Memoirs of a Pug Sherpa

Bucklist: Brazil

2011-03-23T18:48:00.002-04:00

I went to Carneval 2011 in Rio de Janiero. It was a blast.

Carneval 2011

New House

2011-03-13T18:46:00.000-04:00

Moved....email me if you want the new mailing address.

New House

South Wind River Range - Wyoming

2010-08-27T14:16:00.001-04:00

16Aug10 - 20Aug10 : Wind River Range, Wyoming

I can't say enough about the beauty of the Wind River Range in August. Can't wait to get back there. Check out the pictures, but they don't even come close to replicating the actual beauty of this place.

View South Wind River Trip: 16Aug - 20Aug in a larger map

Winds2010

13Aug10 - 15Aug10 : Independence Lakes, Idaho

The Mountain West backpacking group allowed Keith and I to crash their trip weekend. I had a great time, met some wonderful people, and can't wait to hike with this group again. Idaho weather is by far my favorite.

View Independence Lakes - 13Aug - 15Aug in a larger map

Idaho2010

St. Patty's Day in Chi-town

2010-03-28T13:41:00.000-04:00

I went to Chicago with Justine for St. Patty's Day. We got to see Wrigleytown, ride the subway, see downtown and the brownish-green river through the city. We spent a day walking around seeing "the bean" at Millenium Park, Navy Pier, having martinis in at the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor, admiring architecture and shopping on Michigan. Justine's nephew, C. Sean Piereman, did a great job in his role as Paul Gallagher in The Mir's production of Beautiful City. See the review. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time. Thank you, Sean, for being a wonderful tour guide!

St. Patty's Day

First Road Race of 2010

2010-02-27T16:49:00.003-05:00

Richmond International Raceway

Team Nature's Path / 3-Sports Crit at RIR

The venue for this race was very cool. It was snowing in Baltimore when I left for Richmond, just light and fluffy and getting blown all over the place. It stopped snowing by the time I was south of DC. I made it there in about 2.5 hours. I don't know much about NASCAR, but the track and stadium at this place was HUGE. I could just imagine the energy level when all those seats are full. It was a unique way to see the track - quiet and less bustling than usual, with maintenance crews working on that big tower in the middle.

Track Facts

How did the race go? Well, it went just fine. I only stayed for the ladies event, first race of the morning at 10am. It was about 38 degrees at start time. I was dressed perfectly for the conditions (details later). The back stretch and turns 2 and 3 had a very strong headwind, the home stretch somewhat protected from the tailwind. My field had about 30 ladies racing - amazing turnout! Everyone was really friendly and the Nature's Path team members were really helpful and organized. There was a crash between two of the Fat Frog racing team members at about 30 minutes down. I saw one being carried out by someone as I came around again, so I hope neither of them was injured seriously.

You can stop reading if you don't care about too-detailed race planning and my lackluster results.

Fuel
Ate bowl of Special K cereal 4:30am
Ate steak egg cheese bagel at 7am
Started warming up at 8:30 (warmed up almost continuously til race time) split between trainer and track
Stopped for 15 mins to eat ham sandwich around 9:15
Race start at 10am

Clothes
During warmup: walking around, wore racing tights under mesh pants
Top - race layers plus a down sweater over top

During race:
synthetic tankini
capilene 4 top
underarmor top
thick long sleeve blue racing shirt
tights
boot covers
gloves
balaclava
sunglasses

Conditions
Temp at race start: 38
Wind: 25mph on the back stretch, through turns 2 and 3

Progress
Lost the pack at 17 mins (improvement from immediately last time)
lapped by lead group at 33 mins (only once, improvement from twice last time)
Finished strong (cadence fairly high, highest gear, 18 mph)
Total Avg: 20mph

I've Had Big Dreams Come True...

2008-06-18T08:19:00.008-04:00

6/7/08 - Saturday - We made it to the summit. I was the second person on our four-man rope team, and we were the first team to the summit that day. While our guide, Todd, was coiling the rope; I had the summit to myself for about 90 seconds. 90 seconds alone on top of North America - it was amazing. It was quiet and peaceful and honestly, it seemed like a dream. I could see for it seemed like a thousand miles in every direction. The cloud ceiling (floor) was about a thousand feet below where I was sitting. I just sat there breathing hard and looking around. The pictures from the summit don't show what it was really like. Actually, none of the pictures come close to showing what it really looked like. But more than what you could see was what it felt like. It was a long, hard struggle - the culmination of 2 years of planning and training, the achievement of a big goal, but more than that - it was the trip of a lifetime. The summit was just a bonus.

Timeline. This is my second experience with mountaineering outfitter Alpine Ascents International. I left Baltimore on Saturday, May 24. I arrived in Anchorage around midnight (US Airways delays). Arrived in Talkeetna on the morning shuttle on Sunday, May 25. We flew onto the mountain on Monday, May 26th, day 1. We summited on Day 13, which was 7Jun08.

We climbed the West Buttress Route from base camp at 7,200 ft to summit at 20,320 ft. Our team was called Local Cooling 62. Local Cooling - as in the opposite of Global Warming - and 62 is the latitude of the mountain. I'm expecting my teammates to send me copies of the pictures they took since my Canon Powershot SX100 didn't work past 14,000 ft, but my tent mate, Ron, sent me some of his pictures, I've posted them here. I hope to post more once I get more pictures from other teammates.

Since I've been back, I've gotten a lot of common questions.

Was it cold?

Comparative to east-coast mid-Atlantic summers, yes, it was cold. Temperatures summertime on the Alaskan range vary with altitude, but the sun shines almost constantly. In the sun, the temperatures are mostly bearable. On the lower glacier, daytime temps are like the beach on snow - well, not humid sea level beach, but a dry air, around 60 degrees. Slushy, wet snow. At high camp, in the sun, during the day, the temperatures are around +5 F. If there is no wind. At night at high camp, it can be minus 30 or colder, even without wind. We were lucky the entire trip and didn't get any significant wind or stormy weather. It was cloudy some days. By 'cloudy' I mean we were climbing IN clouds, which makes the air damp and cool, blocks out the warming rays of the sun, but lets through the sunburning rays. We wore sunscreen constantly. Everything freezes - sunscreen, water bottles, toothpaste (which is actually kind of refreshing, to brush with toothpaste with ice crystals in it).

Was it hard?

Yes. Very, very hard. Physically, mentally, psychologically. Some of it is the steepest terrain you can hike before technical climbing (ice axes and front pointing), you move slowly for many hours each day, for days on end. You climb twice between all of the camps - so psychologically, you're climbing the mountain twice. I felt sick almost constantly - coughing because pressure changes affect the capillaries in my lungs, sore throat because of the cold, dry air, and headache from the altitude. Because of the altitude, I lost my appetite and had to force food down the whole way. When you're climbing, half of the people passing you going back down didn't make it to the summit. Some of them are injured, frostbitten, sun-burned, wind-burned, limping. Sick with altitiude, sick with cold. That's hard emotionally and mentally - seeing so many strong people fail.

Did anyone die?

Not while I was up there, as far as I know. The weeks before we flew onto the glacier, a pair of Japanese climbers went missing and they still weren't found by the time we flew out. They're presumed dead. They weren't climbing our route, they were doing a more difficult alternate route elsewhere on the mountain. They were very experienced and had been up the mountain several times the weeks before they went missing. Another climber had to be rescued by the park service when we were there. He fell 800 ft into a bergschrund below the ridge at the top of the fixed lines. He was lucky to have his satellite phone in his parka and was able to call for help. No one had seen him fall, he was climbing solo and unroped. He was very, very lucky. About a month after we summited, two men died in the same week on Denali.

"A climber collapsed and died on the summit of Mt. McKinley on the evening of July 4, 2008. James Nasti, age 51, of Naperville, Illinois was a client on an Alpine Ascents International expedition that began their climb on June 20. According to the two expedition guides, Nasti exhibited no signs of distress or illness throughout the trip, and was climbing strongly immediately prior to the collapse. The guides administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for up to 45 minutes, but Nasti did not regain a pulse." Source

"For the second time in one week, a mountaineer collapsed and died while climbing Mt. McKinley in Denali National Park and Preserve. Pungkas Tri Baruno, age 20, of Jakarta, Indonesia was descending the West Buttress route the night of July 7, 2008 when he collapsed approximately one quarter-mile from the 17,200-foot high camp. Baruno’s guides initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and immediately called for assistance from another guided team at high camp via family band (FRS) radio. CPR was performed for over one hour, but they were unable to revive the patient." Source

Interesting article about the deceased climbers.

Was it fun?

Well, it was rewarding. It was fun sometimes. A trip like this isn't really an amusement park trip. I expected it to be a lot of work, and it was. It's a constant, relentless task to keep yourself dry and warm and hydrated and refueled. There were patterns we fell into - tedious, everyday patterns of changing clothes, drying clothes, keeping water melted, reapplying sunscreen, foot care. Gathering snow for cooking, digging camps, building wind walls out of snow blocks. It was fun to be away from my regular job, but I wouldn't call it fun like a day at the spa with a tropical drink.

I've been having a hard time trying to decide what to write about the trip on the blog, and there are a lot of stories that I'd rather not post on the internet - so if you want more details about the trip, you can buy me a beer and I'll tell you. Thanks for all the support and all the well-wishing emails. I thought about my friends and family a lot while I was up there, especially when things were tough. And they were tough a lot.

There was a 59% summit success rate on Denali this climbing season with 1,272 climbs completed and 755 summiters. The average summit success is 52% over the period of the 105 years they've been keeping track.
Annual summary of Denali climbs

Well, til next time.....

Denali - Post Trip Write Up Postponed

2008-06-15T17:31:00.002-04:00

Dear Friends,
I know several of you are eager to read about the trip and view the pictures. I've been dealing with a few home issues since I've been back - broken lawn mower, broken toilet, broken air conditioner...etc etc. Everything always breaks all at once. Besides that, my camera stopped working at 14,000 ft so I have no pictures of my own to put on the blog. I'm waiting for a DVD from a few of my teammates so that I can post the pictures that they took. I'm sorry for the delay, don't worry about coming back to check for the post - I'll send you an email once I get it up. Thanks for your interest, your email support, and all the good luck wishes. It was a great trip and I can't wait to tell you about it.

Leaving For Denali !!

2008-05-20T13:31:00.002-04:00

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

I wanted to post some resources for those of you who would like to try to follow us on our expedition.

One of my teammates, Scott, will be blogging our trip from his blog.

The current weather conditions at various altitudes on the mountain can be found at this site during climbing season.

If you want to register your email address for updates when they post new information about the AAI expeditions, you can find more information at the Alpine Ascents Cybercast page. Click on the "Team" tab to find out which team I'm on - should be Team VI. Click on "Alerts" if you want to register your email for when they post new dispatches from the teams on the satellite phones.

You can see the route that we'll be taking up the West Buttress on this map.

I'll post the pictures and all when I get back sometime between June 10th and the 17th.

Law School Graduation

2008-05-11T18:00:00.001-04:00

I graduated from University of Baltimore Law on Sunday, May 11. The ceremony was pretty typical. It was at the Lyric Opera House. Here are the pictures.

