Tripping Through Life

Today we hiked this trail in Avon, CO starting at 12:20 p.m.  We couldn’t find any information on it, but saw the trail on a Trails Illustrated Map (™). It was close by so we thought we would try it.  It is off of I-70, exit 167, to Buck Creek Rd and just a little bit up the road (north) is a small parking lot on the right side of the road.  We were surprised to see participants of a race coming down the trail, they were doing the Transrockies Run, a 5-day race covering 20-25 miles a day over the Rockies from Buena Vista to Avon.  We were impressed to see them still going strong on the last day and near the end of the race.  We only encountered a few runners as most had past this area earlier in the morning.  This hike was a steady uphill climb and by 1.5 miles in, we had an elevation gain of 1,000 feet. The trail has several creek or stream crossings to keep things fun.  The trail itself was very narrow and in many places was almost rutted, I wonder if mountain bikers use it, and if that is contributing to the condition of the trail.  It had loose dirt and small, loose rocks along the path, so you have to be careful as you hike.  We hiked up to a meadow area where we crossed another trail, we took it to the east for a short distance until we could see the mountains near Vail side.  The trail was pretty shady, which was nice.  It gave us many good spots to stop and catch our breath as we climbed the trail!  After we got back, we found out that the trail we crossed and took east for a short distance was the Nottingham Ridge Trail, and while we were on that, a guy on a dirt bike (with motor) went by.  It was a very pleasant outing, but no big mountain tops to be seen.

We hiked this trail on Aug 26th, it is east of Vail, at exit 180 off I-70.  About halfway up the trail, you can see the falls, and that’s as far as we made it.  It seemed like a lot of uphill the whole way, and I was tuckered out by the time we got to the falls.  It was a very nice, shady spot to stop and have a snack and watch the cute little chipmunk run around looking for food.  The trail brings you out to the top of the main falls, and you can’t see them very well, but there are some smaller falls  that you can see.  It is a very pleasant spot.  We heard that it is an easy hike, but I don’t think I would say that, especially if you aren’t from Colorado and if you aren’t young!  We also heard that it is a tough hike to go all the way to the lake, and that I can believe!  Most people on the trail only went to the falls, and some didn’t even make it that far.

One of the most interesting things about this hike was that it was a nice day, but a few clouds came over the mountains and it hailed on us twice with hail about the size of peas. I was glad that I had a hat on, as a few of them were bigger and could have hurt!  We also had light rain twice, but it wasn’t too bad. You just never know what to expect on a hike in the mountains!

We thought we might never make it to the trailhead!  It’s not very far from Vail as the crow flies, but on the winding, mountainous, dirt forest service road that you have to take to get to the trail, it seems like forever, and in fact, takes about 50 minutes to go 10 or 15 miles. I was worried that our car might loose something important as we bumped over the rocks and roughness of the road! But we finally made it to the parking area near the Piney Lake Ranch. We headed out through the meadow with beautiful views of Piney Lake and the meandering river that feeds it. As we gained elevation on the trail, we had to stop several times for our pounding hearts and labored breathing to slow.  Walking through the Aspen trees was a wonderland, and then up a little higher into the fir and spruce.  As we went on, we crossed some creeks flowing down the hill over rocks and downed trees, then we were hiking beside the river as it came down the mountain crashing over the rocks–what a wonderful sound.  As we crossed a good-sized stream that fed into the river, the trail became harder to see and follow.  It was pretty obvious that not too many people hike up that far.  We went up a steep hill with loose dirt and then up over some rocks.  I was worried about getting down that area on the way back!  At the top of that area, we had a good view of the river below us and we stopped to eat lunch. We decided to check the map to see how far we had to go to reach Upper Piney Lake.  We thought it was 2 miles to the lake, but we had already gone 4 miles, and still no lake.  Looking at the map, we had only gone about half way to the lake, and it was another 1,000 feet higher than we were!  We decided to turn around and head back as it was almost 3 p.m. and I didn’t want to be out late and encounter any wild animals!  On the way back, Dean decided to take a different path, and wow, was it exciting–lots of water and muddy areas to get through, downed trees to climb over, and weeds to wade through!  It gave us a better work out than just walking, and turned out to be shorter than the original trail. We went almost 8 miles in all, and saw some beautiful sights.  Coming back to the ranch and Piney Lake, we saw 3 large moose at the far end of the lake, eating the plants in the water.  It was an awesome sight, and I am so glad that we were able to see it. The ranch had cabins right on the lake that you can rent.  It looked like a great place to really get away from it all–and no cell phone reception either.  I decided I really like hiking poles after using them on this hike.  They were a lot of help especially on the steep hill with loose dirt. I think that without the poles, I’d have been sliding down that hill on my derriere!

