of 1015 feet, down to 750 feet elevation, then back up to another lesser summit at 995 feet! After that the rolling is a little less intense. The last hill was hot and slow as the heat had really begun to deliver a beat down.
Final verdict…great training hike! And glad we got done before the real hot afternoon heat set in!!
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I went out to explore the Bear Branch Nature Center in Carrol County, Maryland. The nature center is part of the bigger Hashawa Environmental Education Center. This was a day in which the temperatures and humidity level had started out rather nice so I was looking forward to good weather as I explored the trails. Boomerang met me […]
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I have done this hike before as I always scope out the trail before leading a hike for the Trail Dames. It is a really nice hike if you like a good uphill climb followed by amazing views! I had planned on taking the Dames out on this trail earlier in the Spring but we […]
Girl Gone Hiking 