Half Moon night on Halfmoon Lookout

2008-04-13T18:53:00.003-04:00

Saturday, April 12, 2008 - Halfmoon Lookout is near Wardensville, WV, just west of the Virginia/West Virginia line. We started our hike at Trout Run Road. The water in trout run was running fast and cold as we crossed over the bridge. There were no leaves on the trees yet, and the sun was high. It was a beautiful day. On the way up the Halfmoon Trail, we encountered a trail horse race. Apparently there were about 50 horses traveling a 55 mile loop of trails. I'm not sure how they race, but they were rolling fast down the trail we were hiking up. We had to dive into the woods off the trail more than once. It was 3.5 miles at a pretty steady incline up to the peak. The sun shined hard the whole time. We got to camp around 2pm and set up camp. We lounged around and collected firewood most of the afternoon. Happy hour started around 4:30 and we had a delicious freeze-dried spaghetti dinner around 6. The sunset was beautiful from the west rocks. We had a roaring fire and a few more beers and then hit the sack.

We awoke to tiny hail balls Sunday morning. It was on and off, so we were able to pack up and get moving while staying fairly dry. We hiked out the 3.5 miles back down to the truck and high tailed it for Paisano's for some cheesesteaks. Over all, the weather was beautiful on Saturday, tolerable on Sunday and the hiking was perfect. Joe made it without dying from an asthma attack or allergy-induced coma, even despite the horses, pollen, and exercise. We had a great weekend and can't wait for our next adventure.

Click here to see a bigger version of the pictures in the slideshow:

Joes First Backpack

MLK Cabin Trip 2008

2008-01-20T19:00:00.000-05:00

Friday, 18Jan08 - Sunday 20Jan08 - The 3rd annual winter cabin trip was a success. The Hawaiian luau theme was a blast. The weather cooperated beautifully, and Muttontop cabin was much nicer than Michener, which we swarmed last year.

The drive up to the upper parking lot was a bit dicey, many of our party didn't even attempt the climb in their 2-wheel drive vehicles. My 4x4 barely made it up, not enough weight in the back. Aaron with his heavy Jeep and Bruce in a 4x4 pickup with tire chains had no problem. Everyone made it eventually, either by carpool or on foot.

On Saturday, Jada and Kisses stayed with Catherine and Bruce while they worked around the cabin and waited for our Saturday morning arrivals. Ellen, Keith, James, and I did a bushwhack from the cabin up to the AT inside the park. Then we hiked up to Highrock and down some fireroads back to the cabin. We saw 2 sets of bear tracks, some coyote tracks, and signs of lots of smaller critters. It was a great workout in the snow.

Catherine prepared the meal Saturday night, which was an extremely tasty Hawaiian beef stir-fry dish. Mary and Winney prepared steamed turkey. On Sunday morning, Rachel and Aaron set up an omelet station and prepared an extravagant breakfast of bacon, sausage, potatoes, and omelets. Sunday breakfast was delicious. Saturday night, we spent time throwing the football and sledding down the field in front of the cabin. On Sunday morning, I spent about another hour sledding before heading back to the truck. Overall, it was a great weekend.

Human Attendees: Keith, Cham, Bruce, Catherine, James, Lisa, Rachel, Aaron, Ted, Mary, Winney, Dave, Christine
Canine Attendees: Jada, Kisses, Angel

MLK2008

Fuzz Visits Maryland

2008-01-13T19:00:00.000-05:00

11Jan08 - 12Jan08 My little brother Fuzz came to visit for the weekend. We spent Friday night at ArenaCross at the First Mariner Arena. Saturday we went horseback riding at Dionne's. Then we went to Joe's to play Wii. After that we went to Annette's housewarming where Joe and Fuzz tossed the football for a while. For dinner Saturday night we went to Medieval Times and then spent the rest of the night at the Bass Pro shop climbing on the rocks, looking at the fish and animals, and shooting at the range. It was a good weekend, we were all exhausted by Sunday.

Fuzz Visits Maryland

Passing of a Legend

2008-01-11T08:37:00.000-05:00

Sir Edmund Hillary died today (Jan 11 9am NZ time), at the age of 88. I like to think there aren't many who don't know - not only was Hillary the first man to summit Everest, but he was a pioneer of mountaineering and an inspiration to countless climbers, including myself. His contributions to the mountaineering world probably fall short only to the contributions of Brad Washburn. In a strange twist of irony, Brad Washburn left us exactly one year ago today, Jan 10, 2007 (Jan 11 NZ time), at the age of 96.

Notice that they did not die in a crevasse or in a white out storm. Both died of heart failure at ripe old ages. Some would call them lucky, others would call them smart, but I would guess it's probably a combination of the two. Their teachings will live on long past this decade.

Many people around the world suffer the loss of two of mountaineering's godfathers. There is plenty to celebrate in what they've left behind.
This is a typical detailed map, the result of meticulous work contributed by Bradford. The laser-accurate feature map of Mt. Everest.

"It's not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." - Hillary

My personal favorite:

"You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things, to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals." -Hillary

Duncan Knob

2007-10-21T18:16:00.000-04:00

This was a Mountain Club of Maryland sanctioned hike. We expected the rivers to be dry, so we arranged for a water cache down at the intersection of Gap Creek Trail and Crisman Hollow Rd. The river there had plenty of water due to the rain just the night before. It was nice not having to filter water, though. The leaves at the higher elevations were showing beautiful colors. The hike went off without incident. The crowd was lively and loud. Participants were Ron & Heather, Rachel & Aaron, Virgil, Pat, Adam, Karen, and myself. No pugs this time. We had some first-time backpackers who did very well - Virgil, Karen, & Adam. The brownie birthday cake we shared after dinner Saturday night was excellent. Happy Birthday, Rachel & Karen! We finished the hike on Sunday with a strenuous climb and fried chicken at the Southern Kitchen. Pleasant weather, pleasant company, good times. I wish fall lasted all year.

Disclaimer: my camera has been taking some blurry pictures (lens dirty/scratched, I don't know), I'm going to be getting a new one soon.

Duncan Knob 2007

Robert's Funeral

2007-10-17T21:27:00.000-04:00

Robert Bopst, Angel on a Harley
When I first moved to Randallstown, I was driving around, checking out the area. I had just bought my new Yamaha FZ6. Mariottsville Road and the roads around it were a riders dream. I happened across this sketchy little bar, down in the valley by the railroad tracks, with a bunch of Harleys parked out front. The smell of food was in the air and I was starving. I stopped in, thinking I'd just get dinner and have a beer then go home. I sat down next to a short guy wearing leather and a flaming skull cap. He asked me polite questions about my bike and about places I've been riding. I told him I was new and I didn't know much about riding destinations in the area. He invited me to ride with his group and we exchanged phone numbers. He was the first friend I had made since I moved to Randallstown.

Many nights at the Woodstock and many rides later, I had a soft place in my heart for the man who many thought I was involved with. (?) Many people at our hang outs wondered why we hung out together. I guess it was because we were so comfortable with each other's silence. We never really talked about much, most of the words he ever said to me was "Wanna go for a ride?" We had an understanding about bar hopping. The ride between bars was the funnest part.

The beginning of this summer, I was so mad at my lawn mower - I had spent 20 minutes in the front yard cranking on it, trying to get the engine to turn over. I knew it needed a tune up, but I didn't have time to wait 3 weeks for the repair guy in Eldersburg. I kicked it, tried a few more times, then threw it in the back of the truck and took it down to Bopst Repairs. Robert had told me not to kick it. I didn't tell him that part when he asked what was wrong with it. He had it back to me in 3 days. It still starts on the first pull. He was a genius with engines.

He came to my baby shower for my new Harley in August. He warned me about the off-set pipes, how the underpipe would tarnish the chrome on the upper level. He told me something I wish I could remember about polishing it out. I always figured he'd be there to show me.

Thursdays nights found Robert and I at the tiki bar at Tom's. Two shots of southern comfort and lime, jokes about my work clothes, and promises that I was going to make it to bike week with him - just next year once I graduate. I promise. I promise I'll go with you guys up to high rock, I just can't do it this week because I"m leading a hike for the Mountain Club. I promise I'll get out there to see Brian do karaoke, next week. I think back on all the excuses. All the "next times". It's sad there won't be any more next time with Robert.

Robert died in a two car collision in the rain on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - two months shy of his 50th birthday. He leaves two children and a wife, many relatives, and countless friends. I'll miss him more than he knows, because we didn't talk about mushy shit like that. I'll think about him at every bike show, every bike week, every charity ride. Part of him still rides these roads. He made a lost soul feel welcome and warm, he was a caring and selfless man. He was my riding partner and my drinking buddy. The world is emptier without him and so am I.

Robert's Funeral

I wanted to repost his obituary, originally posted in the Carroll County Times on Friday, Oct12.

Robert M. Bopst, 49, of Randallstown

Robert Martin Bopst, 49, of Randallstown died suddenly Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007, in Randallstown.

Born Dec. 8, 1957, in Baltimore, he was the son of Carolyn S. Schmidt Bopst and the late George Milton Bopst. He was the husband of Denise Lynn Shifflett Bopst.

He had been a mechanic for many years. He had the ability to fabricate anything to repair equipment and make things work. He had also been a bus driver and operated a dump truck and snowplow business.

He handled the grave openings in many local cemeteries in Baltimore County.

He was an associate member of the Liberty Road volunteer fire company.

He enjoyed riding motorcycles and driving stock and race cars. Most recently, he enjoyed playing pool at the Winfield Inn.

Surviving, in addition to his mother and wife, are a son, Robert Milton Bopst of Randallstown; a daughter, Ashley Nicole Bopst of Randallstown; brother and sister-in-law George J. and Brenda Bopst of Westminster; a nephew, George David Bopst of Westminster; a niece, Jennifer Lynn Bopst of Westminster; father-in-law and mother-in-law Wade Shifflett Sr. and Rhea Shifflett; brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law Richard and Shari Green, Wade Shifflett Jr. and Lisa Shifflett, all of Westminster; an uncle, Charles Bopst of Sykesville; aunts Joan Schmidt of Finksburg, Pat Schmidt of Randallstown and Mary Waddell of Ocala, Fla.; and several nieces, nephews and cousins.

A funeral liturgy will be held at 9 a.m. Monday at Holy Family Catholic Church in Randallstown, with the Rev. Walter McGovern officiating. Interment will be in Holy Family Cemetery in Randallstown.

The family will receive friends from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday and from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Haight Funeral Home & Chapel, 6416 Sykesville Road, Sykesville.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, 10400 Little Patuxent Parkway, Suite 270, Columbia, MD 21044.

Date Night and Yankees Postseason

2007-10-08T19:05:00.000-04:00

Friday Oct 5, 2007 - Date Night. Rich planned a totally sweet night out in DC. We went for a dinner cruise on the Odyssey. It was so beautiful. I'd recommend to anyone to try this for a special occasion. Everything was perfect.