Day 2, Part 2:  We were not overly sore from yesterday’s hike, although to say that we were not feeling any effects from all that uphill walking would be a lie!  So, in order to be able to walk tomorrow, we decided to take a gentler hike today.  We drove over to Cosby Picnic Area (almost 25 miles from our hotel in Gatlinburg!), way over in the northeast section of the GSMNP.  We headed up the Gabe’s Mountain Trail, the first part of which is also known as Henwallow Falls Trail (we have also seen it listed as Hen Wallow Falls–they do have some strange names on some of their trails here).  It was a nice up and down hike, although there were lots of tree roots sticking up all along the trail which made hiking just a bit more difficult, and there were lots of those small, pesky flies, the kind which unerringly fly right up a nostril or into your mouth and down your throat while you are talking. Yuck!  But on to the good stuff.  It was about 2 miles out to the falls, and the hike included crossing over 3 log bridges, and hopping from stone to stone (well, okay, we didn’t actually hop!) to get across a couple of small creeks.  The falls were beautiful!  The trail comes out at the bottom of the falls and it’s a great place to get a few awesome photos. I”ll post one soon.

What a great couple of days we have had.  We are in Gatlinburg, TN to do some hiking.  We did a little checking before we left home and found that the Appalachian Trail runs through the GSMNP and you can actually hike one section quite easily because the trail is near a large parking lot.  Well, I have this desire to hike the AT.  I know I am not really physically up to it, but whenever we are in an area where the AT runs nearby, we will hike a little bit of it just to say that we did!  So we hiked 4 miles along the AT, starting at Newfound Gap.  We hiked out to a big rock called Charlie’s Bunion and then turned around and hiked the 4 miles back again.  There was quite a  bit of uphill hiking on the way out, but nothing that wasn’t manageable.  We had a good time and shared the experience with several other very nice hikers, including one couple from Quebec.

We ventured out on a recent day when the weather was nice to look for Bald Eagles.  We went to Chapman’s Landing (part of Chapman State Park), which is a spot on the Potomac River where George Washington once tried to cross the river with his troops; however, the rough water prevented him from crossing at that spot.  There is an old house on the property, called Mt. Aventine, and it sits on the top of the hill.  There is a beautiful view of the river from the house.  You can walk down through the fields and forests in the area, and also along the river.  We did manage to see one Bald Eagle flying around, so the day wasn’t an entire bust, even if I had hoped to see more of them!  We also saw many trees that had been gnawed down by beaver, and saw two big beaver “huts” out in the middle of the swampy area.  Overall, it was a pretty interesting day.

The destination for our most recent road trip was Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. We didn’t really know that much about the area, but it turned out to be a very pleasant trip; one that we were very glad to have taken. The purpose: our anniversary trip. The main reason for picking that area: the hiking. I have this thing about hiking now that our children are grown and my task of home schooling the three of them is over. Also, being this close to the Appalachian Trail (AT) makes it hard to ignore. I went to Harper’s Ferry with dreams of hiking for a month straight on the AT, but once we started doing some hiking, I laughed and said, “Well, maybe for a week.” Later, I wondered if that would even be possible!

We arrived in early afternoon, and spent a bit of time driving around to get our bearings. We quickly found out a few things. One, Harper’s Ferry is a very small area, only the peak of land just down near the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers; two, there is almost no parking in Harper’s Ferry itself; three, the National Park Service owns many of the old buildings down near the rivers in Harper’s Ferry; and four, just uphill from Harper’s Ferry, an area you would still think was Harper’s Ferry, is actually an area called Bolivar. So here is our best tip: follow the signs for the park service visitor center just off of Highway 340 and take their shuttle bus into town. There is a $6 per car entry fee to the park, but that is good for 3 days. We decided it was a great value.

