Another Backpacking Trip in the Works

I'm planning my second backpacking trip of the year. This one is going to be in the Shenandoah National Park from June 14-17. I'm going to access the park from I-64 so I'll stay in the South end of the park, mainly around Loft Mountain.

I'm thinking I'll park around mile 84 at the Jones Run Trail parking lot and hike the Jones Run Trail past the three waterfalls. I'll take the Appalachian Trail at the PATC Doyle River Cabin and follow it North.

I'm hoping to find a campsite for that first night somewhere on the approach to the Loft Mountain Campground or about halfway between the campground and the Frazier Discovery Trail. Both areas look relatively flat on my topographical map, the flattest land around. Sure, it's only about 5 miles from the Jones Run trailhead, but the first day I'll be driving to the park from Virginia Beach and I want to give myself time to photograph and enjoy the waterfalls.

I'm not real sure where to go from here. I would like to do around 10 miles Sunday and Monday and then do about 5 back to the trailhead and the car on Tuesday. I may head up the Rocky Mount/Gap Run Trail loop but that whole area looks very steep with no camping sites. I may head south on the AT and do the Wildcat Ridge/Riprap loop.

I would love to start further north and include a summit of Hawksbill or Stony Man as part of the trip but I'm a little pressed for time and don't want to drive that much farther North on Saturday and Tuesday. I would love to get some photos of a bear and they are a lot more plentiful in the Southern end of the park, and the three waterfalls are also very tempting photo subjects. I can make a trip later on to Hawksbill and Stony Man when I'm starting out from here in Baltimore because that section of the park is much closer to Baltimore. Since I'm coming in from Virginia Beach this time I should stay near I-64.

If you are familiar with Shenandoah National Park and have some suggestions for a 25 mile loop or circuit from the area around the Loft Mountain campground ending at the Jones Run trailhead around mile 83 of Skyline Drive, please let me know.

P.O.D. - Picture of the Day

It's that time of year again. There are rabbits everywhere. I'm afraid to walk in my own backyard because I just know the rabbits will bum rush me and sting me.

P.O.D. - Picture of the Day

Happy Memorial Day 2008!



"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

-John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Friday, January 20, 1961

P.O.D. - Picture of the Day

Cunningham Falls

Cunningham Falls, at 78 feet tall, is the tallest waterfall in Maryland. This cascading waterfall is located in the Cunningham Falls State Park on Catoctim Mountain near Thurmont Maryland. There is a large lake with a beach in this park where visitors can swim. There are three hiking trails to get to the falls. The first is a 1/4 mile long boardwalk for handicapped people. The second is a gravel paved double track trail called the lower falls trail. Finally, the yellow blazed Upper Falls Trail follows the ridge line for 8/10ths of a mile over very steep, rugged, rocky terrain. The U.S. Presidential retreat Camp David is also located on Catoctin Mountain, as is the Catoctin Mountain Park, which is run by the U.S. National Park Service.

P.O.D. - Picture of the Day

Campfire and Kids

This weekend the kids and I went camping at Elk Neck State Park in Cecil County, Maryland. It was raining as we drove to the campsite but the rain stopped just before we reached the park. Saturday was a beautiful day and we hiked to the Turkey Point Lighthouse.

Elk Neck State Park was a nice park with well-kept facilities. The tent pad was a little on the small side - we had a 15' x 17' tent that had to go diagonally to fit on the pad.

We roasted marshmallows and baked bananas with chocolate and peanut butter chips over the campfire.

More Geocaches found!

Today my friend Jessica called me and asked if I was going to be doing anything outside with the kids since it was a nice day. We decided to go geocaching. Jess lives in Cockeysville so I went to geocaching.com and searched for caches in her zip code. Since it was Jessica's first time geocaching and she was going to have her 15 month old boy with her I located two that were easily accessible and transferred the waypoints to my GPS.

The first cache we attempted was called Old Padonia Post. It was described as a park and grab and sure enough the GPS waypoint had us in a parking lot. We spent quite some time searching, maybe 20 minutes, when I found the cache. I won't give any spoilers but I'll say it wasn't at all where or what I expected. It was a very well-hidden cache. There were some muggles around here so I had to wait until it was clear to retrieve the cache. The cache itself is a mini Altoids tin so it only has a piece of paper inside for a log. We all signed it and set our sites on cache number 2.

The second cache of the evening was called Western Run washout. This is a multi cache in an industrial park near the Hunt Valley Towncenter. We were led to a small picnic area behind an office building for the first cache. After several minutes of hunting for this cache I found it. The cache's color gave it away. Inside the caceh was a scrap of paper with a new set of coordinates written on it. I created a waypoint for the new coordinates and was relieved to find that the second cache was only 440 feet away. The last thing I wanted to do was spent the evening driving in traffic on York Road.

My seven year old son found the second cache. Again the color gave it away. This cache had anoth piece of paper with more coordinates on it. I entered these into my Vista HCx and off we went. This cache led us off a path into the woods alongside the Western Run. We searched for about 25 minutes but none of us could find the cache. It was getting late so we decided to call it a night and come back another time to continue our search.

We ended the night with a find for Padonia Post and we found 2/x of the Western Run Washout cache. Not a bad evening.

Geocaching!

Today I had an hour and a half to kill before I had to take my daughter to Girl Scouts so her and I went geocaching. A zip code search on http://www.geocaching.com/ revealed several geocaches that were close to my house. A few mouse clicks later I had downloaded the .LOC files for these caches into my Garmin eTrex Vista HCx and we were off.