Sunday Oct 7, 2007 - Yankees Stadium!! Anthony and I went to the American League Division Series, Game 3 Cleveland v Yankees. I took NJ Transit from Hamilton to Penn Station then the subway to Yankee's stadium. Hung out at Stan's before the game. The NY Jets and NY Giants were playing - the entire city was watching. It was such an awesome experience. The Yankees won, Johnny Damon hit a 3-run homer to give the Bronx Bombers the lead. So much fun. The atmosphere is like nothing on earth. I'm so glad I went. Didn't get back to south Jersey until 6am the following morning. LET'S GO YANKEES!!

Yankees Stadium

Birch Run Shelter - Quarry Gap Backpack

2007-09-30T20:06:00.000-04:00

This was a MCM and ODC sanctioned hike. We did a combination of these two routes, as provided by Mike J's awesome site: Rocky Knob-Quarry Gap and Caledonia SP-Quarry Gap loop. The trail notes and maps were very helpful and very accurate - thanks a ton, Mike, for maintaining such a great resource.

6 of us (and 2 pugs) met at Macys at 8am - Rachel & Aaron, Marge, Kate, Howard, Jada, Kisses, and myself. Tuna met us at the trail head at Caledonia. Keith and Ellen met us at Birch Run shelter that afternoon. The weather was absolutely beautiful, we had a great time. The night at the shelter was lively, we made some new friends. We discussed all sorts of topics, most of which I won't repeat here. We had one minor first aid incident when Howard was attacked by a rabid squirrel. (see pictures). The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Very relaxing. I had a great time with everyone, hope to see you all again soon! Click on the album below for pictures.

Quarry Gap Backpack

My new Dyna

2007-09-04T17:41:00.001-04:00

Some of you haven't seen the new bike yet. It's a 2007 Harley Davidson Dyna Superglide Custom. 1584cc. It weights 645 lbs dry. It rides so smooth. I love this bike. Bought it Aug 6 from Old Glory Harley Davidson in Laurel.

Pioneer Mountain Range, Idaho

2007-08-19T22:10:00.000-04:00

Pioneer Mountains

The last switchback. I kicked a rock and swore under my breath. My legs just wouldn't cooperate. My thighs were burning and my feet moved in slow motion. Everything I was doing in slow motion except for my lung activity. Sweat dripped into my eyes because I didn't want to wear my bandana and get a tan line across my forehead. The sun was relentless, the trees were thin and sparse. Shade was a luxury you searched for and rationed. Keith sat perched at the top of the pass, drinking from his water bottle and enjoying my misery. I had 8 beers and 5 nights of food in my pack and gravity was pulling on it with a vengeance. At 9,500 feet, I could feel the thin air flooding into my lungs. But my lungs weren't oxygenating the blood going to my legs because when I tried to step over a rock, my foot didn't clear it and I had to try again. Small, choppy steps up the steep trail.

Some people wouldn't know the above paragraph came from a vacation excerpt. I call these trips "vacation" just because at work we don't have a category called "training". The down time was beautiful and relaxing, but every day on this trip there was a significant amount of strenuous hiking. Day after day we were climbing with heavy packs at very high altitude.

Some statstics:
7 - nights sleeping on the ground
96 - ounces of Coors Light in my pack
4 - high mountain lakes I swam in
27 - shooting stars I wished on
11,000 - cumulative ascended vertical feet over 6 days of climbing
1 - fish named Melvin that I spent an afternoon hanging out with
0 - tents that we carried during the trek
11,300 - highest altitude (feet) we reached on this trip
3 - rainbow trout that we cooked
$700 - amount of free stuff Keith and Ellen score from the Outdoor Retailer trade show in SLC
8 - teenage couples getting married at the LDS church temple in SLC on Sat 11Aug07

Upon arriving in SLC on Saturday, Aug 11, my pack hadn't made it onto the plane. We would have to wait 4 hours for the next flight from Philly to show up so I could get my pack. Keith's pack hadn't arrived the day before either, and he spent a chilly night in the mountains with some complementary United Airlines blankets. While we were waiting for my bag, we crashed the Outdoor Retailers expo at the convention center. We happened upon it by accident; and like moths to a flame, we slipped past security and infiltrated the show. Ellen scored a GPS from Delorme and Keith scored a day pack from Eureka.

We got to the mountains very late Saturday night and I hadn't slept in 48 hours. I was tired and finally overcoming the hangover I had from Friday night. I slept well. We spent Sunday night at Boulder Lake, elevation 9,500 ft. Monday we hiked 6 miles out of Boulder to our food cache at 7,500 ft. Then 6 miles into Moose Lake again at 9,500 ft. Sunday and Monday were my two worse altitude days. Our packs up to Moose Lake were very heavy and we were still acclimating. We made it to about a mile shy of Moose Lake Monday evening and we camped along the right fork of the Falls River. We hung our bear bags about 2 feet off the ground, partly because Keith says there are no bears in the Pioneers, and partly because there are no trees big enough that a bear couldn't knock down if he really wanted your food. We primarily hung our food to keep the rodents out. Wednesday we hiked the rest of the way to Moose Lake to have breakfast. Then Keith and I attempted to bushwhack to Angel Lake, elevation 10,300 ft. We ended up climbing the wrong pass (10,500ft), and while it was high and beautiful, I was tired and bored and didn't feel like climbing the correct pass to get a glimpse of Angel. I went back down to Moose and took a nap. Thursday morning we hiked down from Moose to Falls River (7,500), up to Surprise Valley and all the way to the tarn at the head of Surprise (10,300 ft). Friday we hiked over the pass (11,000 ft) to Betty Lake and then down to Baptie Lake, where we stayed Thursday night. Thursday was the only day we had any adverse weather. Friday was the hike out to the car. It was a little rainy at first, but cleared up.

We stopped Friday in Ketchum for some shopping and some dinner. We stayed just north of Ketchum Friday night and Saturday morning we stopped at Russian Johns' hot spring. Then I spent the rest of the day at the airport.

It was a beautiful trip, a lot of fun. The nights were my favorite because it was so quiet and so warm and the stars were bright and it was great sleeping out each night without a tent. No bugs, no humidity, no bears. It was the perfect backpack. Keith and Ellen put a lot of effort into it and I would go back to this area again in a heartbeat. I got a great workout. The only thing I would do differently is wear a lot more sunblock on my face. I didn't burn, no I rarely burn, but I know how bad the sun is, especially at that altitude. We were out in the sun so many days in a row, for so many hours a day, I've probably completely depleted my face of collagen. I worry about stupid stuff like that, and I should have worn sunblock every day on my face. But I didn't because it was so dry and dusty that I didn't like the feeling of sunblock sticking the dust to my face. That shouldn't have been any excuse. Next time I'll wear sunblock.

Shout out to Frank for the high-end french manicure before I left. They held up great, even in the rock scrambling. See after-hike pic.

Assateague July 2007

2007-07-22T12:34:00.000-04:00

If you want to review the Assateague posting from last year, click here.

Assateague July 2007

We had many more participants this year - it was out of control. This year we couldn't have asked for better conditions. The weather, the bugs - you can go camping in Assateague for 10 years in a row and never have such a perfect weekend. The temperatures were perfect, the slight breeze kept all the bugs away. The water temperature was a little chilly, but during the heat of the day it felt great once you got used to it. Activities this year included drinking, tie-dying t-shirts, volleyball, swimming, hiking (for some of us), water gun fights, kite flying, sleeping, drinking, drum circle, fire jumping, ambulance rides, drinking, eating, and of course - more drinking. Brad, the executive chef, had marinated pork tenderloin and sweet corn on the grill. We had sausage and burgers and dogs and bbq chicken...there was so much food.

Keith and Cham rolled up in the mini van about an hour before I got there. I got there on Friday afternoon. The drive down was stress free, very little traffic. This year, I wasn't to be outdone with the accommodations. I brought the Hyatt of tents - 10x12 with 6 foot ceiling, queen air mattress, full size pillow and battery powered fans. Complete comfort, and it was real nice. Next year I need some more sand stakes though. 4 was enough but if the wind was a little stronger, it might not have been.

Both nights we had a drum circle complete with bongos, guitars, and tambourines. Almost all of the LSD (lower slower Delaware) folks are in a band or came with someone who's in a band. All of us Univ of Delaware folks follow the local band scene pretty closely. I'll have a tribute to the bands at the end. Saturday morning, Keith, Cham, and I got up and went for a 9 mile hike on the beach. It was hot and difficult hiking in the sand but the breeze off the ocean felt good and it made me feel like less of a heifer after drinking and eating all night. The ocean felt wonderful after that. Gus and I ate an entire bag of cheesy poofs all by ourselves. Adam and I tried to swim out to the sand bar, but once we got out past the second set of breakers, I still couldn't touch the bottom and I started having flashbacks of the fin in the water I had seen last year so we turned back. I think the sandbar has moved since last year.

The group sites at Assateague are all right next to each other and the 5 sites share 2 boardwalks out to the ocean. When you stand on the boardwalk on top of the dunes and you look from site 5 (our site) across to the other sites, you notice a distinct difference. Koch, Lynch, and Carmine seem to always book our site next to the Christian singles gathering. Their site is clean and organized, with tents all in a row and all the food and trash cleaned up and put away. Our site looks like a bomb went off. We have food lying everywhere. Enough coolers to make a cooler fortress. The sand is stained blood red like a sacrificial slaughter occurred, but it's really just tye-dye. Sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll doesn't even begin to cover it. The rangers came over to our site to tell us to turn down the heavy metal, and their flashlights moved across the site and they looked at each other. These guys must be new. They didn't know about us from last year. The veterans must not have warned them. I think Ranger Ralph quit after our weekend last year.

Saturday night, Brad ended up at the ER for falling into the fire. See picture. He got a ride in the ambulance and a whole lot of morphine. I think it was a second-degree, borderline 3rd-degree. Good stuff. I don't feel like it needed to be said then, but let me just say - when you encourage drunk people to do stupid things, you're a guilty accomplice to the tragedy. You know Koch didn't need much coaxing to do it, and you know he's an accomplished fire jumper. Even drunk, because he has a lot of experience functioning while drunk. Brad, on the other hand, was too drunk to be fire jumping. That's all I'll say about that. The fire jumping shouldn't have even gotten started. After I took Brad to the ranger station, Ranger Garrett wouldn't let me drive my truck back to the site. He offered to drive me, but I said no, I'll walk. Keith took me back around to get my truck. On another note, Keith learned how to shotgun a beer this weekend and he was introduced to the musical genius of Buckcherry. He had never heard Crazy Bitch before, but he found it most enjoyable.

The next morning, I got up with the sunrise because I had to use the outhouse. I get into the outhouse and I hear clip-clop, clip-clop on the boards. I knew it was a horse. This horse decided he wants to stop and hang out right in front of the outhouse door. His rear quarter panel was right at the door opening with his tail swishing against the handle. I thought I might be able to gently encourage him to move but no. I thought about slamming the door in to his leg, but then I had a vision of him kicking the door in or knocking the outhouse over. So I started yelling at him, but he didn't respond to that either. So I waited. I waited for about 20 minutes. Then finally he decided to move on.

Timmy, Jeff, Adam and I went to breakfast at Dr. Unks on the way out. Jeff and Gabe are douchebags for going to Seacrets without me on Saturday afternoon. The bands that need love: Jerry's group Falon, Timmy's group Breath of Life, and Gus.