Harper’s Ferry is in West Virginia. Just a short ways past the Shenandoah River to the south is Virginia and across the Potomac River to the east is Maryland. We started the afternoon off by hiking a small portion of the AT in the Harper’s Ferry town area, with a stop on “Jefferson’s Rock.” There is some (old) speculation that the rock that we all currently stop at and climb on probably isn’t the very same rock that Thomas Jefferson stood on when he waxed poetic about the beauty of the area, but in my mind it surely must be one and the same. It is an awesome sight still, even with the highways and train tracks. We had lunch in town and walked out on the bridge that crosses the Potomac River into Maryland. After all of that, we decided it was time to find a hotel. There are several chain motels in town, and also quite a few B&Bs that looked nice. Our hotel of choice: the Historic Hilltop House Hotel. Alas, it was closed for renovations, but we did take a turn around the driveway to see their magnificent views–wow! The Hilltop’s website says it won’t be open until 2011 and then it will be a “first class destination hotel and spa,” which means that we probably won’t be able to afford to stay there when it opens!

On Friday we prepared for our long day of hiking, packing our backpacks full of water and snacks. After our experience on our hike to Rainbow Falls in Tennessee, we learned our lesson on doing a half-day hike without any food. We parked at the visitors center and rode the shuttle into Harper’s Ferry, then started our hike by crossing the bridge over the Potomac River and walked down the C & O Canal Path before heading up the trail into Maryland Heights. That was a wonderful day of hiking, but it had me wondering about my ability to do even a week of hiking on the AT, or any other strenuous trail. With a few rest stops along the way, though, we did fine. There is a lookout on some rocks way, way above the river that is so wonderful. That is where they take many of the Harper’s Ferry postcard pictures from. We stopped there for a long lunch, as did others who were out hiking that day. We continued up the mountain to the site of the old stone fort from the civil war battles. The two sides both owned the mountain at differing times, with the Union building the fort and hauling many cannons up the mountain. Just thinking of the Union army men building the roads on the mountain and building the fort and getting the cannons up there made me tired–how tired they surely must have been! We finished the 5-hour outing by heading back into town and thank goodness we had enough energy left to be able to get on the shuttle bus!

On Saturday, we packed up and checked out and then headed to the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship on Harper’s Ferry Road, which is actually in Virginia. We did some hiking there on the paths they have and up an electrical line right of way to where the AT passes by. We spent quite a while there talking with a man from Georgia who was planning a surprise by meeting some friends of his who were hiking through on the AT. They had started in Georgia in March, and were planning on hiking all the way to Maine. (With Harper’s Ferry as the “psychological” halfway point, his friends would be finishing in late July, we figure.) His friends are a husband and wife who are in their late 50’s or early 60’s, and that gave us hope that we could, at the very least, tackle some more hiking trips in the future. Another hiker who was passing through as we stood there talking, said he had seen the couple earlier and they were probably a day behind him, which set up perfectly for the surprise this gentleman had planned. We saw many butterflies and several deer while hiking at BRCES and even some folks riding their horses on some of the trails. The highlight of this hike (besides spotting the deer running across the trail in front of us), was fording the stream which, after quite a bit of rainfall in the area, was quite high. We had found out about BRCES from a book titled, 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles (Washinton DC edition) and we initially had a problem locating the trail marker to cross the creek on our way out, and my husband thought it was at a spot with a bridge made from a log that was sitting at an angle, and which looked very difficult to cross. He was right, of course, we found out later, but at this time, we went back to another trail that crossed the creek, hoping that it might be a better spot to get across. After studying the situation for a few minutes, we took off our hiking boots and socks and walked across, then dried our feet with some small towels that we had (we did come prepared!) and put our footwear back on and continued on our way. After hiking up to the AT, while on way our back, we found our way to the trail we were originally supposed to be on going up, so we decided to take that back and see where it came out. Well, in pretty short order, we were back at the cockeyed log bridge. Well, the only thing to do was climb across it, but we had to get real low and scoot across part of it–boy were our legs protesting that! But it was one of those things for the memory books, something that we’ll always remember, I’m sure. That hike ended up taking quite a while with our conversation with the man on the AT, so we took off our muddy boots, got in the car and headed for home. What a great trip, with lots of sun and the weather in the high 60s and low 70s.