What is geocaching? According to geocaching.com, Geocaching is:

"Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache."

Basically, people get small, waterproof containers and hide them somewhere. Anywhere at all. They use a portable GPS unit to note the coordinates of the container when it is hidden and then go to a website like geocaching.com and post the coordinates of the cache and give some clues or describe the goal of the cache. Most caches are filled with small trinkets and most people will take a "gift" from the box and then leave something of their own. The box also contains some type of log book, normally a tiny spiral note pad, that geocachers sign when they find the cache.

Some caches contain a special "travel bug" or a "geocoin". a travel bug (or TB) is a metal pendant like a dog tag. It has a picture of a bug on it, a serial number stamped in it, and instructions to log onto geocaching.com and enter the serial number to log the bug. The TB's are meant to be passed from cache to cache and the locations of them are tracked on geocaching.com. Geocoins are similar to TBs but are specially designed commemorative coins.

The cache that my daughter and I first set out to find is called "Okay, maybe in a million years". This is a very difficult cache to find. We ended up walking through a small stream, following the GPS unit. We were right on top of the location and couldn't find the cache. The creator/owner of the cache, Legendpilot, said the cache is hidden right out in the open. He said even though it is in plain sight the cache is difficult to find and you may have stepped on it. My daughter and I spent several minutes looking around and then decided to try the second cache in this area since we had a limited amount of time before the Girl Scouts meeting.

The second cache, "Definitely in less than five minutes" by VerySmartGirl, promised to be easy to find. It took me about five minutes to find this one. I was right on top of it again, still not really sure what I was looking for, when I noticed something that didn't look natural. Sure enough, there was the box. Our first geocache find! The box was small, a little bigger than a pack of cigarettes. It was made of clear plastic and had latches that snapped into place on each of the four sides of the lid. There was a label on the lid that read "Official Geocache" and had lines for the name of the cache, the name of the cache's owner, and point of contact information for the cache. We both signed the log book. I didn't have anything to place inside the box so we looked at the trinkets inside but didn't take any. There was an eraser shaped like a flower, some plastic army men, a guitar pick, a pin, a keychain, and a few other little items.

When I got home tonight after the Girl Scouts meeting i jumped on geocaching.com and posted my results. I was the 50th person to attempt "Definitely in less than five minutes" and the 49th successful finder. "Okay, maybe in a million years" had 34 finds and 26 did not finds.

Geocaching follows the same "Leave no trace" principals that I have been teaching my son's Cub Scout pack. There is a large "Cache in, trash out" movement where people carry trashbags with them when they are leaving or hunting caches and they carry out any trash they find along the way.

I think I'm going to enjoy geocaching. It's a great way to enjoy hiking, explore new places, meet new people, and practice navigating with a portable GPS unit.

My Backpacking Trip - Day 5

I was hoping I would get a chance to sleep in this morning since I was staying put for the remainder of my trip but a group of wild turkeys had other plans. I was (rudely) awakened by about a dozen turkeys clucking and gobbling and making this weird popping noise about 50 yards from my tent. I wanted to try to get some pictures of them but by the time I could get dressed in my tiny tent and then crawl outside they were gone.


Bluffs Backcountry Campsite Mammoth Cave National Park



I cooked breakfast and decided I would hike back to the car to unplug the cell phone charger so I would be able to drive home when my trip was over. I packed up some things I decided I no longer needed and hiked to the car. It was a little over three miles from the Bluffs campsite to the trailhead where I parked, so I had a nice six mile hike ahead of me. At the trailhead I sat at a picnic table, ate beef jerky for lunch, and called my kids. The cell phone signal was very weak at the trailhead and I couldn't get reception in the woods.


Some of the many hiking trails in the Mammoth Cave National Park


I hiked back to the campsite after my lunch, and since it was a warm day I decided to shower in the waterfall at my campsite. The water was absolutely freezing cold, like ice. I couldn't stand under the water for long because it was so cold, but it felt great to get clean. I cleaned my dirty laundry under the waterfall as well, spreading dirty clothes over the rocks that the water was beating onto where it fell.


My Own Private Waterfall


I spent the rest of the afternoon scouting around the campsite and dragging back any wood I could find for my campfire. After about an hour it was starting to get dark and I had an impressive pile of wood so I lit the fire. I sat roasting marshmallows and listening to music until after dark. Just after the sun went down the coyotes in the park became active.


Roasting Marshmallows



Being alone in the dark and hearing coyotes howling all around you is quite an experience for a city boy like me. I researched coyotes before I left for the trip and so I knew they were no threat to me; they eat mice and other small rodents, but it was still a little unnerving to hear so many coyotes all around me. Some were very close, at the top of the bluff above me and on the bluff next to mine, down the hill in front of me and up the next hill. Others were far off so they could barely be heard. At times I could hear a bunch of them snarling and growling and barking together, with the noises starting off quitely and working into a frenzy. I think they were hunting as a pack and would make lots of noise when they were making a kill. It could have been that the males were competing for females since it was early spring. At any rate, I had a good time sitting and listening to all the howling and snarling and being a little scared but knowing I had nothing to worry ab!
out.

The coyotes continued making noise long into the night, longer than I stayed awake. I retreated to my tent around 10pm and fell asleep to the sounds of growling, barking, snarling coyotes all around me.