I had a great time, can't wait to see everyone again next year.

4th of July - Wildwood

2007-07-04T19:46:00.000-04:00

This 4th of July I spent in Wildwood with my mom, stepdad, and sisters, their husbands and kids. They keep their Bayliner at Lighthouse Pointe Marina just off of Rio Grande. It rained a bit on the 4th, so we played a few hours of Corona Kickball down by the beach. Then we stopped at Uries to drink some buckets of Voodoo Juice. The rest of the weekend was quiet and relaxing. We went to Aunt Linda's 50th Birthday party in Deptford on Saturday night.

4th of July 2007

Denali, Alaskan Range

2007-06-17T19:21:00.000-04:00

Overview

When I was little, my Pop used to let us rummage through his encyclopedias (remember those?) and national geographic magazines in the back room. I wanted to know about the tallest mountains in the world after reading an article about high altitude. Over the next couple of years, I wrote more than one research report on Denali. When I got my raise at work a few years ago, I started planning how to get there. I found an outfitter called Alpine Ascents, and I reviewed their requirements for the summit expeditions. Before you can traverse a glacier for 21 days, you need to know a bit about glacier travel. This 6-day mountaineering course that I took was to prepare me for the summit expedition in June 2008. I gained a lot of valuable insight to conditions of the mountain in the summer and I found quite a few minor adjustments I'll be making to my gear for next summer. I met wonderful people and was inspired by my surroundings. The more spiritual aspect of the trip was during take-off and landing. The Talkeetna Air Taxi pilots are phenomenal. The logistics of landing planes on splitting ice and taking off in clouds - it's a feat of physics and confidence that amazes me. Their support for the climbers goes above and beyond most of the other flying services in Talkeetna. The trip was awesome, and those who don't want to read the details, the end of each day I put a link to the photo albums, skip right to the album links.

Some of the more interesting observations:
Unlike the type of backpacking I'm used to doing, there are quite a few differences in consideration. There are no bugs or animals - so bear bags, bear spray, bear cannisters, bear lines, bug spray - none of that is necessary. I slept most nights with my food bag as a pillow, Keith style. I spilled food on my clothes, Tuna style. I brushed my teeth right outside of my tent and wiped my mouth on my sleeve - the same sleeve I was going to sleep in. None of these actions were factors on the glacier, where in our little world of backpacking - are very much factors. We didn't have to take into consideration whether there was a water source near camp, nor if there was sufficient flat space for setting up tents. Because you obtain water from melting snow, there was always sufficient water to be had as long as you had enough fuel to melt it. So instead of carrying a liter of water, you'd carry a quarter liter of fuel. You don't carry water purification because there is no animals to shat in the snow up here. No filters either. If the ground wasn't flat enough for a tent, you flattened it with a shovel and snowshoes. If you needed a flat place to cook, you just carved one out. If you need some privacy to do your business, just dig a hole and put up a high side to crouch behind. On the other hand, you can't go anywhere without being tied into a rope team. Just outside of camp in any direction could be a crevass you could fall into. It was an interesting experience.

Friday June 8 - Travel Day

I left Philly at around 11:45 am. Flew to Atlanta. Arrived about 2. Was supposed to fly out of Atlanta at 4pm. The flight was delayed until 7:30pm EST, due to some air traffic control computer outage. That put us into Anchorage at 11pm Alaska time (3am est). During my time in Atlanta airport, I sat at the Chili's Too and drank Mai Tais with some fellow travelers, going from Ft Lauderdale and Baltimore to Anchorage to go fishing. Time got away from us and we almost missed our flight, but luckily not. The flight was long and I was hungover about 4 hours into it. I didn't drink any more alcohol for the entire trip. After arriving in Anchorage, I sat for about 20 minutes waiting for the complementary airport shuttle from the Millennium hotel. It didn't come, I was tired, so I took a cab. I found out later that they are renowned for promising arrivals that the shuttle is on it's way and not really sending one. So don't stand there for an hour - take a cab and force them to reimburse you. Maybe they'll eventually start sending their shuttle because it will be cheaper.

Saturday June 9 - More Travel

My shuttle to Talkeetna wasn't due to pick us up until 4pm. The plan was that I was going to sleep late and then waste a few hours hanging out at the hotel. I was up at 6am (10am eastern time). I went and had breakfast then sat in the hot tub for a few hours. Took a 2 hour nap then checked out. I was exploring the hotel - they had all kinds of cool Alaskan creatures stuffed and mounted in the hotel lobby and hallways. I took pictures like a good little tourist. The hotel is on this huge seaplane airport - Lake Hood. I sat out on the docks writing in my journal and napping. It was 65 and sunny with a mild breeze. Very pleasant weather. Sue from Talkeetna Shuttle picked me up at 4pm and we headed to Talkeetna, which is about 2.5 hours north of Anchorage. Chris, Brad, Kevin, Kelvin and I were in the van - they were also in the Alpine Ascents climbing course that I was doing. Upon arrival at Fireweed Station, we met John and Marta - also students in our course. Dinner was amazing - chicken and salmon and steak, salad, mashed potatoes, carrots, bread. It was a beautiful night (although the sun was still up) - 70 degrees with a breeze. The mosquitoes are plentiful and they do bite, but for some reason the bites don't itch. My private room and bathroom were cute - everything clean and orderly. An expedition had just come down off the mountain and we enjoyed listening to their stories. They didn't make the summit due to weather and I felt bad for them but they were in better spirits than I would have been. I think it was the beer. They stayed up drinking a lot later than we would have liked because they were right outside our bedroom doors.

Denali - Saturday

Sunday June 10 - Gear Check, Rope Skills, Flight Out

We woke around 6:30am. Breakfast was at 7. Quiche, sausage & eggs, salmon & eggs. Croissants, cereal, fresh fruit, orange juice, hot tea - it was wonderful. Great food. Our guides showed up and ate breakfast with us. Joe and Dimitri. We all left for the alpine ascents hangar. There we met the other two members of our class - Jake and Dov from Teaneck, NJ. Twin brothers. Willie had us do a gear check, then knot tying exercises. We made prussiks and practiced ascending the fixed ropes in the hangar. A herd of yaks went by the building. We watched them with amusement. The lady managing them told one to sit and it sat. They smelled funny and they looked hot in their fur coats in the summer, they seemed feisty from being still in the hot weather. AAI leads some treks where they serve as pack animals. Pretty cool. On the way to the airfield, we stopped and had some pizza in Talkeetna. I was starving, but it tasted pretty good to me. Not quite as good as NJ pizza, but not as terrible as MD pizza. Timmy was great arranging the flight logistics - weighing our stuff and keeping on top of our flight schedule. We were in the air by 7pm. I couldn't see Denali very well from my seat, but the ranges and the river basins and glaciers were awesome. Our pilot, Will, was very handsome. We landed and made it to our little area of the glacier by 9:30. The brightness of the sun was shocking - I had my glacier glasses on almost non-stop the entire time (which is why I look like a racoon with color reversal). Our camp was at 7200 feet. The altitude never bothered me the whole trip. By the time we set up camp it was after midnight, but still plenty of sunlight. We went to be exhausted. During the night it snowed. I ended up using the wide mouthed nalgene during the night, Cham style, because I wasn't going through the effort of putting on my boots and gaiters and going out in the snow to the relief area. No quick barefooted squat beside the tent like winter camping on the east coast.

Denali - Sunday

Monday June 11 - Snow School

Happy Birthday, Shawn!

I had my first experience with a CMC this morning. It's quite efficient and I don't mind the concept if it keeps the mountain pristine. And it is so pristine. We went to snow school today. We hiked about a mile from camp up the side of Control Tower about 400 feet. The snow was very deep and slushy. We practiced walking on deep snow - different techniques. Was pretty basic but very strenuous. We left for snow school around lunch time and it was very foggy, snowing and cold. By the time we got to snow school it was sunny and about 20 degrees warmer. We have to be extremely diligent about putting sunblock on several times a day. The sun is incredibly intense and I got burned any place I missed with sun block. It doesn't help that there is no way to escape the sun except in your tent which heats up like a greenhouse. I changed my underwear Monday night so that was nice. I think the down jacket is worth it's weight in gold (thanks, Ron!). I'm going to have to get me one.

Denali - Monday

Tuesday June 12 - Self Arrest

I took a face bath with warm water from the stove Tuesday morning. The day was very foggy and snowy just like yesterday. We went to self-arrest and snow anchor school today. It was a LOT of fun. We got to slide down the slopes head first and get snow down our pants. It was great. The temperatures are pretty mild but we have pitches of cold and hot every now and then. Everything is slushy wet but there is no humidity and things dry out pretty quickly if you hang them up in your tent. I have to wear the glacier glasses all the time. It got on my nerves. But if you take them off for 5 minutes, you get yourself a raging headache. Today we learned about building snow anchors with pickets. EARNEST - E, equalized, A, angles, R, redundant, NE, no extension, S, solid, T, timely. There were a lot of avalanches on the ranges that surround the valley. They are so loud, and even though we expect them, nothing stops your breathing quite as effectively as the sound and feel of an avalanche. Even after several days on the glacier, I still felt myself stop breathing and my heart skip a beat every time we heard the rumbling start. Even though we couldn't see them through the fog, we could hear them all day long. We saw two tweety birds flying through the fog, one took a little ride on our rope as we were walking. It was nice to see other living things. I think the birds felt the same way.

Denali - Tuesday

Wednesday June 13 - Crevasse Rescue

Congrats on your High School Graduation, Shawn! Sorry I missed it.

Crevasse Rescue day! This was a lot of fun. We learned how to tie the pulley systems we need to make the pulling weight 1/9th of the actual weight we're hauling up. We hiked to the crevasse and set up anchors to use. I was first down in the crevasse. It was really cool stuff. The planes haven't been flying since Monday evening. The clouds and fog have made it impossible for them to get in and out. It's clear where we are, but 1/2 mile down the way at base camp and the air strip, the clouds are just hanging out. The pictures speak for themselves on this one. We learned a very important lesson this day. Don't put your tongue on a glacier.

Denali - Wednesday

Thursday June 14 - Summit Day

Today is summit day. We got up at 3am and left at 4:30am on our ascent of control tower. The top of control tower is 8800 feet. The snow was harder in the early morning hours and most of us didn't break through the surface. Poor Chris broke through on every step. He was working very hard the entire trek. The top of control tower was awesome. Again, I'll let the pictures tell the story on this one.

Denali - Thursday

Friday June 15 - Base Camp and Travel

We sat at base camp for an hour waiting for our flight, watching the climbers roll in from the summit. They were all high on oxygen and excited because the past few days had been clear above 14000 and beautiful summit days. It was very interesting to see everyone at base camp. I took notes on gear I was seeing and I'm wondering if skiing is the better way to summit. Almost everyone came into base camp on skis. It's safer for glacier travel - I wonder if our expedition next summer would consider doing it on skis? We landed at TAT and went to the Roadhouse for a half standard. It was some good vittles. Then we went back to the AAI hangar for gear checkin and then back to Fireweed to shower and wait for the shuttle to Anchorage. My flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 4pm Saturday, but I flirted with the guy at the US Airways counter and he hooked me up big time. I didn't even have to pay the flight change fee. I was able to get out on the next flight. In a emergency exit aisle, with extra leg room. The flights back were much easier than the flights out.

Saturday June 16 - Travel Day

Flew out of Anchorage at 1:30am, landed in Phoenix at 7:50am. Out of Phoenix at 8:30am, landed in Philly 5:20pm. Pug kisses finally!!! And a cheesesteak!

Sugar Knob Resort & Conference Center

2007-05-20T19:39:00.001-04:00

19May07-20May07 - Cabin Maintenance

As many of you already know, the PATC is an organization that maintains hiking trails and remote mountain cabins all throughout Virginia, MD, WV and PA. They have the best maps of the area, I recommend you get yourself the maps - a lot of work goes in to keeping them current. Keith is overseer of Sugar Knob Cabin which is in the Lee Ranger District of George Washington National Forest. We went out there knowing there was work to be done, and I had planned a thousand excuses to get me out of work detail and out on the trail for some day hiking. Of course I wouldn't avoid all of the work, but with the weather forecast, I had to get out on the trail at least a little. Friday night I was tired from the work week. I decided that getting up before the sun on Saturday morning was not something I was interested in doing. I drove down and hiked in to the cabin in the dark, in the rain, carrying 65 lbs of gear. The 5k hike in took longer than I expected and the trail seemed unfamiliar to me by the light of a headlamp. I had to slow down on the wet rocks. Around 10:30pm, I arrived at the cabin and Keith handed me a beer. We sat up and chit chatted until about midnight and then we went to sleep. The rain had let up a little by that point. The next morning I slept in. That was so nice. The sun was up and the weather was absolutely perfect by the time I had my hot tea and cheeseburger for breakfast. The girls were excited, they love being out in the woods. I got to work digging out the fire pit and doing a few other chores around the cabin. Around noon, the rest of the group started trickling in. We all went to work - the list of chores was long. Fill in dips in the floor with quick dry cement. Paint the privy roof. Supplement that patio with more large, flat rock. The back window had been sticking, wouldn't open - Keith filed it down and cleared out a mouse's nest from the frame. Gather fire wood. Sharpen the blades of the axes and saws. We worked until about 3. Then everyone was eager to go on a day hike. Went up to Halfmoon Lookout for the view. When we got back we enjoyed happy hour and conversation long into the night.

Sunday morning everyone woke up and took their time getting back to work. Kisses had gotten into some canned oysters during the night and threw them up in my sleeping bag. I wonder how many times I need to wash oyster barf out of synthetic sleeping bag before there is a small enough parts per billion that a bear doesn't think I smell like a seafood treat? Any suggestions are welcome. We finished up a few things with the patio, then we hiked out to the cars. The weather the entire trip could not have been more beautiful. You only get so many weekends like this in your lifetime. There were a few members of our usual crowd missing this weekend - Hungry Ted, Art, Tuna, Terri, Ron S., Cham. Hopefully they can make it next time. Bristol, Heather, and I stopped for lunch on the way out. Place called Paisano's in Woodstock. They had a pretty decent cheesesteak, so I think this will be a new favorite lunch spot.

Sugar Knob 2007

Hike Across Maryland 2007

2007-05-06T07:30:00.000-04:00

Saturday, May 5th, 2007

When I moved to Maryland, through various people I had been hiking with, I heard about the Mountain Club of Maryland. Rumor had it that these people were the most intense, most serious hikers of all the clubs I had heard about - including the National outdoors club, the Maryland outdoors club, the Sierra club, and the Winnies. I was intrigued because I cannot resist anything deemed "intense" or "extreme". Am I as intense? Am I as extreme? Only one way to find out. So the more I hiked with the Mountain Club, the more I realized that these people and I were on the same page. It's raining? So? What does that have to do with our backpack? Snow on the trail? What else would you be doing if not hiking?

I tried to explain to my family that the hike I was planning to do on May 5th was a big deal for me, that I was going to need their help and support. They didn't understand. I asked them months in advance to reserve the weekend for me. They wouldn't. I finally bribed my mother - if she would drive the 3 hours from south Jersey to Harpers Ferry on May 5th weekend, I promised I would drive the 3 hours from Baltimore to Wildwood on May 12th weekend for Mother's Day. She reluctantly agreed. I paid a friend of mine to drop me off at the firehouse in Blue Ridge Summit. I arrived planning to get right to sleep. Ron, Barry, and I laid on the floor giggling like school girls at a sleepover party. From 8:30pm until 12:30am, I watched the hands of the clock swing around. Tried to will myself to sleep. It wasn't particularly noisy or uncomfortable, I was actually quite comfortable. I guess my mind was just whirring, and I was anxious to get started. In the night, once I rolled over and saw a man in white briefs underwear, a Tshirt, and socks, walking through the firehouse full of people to the bathroom. I was a little disturbed, but tried not to let it bother me. I finally got to sleep around 12:30 and woke a little after 3. I forced myself to eat a little bit of breakfast.

We made it to the starting point by 5:15 and we were off. The first 10 miles I was averaging 3.5 mph. I was a bit concerned. I had wanted to start out strong and maybe fade towards the end as I got tired. If I was already at 3.5 mph, there was no way I would average higher than that, so I thought. My goal was a finish time between 10 and 11 hours. That's an average speed between 4.1 and 3.7. The first half of the hike was a real mind game. I was already bored by 4 hours in and I knew I had several significant climbs and a lot of miles ahead of me. I hadn't seen anyone on the trail for a while. After the 10 mile marker, at the top of the 2nd big climb, I started feeling light headed. I hadn't eaten much that morning so I knew I had to eat. But I was hiking at a pretty good pace and I needed to breathe. I didn't want to eat. I forced down some peanut butter crackers as I walked, taking small bites so I could breathe around the bites. This turned out to be my method the whole hike. It was important to keep food going down continuously, but I didn't want to stop to catch my breath to eat, so I developed a chewing/breathing pattern that ended up working out pretty well. I kept the sugary food coming almost the entire walk. I stopped to change my socks at mile 15, at the top of the climb past Pogo campsite.

I really liked getting to I-70. I don't know why. I had driven under the AT overpass over I-70 many times, but I had never hiked any of the AT in MD before. Plus, I knew I-70 was pretty much the halfway point. And it was the end of a very long, boring stretch with no checkpoints. Seeing the checkpoint at Boonsboro Rd was very motivating. The volunteers there were very encouraging and I felt energized after leaving them.

The lunch stop was the only checkpoint where I sat down for a few minutes. I first made a wrong turn and ended up going up to Washington Monument, thinking the trail went up that way. I had to turn around and backtrack. The most amount of time I spent at any checkpoint was here at Washington Monument. I think I was there for 6 minutes or so. I was hungry, and the sandwich really hit the spot. I filled my pockets with vanilla sandwich cookies, they were my life blood for the second half of the hike. They looked kinda like this, but they were a little skinnier. They fit very nicely into pockets and were easy to breathe around while chewing. They packed a lot of sugar which is the quickest form for your body to convert to energy. Two thumbs up on the vanilla sandwich cookies.

Around mile 24, I came upon an National Guard Army platoon. Their backpacks looked awfully light to me. But they moved to the side for me to pass, and gave me some encouraging words about "staying motivated". I just grunted at them and tried to put some distance between us. The climb up to Lambs Knoll wasn't as I had imagined it in my head. It wasn't nearly as steep as I had pictured, which was a nice surprise. I missed the shelter at the bottom, so I wasn't aware that I had started the climb until I was already halfway through it. At the checkpoint on top, I joined up with Steve Williams and he kept me moving a lot quicker than I might have on my own. We soon arrived at the next checkpoint. It seemed like forever before I got to Weaverton cliffs. I kept walking and looking for blue blazes, I didn't want to overshoot the trail when it cut off to the right. Finally I got to the switchbacks and I basically jogged down them. I hit the checkpoint at the bottom and kept right on going. Jim Koury, Steve Williams and I started out together on the toepath, but they quickly outpaced me. I walked the longest 3 miles EVER and finally saw the steeple poking out above the trees. When I got to the railroad bridge, I saw that there was a flight of stairs. I thought, "Of course there would be stairs...someone told me that there was no more climbing on this hike..." I felt lied to. I also cursed the stairs as I climbed. But I knew that the end was so near, so I kept pushing. At the top of the stairs, my mom gave me a hug and took some pictures as I pushed her aside so I could get across the bridge.

Things I might do differently next time. If I ever decided to do it again (and if I try to better my time), I'd have to perform stronger in the first 1/4 of the race. I think I might have been playing head games with myself that first half. I would double check to make sure I had clipped my toenails back as far as I could. I might stop halfway and re-adjust my laces on my shoes. I would load a lot more songs on my Ipod. I'd fill my water bladder with gatorade instead of water right from the beginning. I'd have a beer or glass of wine the night before so I could get some sleep.

40.9 miles
Final finish time - 3:54 pm
10 hours and 39 minutes
Average speed: 3.85 mph
Cost: $25 and two toenails

Fire & Ice

2007-04-23T18:30:00.000-04:00

FIRE: April 21 & 22 - We started the hike by Heartstone Lake. The weather was out of a dream, a mild 70 degree sunny morning with a slight breeze. We began with a few deep river crossings. The water was high because of the Noreaster that came through the week before. The dogs, filled with energy at the outset, could hardly contain their excitement. Kisses did a flying swan dive into the river right up over her head. She was as shocked as I was. They've really gotten over their skittishness with the water crossings. Two pugs, Keith, Hungry Ted, Bruce, Aaron, Rachel, and myself started up the Buck Mountain Trail. The beginning part of the trail was fairly flat and followed the river. We were in for a rude awakening when the trail started straight up the mountain ridge to the top. We hiked almost continuously uphill for 3 miles. When we got to the road, we were all sweating. The sun had started to bake us and the trees haven't seemed to get the idea that the leaves should be out by now. The bugs weren't bad. After a bit of a road walk, we came upon the spring near the area where we camped. The campsite had an awesome ridge that had a panoramic view of the valley to the west. We relaxed in the sun for a while, then watched the sunset in the mountains on the horizon. The wind died down just as the sun was setting. The sky was clear and you could see quite a few stars, not as many as out west, but still quite a few. Keith challenged us all to a game that he made up. We stupidly agreed. He won most of the states that we played. But not Minnesota. He's actually quite inept at Minnesota. It became obvious that he has a photographic memory of the highway signs he passes on the interstate during his work trips. But yes, he did win NJ - mostly because North Jersey is a different state than South Jersey and it has about 4 times as many towns. Rachel and I are also convinced that he made up a few names. And if I was his age, I might have a cache of useless information to match his. He does have about 25 years on me. That's a lot of accumulated mind-clutter.

During the night, an owl decided to perch on the branch just above my tent and do his booty-call hooting from the opposite side of the valley from the shorty he was hollerin at. She was hooting back at him. Every time either one of them would hoot, the dogs would growl and bark. I didn't get much sleep that night, but I did have a little conversation with the owl above my tent. I told him his singing wasn't quite as bad as Sanjaya, but you know, I think she digs it - so why don't you fly your hooting ass over there and talk to her? He didn't listen. When I got up to use the trees, I flashed my headlamp around the tree to try to get a look at him, but I think he had made his move by then. Good for him, I hope he got some hot feathered owl tail.

Sunday morning we hiked up to the top of Reddish Knob and the views were even more amazing. 360 degree view from one of the highest peaks in George Washington National Park. We began hiking out just about 9am. The temperatures were cooler in the morning, but the sun warmed us up soon enough. The dogs were exhausted from the day before and the heat was wearing them down. Everyone else enjoyed an easy hike, mostly downhill, on a very wide and grassy trail. It was a tad hot. By the time we got to the road, some of us wanted to wait for the cars. Aaron, Keith, Rachel and I went for the cars. We climbed up and over the dam at Heartstone lake. While Aaron brought the car around for Ted, Bruce, and the pugs; Keith Rachel and I waded in the lake looking for coins. Keith really scored - he found like 60 pennies. He acted as if he had just won Powerball. Rachel and I watched him like most people watch gorillas at the zoo. We all went to Dairy Queen for lunch, then most of us started our long trek back to Baltimore. It was an enjoyable trip. The weather was perfect. Can't wait to do it again.

April 2007

ICE: Easter weekend - April 7 & 8 - The forecast was for cold, wind, snow, and more cold. Everyone emailed me to make sure we were still on for the backpack. I secretly hoped that everyone would wuss out so I could cancel, but I forgot who I was dealing with. Mountain Club of Maryland hikes rain, sleet, or hail, and especially in snow. No matter that the high for the day was forecast to be 22. I don't think it even got up to 22. Marcie & Doug, Marty, Barb, Doug E, and myself got out of the cars and put on every piece of clothing that we brought. The wind whipping across the ridge kept the left side of our cheeks icy cold. The sun faded in and out of the clouds. As the trail meandered to the leeward side of the ridge, into the sun, it almost seemed warm, almost. We got to Hiner spring and set up camp in the snow. I set up happy hour - pepperoni and cheese and crackers topped with snow. We started in on the wine. We got a fire going. Easter sunday morning, we welcomed the sun, it was beautiful the way it gleamed off the snow. We had gotten about 2 more inches that night. It was still cold, but we knew that we had survived the -5 F night, so the worst was behind us. The hikers found the easter eggs that I hid (real hard, just followed my footprints in the snow). We ate breakfast and started back down the north-east side of the draft. The wind froze the right sides of our cheeks on the way back. We met Ellen and Keith on the trail and hiked the final miles to the cars. We finished with burgers at Dave's in Harrisonburg. The hike, though cold, was fun. A good workout, great company, and beautiful views. I said farewell to Ellen, as she's leaving us for a little while, but I know she'll be back eventually. I wish I could go with her. Have fun, Cham and be safe!

Birthday & Mont Tremblant

2007-03-24T22:37:00.000-04:00

Sunday, March 18th - Mont Tremblant week started on Sunday with a long drive to Canada. The trip went more quickly and smoother than I expected. We were rollin 9 deep - myself, my brother, Bob, Lisa, Ryan, Chris, Rex-n-Fx, Leslie, and Jaredd. 3 cars, 3 sets of skis, 6 snowboards, and a lot of alcohol. We stayed at Le Sommet de Neiges - Rm 106, where the playas dwell. Monday I snowboarded, Monday night we partied. Tuesday we recovered. Wednesday I went ice climbing and snowshoeing. Then Thursday it rained. Friday was the drive home. It was a great time. The only complaints I have were the lack of nightlife (not the lack of opportunity, but the lack of people), and the lack of Extreme Onction to go. We couldn't bring the beer back. The week went too quickly. I have hilarious memories of the sloped ice-walk from Wed night. There were tons of jokes and movie quotes, intellectual American Idol conversation, hot tub jam fests, glade runs, poker, quarters, kings, HAMMERTIME, balcony confessions, tile sleeping, party in the bathtub, family dinners, dinners out, fast food stops in french, COUCHE TARD. It was a great time. Can't wait to do it again this summer - Assateague and Wildwood.

March 2007

Friday, March 9th - My birthday weekend started out perfect. Friday night we went to the Owl Bar and the 13th floor. It was a wonderful night. Saturday morning started way too early, but we met at Xpose Fitness for chair and pole class. Mom, Jeanna, Emari, Laura P, Cha Cha, Dio - the ladies made quite a splash at the gym. It was a lot of fun. We went to lunch, lounged and napped at the house for a while, then went to the Cantina for some drinks and dancing. We met Dio and her mom and sister, my brother, my Delaware boys in the house - Jeff and Matt, Annette. It was a good time. Everyone was lookin hot.

Michener Cabin - MLK Weekend

2007-01-15T12:15:00.000-05:00

Friday 12Jan07 - Sunday 14Jan07

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip.
That started from a parking lot,
down a narrow strip.
The mate was a mighty hikin' man,
the leader brave and sure.
Twelve hikers hit the trail that day,
for a twelve mile tour, a twelve mile tour...
The sky started getting dark,
the hiking group was exhausted.
If not for the beam of a bright head lamp,
the hikers would be losted; the hikers would be losted.
The group took refuge in the warmth of Michener Cabin PATC,
with Gilligan (Tunapants), the skipper too (Keith),
the Millionaire (Ted), and his Wife (Mary),
the Movie Star (Val), the Professor (Ron S) and Mary Ann (Terri),
here at Tunapants' Cabin.

Also present were the Chef (Art), the lumberjack (Tate), the fruit man (Howard), the trailblazer (Rachel), Mother Teresa (Catherine), and myself. Paul the Tenderloin Smuggler was also with us briefly.

So this is the tale of our castaways,
they're here for a long, long time.
They'll have to make the best of things,
it's an uphill climb.
The first mate and his skipper too,
will do their very best,
to make the others comfortable,
in the cozy mountain nest.
No phones, no lights, no motor cars,
not a single luxury (except apple cake, THANKS TESS!).
Like Robinson Crusoe,
it's primitive as can be.
So join us here each week my friend,
you're sure to get a smile.
From thirteen stranded Castaways,
Here at Tunapants' Cabin.

Our trip started Friday evening. Upon arriving at the parking lot for the cabin access trail, Tess and Steve (Michener cabin caretakers) were waiting for us. Michener cabin had caught on fire a few weeks before and Tess, Steve, Keith, and many others had worked very hard to get the cabin back in shape for our use this weekend. Tess offered to take some of our stuff back in her truck. Her truck filled quickly. When we got to the cabin, the fire was already roaring and there was fresh apple cake waiting. In the bunk rooms, the pillows had little chocolates on the pillows and the sheets were turned down. (OK, not really, but with the hospitality we saw, it was just like that). The cabin had one large main room and two small bunk rooms with 1/4 inch plywood between the rooms. There were about 8 single bunks in each room. The boys took the right, the girls took the left. Friday night, Tuna showed up about 8pm. He had the meal for Friday night, so Terri and Val got started cooking. Friday night was spaghetti. Friday night we had Catherine, Howard, Keith, Terri, Ron S., Val, myself, and Tuna. There was guitar playing, and a little bit of drinking. Saturday morning's breakfast was eggs and bacon and hash browns.

Saturday morning Paul, Art, Rachel, Tate, Mary and Ted showed up for the hike. We did a car shuttle up to Lion Kiln Road, just north of Pine Furnace. We hiked about 15 miles leaving the car at 11am, getting back to the cabin by 5 pm. Some others did a smaller loop from the cabin. Saturday night was an extravaganza of food and drink. Despite not having the main course of pork tenderloin, we still had too much food and plenty of leftovers. The main entertainment Saturday night was Tuna on the guitar, Howard on the Durian, and Keith on the spoons. We started the night by broadening our horizons and tasting a Durian. To pull some highlights from that website, I'll try to explain the sensation:

"the smell of the ripe fruit is certainly at first disagreeable"; more recent descriptions by westerners can be more graphic. The English novelist Anthony Burgess famously said that dining on durian is like eating vanilla custard in a latrine.

Travel and food writer Richard Sterling says:

"... its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away. Despite its great local popularity, the raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia."

The unusual odor has prompted many people to search for an accurate description. Comparisons have been made with the civet, sewage, stale vomit, skunk spray, and used surgical swabs.

I'd say those are pretty accurate descriptions of what we encountered. Howard brought the Durian on request by Keith, who had dared Terri to try it. She did, as did the rest of us. The rest of the night turned into a game of hiding the thing in various people's sleeping areas. The thing can't be hidden because its smell is as strong as a skunk. You can smell it from yards away, even if you're upwind. Anything that touches it acquires the odor. It moved from the girls' room to the boys' room and back several times throughout the evening, then at 4am when I went to the latrine, it was under the front porch in a frying pan. After that, the next time I saw it was under Keith's van. Someone moved it to the bed of my truck at one point, and under Tuna's car at some point, the last I saw it, it was back under Keith's van with a beer bottle hanging out of it's mouth (that was Sunday afternoon after the hike). Saturday's entertainment also including the Ravens losing. It was most enjoyable for some of us, and not so much for others. After guitar playing in the swing on the front porch, Keith, Catherine, Tate, Art, Ron S., Rachel, and I played spoons. This is a game not unlike musical chairs with playing cards. The objective each round is to have a spoon in your hand. There is one less spoon then there are people playing. The game can be violent at times. Our group was very spirited to say the least. Rachel went flying out of her chair in an early round, and Art and Tate almost wrestled across the floor for one of the spoons. It was fun.

On Sunday, Val, Rachel, Catherine and I drove to Rt 30 and hiked 12 miles back to the cabin from the road. The sections we covered on both Saturday and Sunday covered almost the entire PATC Map 2-3 of the AT. Saturday we had passed the halfway point on the Appalachian Trail. That was cool to see.

The weather the entire weekend was to die for. It was the perfect temperature for hiking. Saturday night, most of us slept out of our sleeping bags with the windows opened. I got up in the middle of the night to use the latrine and went in a tank top and shorts and it felt wonderful. Must have been 60 degrees or warmer at 4am on January 14th. Crazy. But I'm not complaining. The very little rain we did get while hiking lasted for no longer than 10-15 minutes at a time and was so light that you could ignore it and not put on rain gear if you didn't want to. The weekend was perfect. Keith and Terri did a lot of work to organize the trip, kudos to both of them. We all had a blast. Cham was sorely missed - hopefully you can make it next time.

Michener Cabin

New Year's at Boons Run

2007-01-01T17:16:00.000-05:00

31Dec06 - 1Jan07

Sunday the weather forecast was calling for heavy rain, so we abandoned our plans of heading to Kennedy peak and instead went further south into the southern half of the Massanuttens. The only shelter in the southern half is Boons Run Shelter. It is the Hilton of back country shelters. There was enough space to have a disco party in there. If we had a DJ and a few more men, it would have been party central. Keith, Ellen, Terri, and I were ready for a New Year's celebration. After a mile hike from the vans, we arrived at the Hilton. We dropped our gear and began gathering firewood. Then we took a day hike up to Kaylor Knob. On the way back, Keith pointed out the CCC markers which use some ancient form of hieroglyphics to denote mileage. Keith translated the markers for us. My GPS told me exactly how much mileage was covered. When we got back to the shelter, we set about happy hour. There were appetizers and beers. Keith got the fire roaring and then we sat eating, talking, and waiting for midnight. After we had eaten as much as we could, we checked the clock. It was 5:30. We had a long way to go. Keith entertained us with stories from his and Ted's younger days. We discussed our opinions on the best way to fight off a grizzly with a pocket knife. We discussed under which circumstances it would be appropriate to leave someone behind on the trail, and which circumstances required hauling the injured party along.

Just before midnight we set off some fireworks. Keith brought the cheapest ones he could find, but they were festive. We heard on the radio that 2007 was officially here. Then we went to bed. Through the night it rained pretty hard and the rivers swelled. The temperature increased overnight, when I got up mid-evening to go to the bathroom, I walked barefooted and removed some layers of clothes before I got back into bed. It was too warm with two pugs in my sleeping bag.

The next day, we hiked up 3rd mountain and down to the road. We were surprised with the most beautiful views I've seen in VA. The low-lying clouds gave us a real treat. Look at the pictures and see for yourself. Also to note: never borrow a bandana from Ellen. Had a blast on this trip, it was a great time.

New Years 2007

Frank's Birthday, Thanksgiving, Policeman's Ball, Ron & Heathers Wedding, Big Savage Backpack

2006-12-18T16:14:00.000-05:00

I've been delinquent in my blogging due to final exams and general laziness. So this post is to make up for the weekends I've missed since Halloween.

Nov 7th - Brokeback Buono's Birthday. For Frank's birthday, Dionne and I decided to make him a 4Runner cake. Those of you who watched the new season of Southpark will understand - see Francis is a huge Southpark fan, as are the rest of us in the office. In season 10, episode 4, Satan has a Super Sweet 16 Birthday party, at which there was supposed to be a Ferari cake. Satan got an acura cake instead. Frank loved the 4runner cake. Dionne, Jorge, and I spent several hours making it. It's totally sweet, if I do say so myself.

Nov 11th & 12th - We hiked Duncan Knob. I enjoyed the hike, I'd like to do it again in the spring or summer. It was pouring rain for the second day, and we were racing daylight the first day, so I didn't get many pictures from this hike. The weather held out until after we made dinner and drank a bit around the campfire, then it poured all night while we were in our tents. It was an optimal situation. Keith, Ron S., Terri, Ellen, Ted F, and I made that trip.

Nov 22nd to 26th - Thanksgiving weekend - Dad, Marianne, Shawn, and I made the 600 mile trek to Aunt Sue and Uncle Ernie's in Anderson, SC. The weather was beautiful, the food was great, and the farm makes you want to move down south. I love it down there. I haven't seen Uncle Mike and Aunt Renee, Robin and Larry, and Aunt Peggy in years. It was great to see everyone, and it was great to relax around the compound and just drink and chat the day away. Wish we could do it every year. I hope they're blessed with many more years in good health. On the way back from Anderson, I stopped to see Uncle Tom and Uncle Dave in Wilkesboro, NC. We went to see the new Bond movie and went out to dinner. It was a good time. To see more pictures from down south, click on the album below:

Thanksgiving 2006

Dec 2nd - Franklin Twp Policeman's Ball - Emari, my best friend from high school, invited me to join her and her boyfriend Micah at the policeman's ball. Her dad is the chief of police in our hometown, and we figured it would be fun to go out for the night. We had a great time. The food was decent, the open bar was flowing and the music was rocking. Anthony and I wrapped up the night at Gleason's with Paul.

Dec 9th - Ron & Heather's Wedding - I must say that everyone looked great at the wedding reception. It was held at Oregon Ridge Park's Lodge. The afternoon started off with appetizers and an open bar, then progressed to dinner, re-affirmation of the vows, and dancing. Tuna and Mary were showing the crowd how to do the Macarena, and then we all did the hokey pokey and the chicken dance. Ted shook his tail feather to the floor and then jigged out a mountain man rendition of "Thank God I'm a Country Boy". The African-American DJ watched on with his mouth agape. He didn't realize real hillbillies still existed. Ron and Heather looked wonderful and their vows were very sweet. They danced to John Denver's Annie's Song, it was cornily appropriate. Very pretty song. Fun was had by all. Shame Keith couldn't make it, I would have loved to see him dressed up. Tuna behaved himself and Fern didn't have to whap him with her purse the entire afternoon.

Dec 16th & 17th - Big Savage Backpack - Keith, Tuna, Ted, Ellen, Jada, Kisses, and I began our assault on Big Savage Mountain from the north - at St John's Rock. The weather on Saturday was a bit chilly, but sunny. It was perfect weather for pacing it out on the trail. The trail was overgrown, but because the leaves were down, we were able to see the blazes pretty clearly. I don't know that we would have had such an easy time in the summer. The briers hang out into the trail and tear your clothes, your pack, and your skin. I'd recommend jeans and thick flannel for this trail in the winter. The views were fleeting, we had a few good overlooks from the powerline crossings. The best part of the trail was High Rock tower. We spent the night around mile marker 11. Sunday we hiked out the last 6 miles. The stories and jokes around the campfire Saturday night were loud and boisterous, to say the least. We had no concern about other people because there weren't any. We passed one hunter on the trail Saturday, about 50 yards from the road where he parked his truck. He was carrying a gun. It was a little disconcerting, but luckily we make enough noise that a hunter couldn't possibly confuse us for wildlife - except Tuna maybe. He looks like a wild Tuna. And Ted kinda resembles a turkey. When we got to High Rock tower on Sunday, Ellen and I took one look at the Do Not Enter sign and started up the stairs. It was windy and cold at the top, but the view was amazing. The pictures in the album show the views. I'm not sure of what the pictures are of, but my captions are my best guess. We missed a few people on this hike. Hopefully we'll get the whole crowd on the next one. For the record, the pugs made the full 17 miles with ease. They are sure turning in to fine hiking dogs. Click on the album to see more pictures from the hike:

Big Savage Trail

Halloween at Halfmoon Lookout

2006-10-29T19:02:00.000-05:00

Saturday 28Oct06
We met at the usual spot Saturday morning. Tuna, Andy and I followed Heather, Ron, and Barb to the trailhead. They stopped to pick up Catherine in Frederick. At the breakfast stop, we met up with Travis and Art. We met Val at the trail. On the trail, we picked up Keith and Ted. Ron, Heather, Tuna, Andy, Barb, Catherine, Val, Art, Travis, Keith, Ted, me, Jada, and Kisses. 7 men, 5 ladies, and two pugs. The weather Saturday morning was perfect. Slightly cloudy, chilly, but a perfect temperature for hiking. We hiked from the parking lot at Little Stoney Creek up the Big Schloss Cutoff Trail. There we dropped packs and took a stroll up to the breathtaking views of Big Schloss. I never get tired of sitting up there looking at the valleys. I could stay there for a week if Art would stay and cook for me. We returned to the trail intersection and continued up Mill Mountain to the trail intersection of Mill Mt Trail and the Tuscarora. Here I dropped my pack and scampered down to the cabin to say Hi to the best cabin caretaker east of the Mississippi (That's Keith T. for those who don't know). The others joined us at the cabin and then Ted arrived from the other direction. Now the group was complete. We hiked up to the campsite near the spring just before Halfmoon Lookout. The wind was howling and some nasty-looking clouds were moving in. We got about a half hour of wet heavy snowflakes, the temperatures started to drop with the sun. The wind kept up nice and steady. I gambled on not getting any precipitation that night, and I lost that gamble. I had left the girls' rainjackets in Tuna's car at the trailhead. The snow was sticking to their fur and melting. Wet dog combined with howling winds, freezing temperatures, and no way to get them dry and keep them that way - I had to make a gametime decision. I had about an hour and a half of daylight left and I knew Keith had the keys to the cabin. Reluctantly, I decided to take the girls back to the cabin to keep them out of the elements and to get them dry. I left the party and hiked quickly back to the cabin. I'm sad to have missed out on all the festivities, but I wouldn't have had fun if I was worried all night. The girls and I had a cozy, quiet night in the cabin. The next morning after I had made breakfast and starting gathering wood, Keith showed up. We sat and chit chatted while he had his coffee and then he put me to work. We rolled/carried a very large stone up from the creek to finish off the patio area in front of the cabin. I hauled about 5 buckets full of dirt from up the slope to finish off the patio project. While we were working, the others hiked up to Halfmoon Lookout. Tuna, Heather, and Ron showed up at the cabin while Keith and I were working. They told me about the extravagent meals and the ghost stories that I missed. The weather was beautiful Sunday. We hiked out the last few miles to the car and waited for the others. Then many of us stopped for some cheeseburgers and milkshakes and made our way back to Baltimore. It was a great trip, despite my poor planning.

Hardys on Halfmoon

2006-09-24T16:32:00.000-04:00

Saturday 23Sep06 - Sunday 24Sep06

Saturday morning the weather forecast was for thunder, lightning, tornados and hail, headed straight for the very same mountain range we were headed to. Somehow between Randallstown and Woodstock, the weather changed its plans. When we arrived at the mountain Saturday, the rain had stopped but the clouds were rolling through. The trip plan was ambitious for newbies, but Dad, Matt, and Gary look like strapping young (semi-young) men and I figured they could handle it. Starting at Wolf Gap recreation area, up to Big Schloss, and out to Halfmoon Lookout, where we spent the night. The mileage on the first day was about 10 miles, and back on Sunday about 9. Jada and Kisses made the trek, Kisses the entire way, and Jada almost all the way. Our packs were heavy as we started out, most of the weight in beer and dry ice. Yes, the guys are very very proud of themselves for hiking in ice cold beer. We collectively hiked in 34 cans of beer. 25.5 lbs of beer. They want to lay stake to the claim that they were the first people to achieve ice cold beer on halfmoon during non-winter months. The night was windy and warm. We slept under a billion stars. The views were clear and unobstructed, which was surprising, given the forecast. Those weather people have been really dropped the ball this year. Saturday's hike began at 10:20 and we arrived in camp about 4. We took the side trek to Big Schloss, but the pictures from that didn't come out well because it was raining lightly, and I tried to take pictures through the plastic bag that my camera was sealed in.

The guys kept a very strong pace, I was impressed. There was relatively little bitching and moaning. (Matt about the gnats, Dad about the possible rain, me about them freezing my beer frozen solid, generally about the rocky trails) The pace slowed greatly at the 4 snakes that we saw - two big black snakes that looked harmless enough, and two small rattlers that looked young, aggressive, and extremely venemous. Other wildlife sighted - one baby chipmunk, one dead turtle, and two wild hiking pugs. The Sunday hike started at 8am, and we arrived at the truck by noon. We finished the hike at Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Food tastes so good after hiking. Overall, it was a fun hike, a good workout, and a great time. Thank you, Tuna and Bill Plew for the loaner backpacks.

Flag Football & Maryland Wine Festival

2006-09-19T18:56:00.000-04:00

Saturday, 16Sep06

Saturday marked the kick off of the fall football season for the Baltimore Sports and Social Club. Our team, Osteopourusanotherbeer, in the Super Xtreme Social league, was off to a strong start. The offense was impecibily organized, complete with arm-band play cards. As cool as they looked, we had some trouble getting organized. I know we'll be better as the weeks go on.

Sunday, 17Sep06

Sunday, the Outdoors Club sponsored a trip to the Maryland Wine Festival, hosted at the Westminister Farm Museum. Terri, Ron S, Ted F, Tuna, Ron & Heather, Ted & Mary, Charlene, Steve, MacKenzie, Matt, and Denise all descended upon the wine festival with chairs and glasses, ready to do some serious tasting. The weather was absolutely perfect. It was a bit warm in the sun, but luckily we were able to nab a spot un

Signal Knob & Pug Party

2006-09-10T16:10:00.000-04:00

Saturday 9Sep06

7am we met at the usual spot. This Mountain Club of Maryland hike was led by Ron Eshleman. Ron, Heather, Karen, Rich, Jim and I carpooled to the Massanutten trailhead. Car-ride discussion ranged from retirement to slaughtering chickens, to the accident we witnessed, back to slaughtering chickens, to strangling squirrels, then back to the chickens again. We stopped at McDonalds for the usual pre-hike sausage mcmuffins. It was cool and foggy in the morning. By mid-day, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful 80 degrees. We hiked down the Massanutten trail to the Tuscarora, then got back onto the Massanutten trail to the Signal Knob overlook, where we ate lunch overlooking the town of Strasburg, VA. Trail discussion ranged from eating to food to castrating squirrels, to mating preying mantises, to mating crabs, to islamic extremists, and a host of other subjects. The group was lively and interesting. We didn't see any animals or people on the trial, except one person near the beginning and one set of spaniels near the end. It was a fun hike. Dinner at Cindy Dee's finished out the night with their famous chicken. (More chicken discussion) We were back to the cars by 8:30pm. It was a long day.

Sunday 10Sep06
This Baltimore Pugpalooza event was hosted at Violet and Elvis' house off of Perring Parkway. There were about 25 to 35 pugs (they wouldn't stand still long enough for anyone to get an accurate count). We probably could have figured it out by asking people how many dogs they brought, but I suppose it wasn't important. The pug pool was a great success. There was another pug named Jada at the party. My Jada and the new Jada sniffed noses and butts and then seemed content to let the name confusion die. Kisses was still a little confused. The boys were very interested in the pretty pug wearing the sundress. Maple had the best belly flops into the pool and Joesie was the cutest pug puppy at the event. The October event is officially Pug-O-Ween. Jada and kisses are considering going as Lobsters, but we'll have to put more thought into it.

Steel Heart Ride

2006-08-20T11:34:00.000-04:00

Saturday, 19Aug06

Saturday was the 2nd annual Steel Heart Ride out of Tom's Sports Tavern. We rode up to the Union Hotel, then back to the Full Moon Cafe, then to the Woodstock Inn. It was a long day (seemed so to those of us who closed the Woodstock Friday night), starting around 9am and finishing up at the Woodstock around 9pm. Then Adam and I went out to Federal Hill - Ropewalk and Drifters. On the ride: Mike, Kim, Robert, Renee, Carrol, Carrie - I had a blast, met a lot of fun people, and we raised a lot of money for a good cause. On the inner harbor: Lauren, Lance, Walt, Megan, Doug, Travis - I had a great time guys. Great weekend to finish up my summer. Now my life is over because classes start back up tomorrow. See you all next summer!

Cherrystone

2006-08-13T21:57:00.000-04:00

31Jul06 - 4Aug06
Every summer since I was about 10 years old, we've been going to Cherrystone. We usually go for 2 weeks, but this year we went to Connecticut for one of those two weeks, and we went south for the other. Most years, our week coincides with a hurricane or some other form of endless rain and wind. Our week coincided with a heat wave this year. The bay temperature right off the beach was probably between 85 and 90 degrees. The water in the pools was 88 degrees. Staying cool was difficult, but dealing with the heat going to and from the cooler sure beat dealing with the heat while going to and from work.

My brother and I did a lot of biking and running, laying around by the pool, reading in the shade. We went on a dolphin tour, kayaked the new marina they're putting in across the inlet in Cape Charles, took the dogs swimming, sat on the dock and drank into the night. We took a long bike ride down to Rt 13. My brand new bike's pedal fell off at the furthest point. We couldn't get it back on without a wrench. So I rode the bike with one pedal all the way back, looking like a special olympics biker.

Dad and Walt schooled the locals in the art of horseshoes. Nick and Elvis came from a small town in south western VA and they were known as horseshoes heros among their crowd. They'd never played with nationally ranked pitchers before. They said that they would practice for next year.

On the way home from Cherrystone, we stopped in Assateague for a night. It was a great time. The bugs were a little much earlier in the day, but about 4pm, the winds shifted and we were in an ocean breeze, which kept the bugs at bay. The sun was relentless, and I had a full week of dealing with heat indices of 110 degrees F or higher. By the morning, I was hungover and not looking forward to another day of sun, so we headed home. I had to meet Dad and Marianne to pick up the girls, so I waited in Berlin at the Food Lion for 2 hours so that we could do a dog swap on their way through to Jersey. I continued to the western shore. Despite the heat and bugs, I had a relaxing time and it was nice to spend time with the fam. I'm not looking forward to the start of the semester. I hope I'll get out to the mountains one weekend before then.

Marianne - I don't know why I don't have any pictures of you in my camera. You have to stop hiding!

Football season has begun. Go Steelers!!

Assateague in July

2006-07-16T18:38:00.000-04:00

Saturday July 15th

"You're going to Assateague in July? That's insane. No one goes to Assateague in the summer, the bugs are bad during the summer months." -everyone

If you've never been to an inner-coastal back bay along the east coast in the summer, you might not be familiar with the biting flies known as greenheads. They can grow to be about an inch long with fangs the size of a grizzly bear. They don't sting or bite so much as CHOMP flesh off of your body and leave welts about 3 inches in diameter bleeding from the center. Any part of your body that isn't below water is vulnerable to attack. They especially love human flesh tenderized with DEET bug repellant. The strawberry flies are a smaller breed of biting fly, but what the lack in size they make up for in aggression. These relentless biters are the angriest little f'ers you'll ever encounter in nature. They take a personal vendetta against you for whatever reason in their demented little bug mind. They dive bomb you from heights of up to 20 feet and take acute interest in your nostrils and ears. Their bites aren't bad, but their attacks will drive you over the edge, sometimes you'll find yourself running to try to get away, and you can run, but you can't hide. And of course, the back bays always harbor their more reknowned native pest, the mosquito. The buzzing in your ear late at night and itching bites you might be able to ignore, and at least some bug repellant has an effect on these annoyances. Which brings me to my next point. The new Cutter Advanced doesn't work. After many years of exposing my skin to the legions of the insect armies, I have found that OFF Deep Woods works the best. Assateague included. Yes, even Assateague in July.

But this story doesn't revolve around those biting insects that drive so many from the beaches of Assateague in the summer months. For this past weekend, my friends, we were blessed by the bug gods and they called off the attacks. Maybe it was because we were oceanside, instead of bayside. Or we had effective bug repellant. Or the breeze was just strong enough. Whatever the combination of forces that joined, we had the most beautiful night of beach camping I've ever had.

When I arrived Saturday at lunchtime, I met our fearless leader Eddie. He had arrived early Friday to reserve our group the best of the 5 groups sites at Assateague. Eddie has the most luxurious camp setup I've ever seen. His fully inflated matress is 2 feet tall and the size of a queen bed. It was beautiful. I felt the pangs of jealousy as soon as I saw it. Ellen and I drooled a little bit and then quickly stuffed our Z-rests into our tents before someone saw our version of a "mattress".

After setting up my tent I sat down to have a beer and meet the rest of our group. While we were sitting there, the group site next to us was infiltrated by a lone stallion. He was hungry and they had left their food unattended on the picnic tables. Our stallion friend, let's call him Shittail, ate most of the food left out on the table, including a brilliant performance in opening a bag of Lays Potato chips. The next hour he stood still between our sites and then he layed down. He wasn't feeling well. He wandered over to our site and had a bout of explosive diarhea next to our grill. Luckily, nothing was tainted except the sand. It was warm and humid and a thunderstorm was rolling in. It rained for about a half an hour and during that time, Rashad and I went swimming. The ocean was empty, because everyone got out when it started lightning. But we were swimming off the beach about 20 yards, talking about the shark sighting that Jeff had reported from the day before. As we talked about first aid for shark bites, I saw a fin in the water about 10 yards away from us to the north, and behind us, closer to the beach. I told Rashod about it and he laughed and told me to quit playin. As I'm paddling and running for the beach, I pointed out the fin to him, and he beat me out of the water. We both stood on shore and watched the shark in the breakers, about 4 or 5 feet long, swimming parallel to the beach in the rain. HOLY SHIT! I'm sure he wouldn't have bitten us. Right? Anyway, I wasn't going back out until there were more people in the water. Then the chances of someone else getting bit would cut my risk some.

After the rain stopped, we played some horseshoes. Jerry and I beat Mike and Lee in the first round, then in the winners bracket, we barely lost to Jeff and Timmy. It was a good run.
Mike and Tim cooked up some good vittles. Then we all went swimming. Mike and gang must have brought the wood from 6 mature trees, 3 pickup trucks worth of firewood to the beach. Our fire could be seen by ships 27 nautical miles out to sea. The radios were giving us a little bit of trouble. Next time I'll have to bring my jukebox and some CDs or something. The tide was coming in and about 2am, we had to build a barrier to protect our fire from the ocean. We roasted some dogs and drank some beers and relaxed into the night. The moon was bright and the stars were out. No bugs especially on the beach side of the sand dunes because the breeze was wonderful. Sunday morning was warm and breezy. It would have been another beautiful day at the beach, but alas, I had to get home to my girls. Tomorrow I go back to work after being off for 2 full weeks. I'm sad, but I feel good. I had a blast, I relaxed alot, I caught up on sleep. It was a great vacation. Assateague was totally awesome and we'll be back the weekend of August 5th to do it again. Anyone who says Assateague sucks in the summertime - "That's horseshit."

Matt's Graduation

2006-06-18T21:22:00.000-04:00

Saturday, 17Jun06 - My oldest younger brother graduated from Drexel University's College of Engineering, Masters in Mechanical Engineering. The ceremony was to start at 4pm, so Mom wanted to have everyone over before the ceremony to have a brunch/pre-party. Who knew it would've turned into a tailgate party. Actually, I could have predicted it. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves on this one, I'm not going to tell the story and incriminate anyone. Matt, we're so proud of you!!! Finally finished. Good luck, man.

June Festivities

2006-06-12T20:25:00.000-04:00

Friday, June 2nd was the Gloucester County Institute of Technology Junior Prom at The Mansion in Vorhees, NJ. My brother, Shawn and his girlfriend Fallon were dressed to impress. I rushed home from Maryland to make it to the picture taking.

Saturday June 3rd we were supposed to run the Larry Thomason Open in Vineland but the rains came in torrential downpours. We went down to the pits and got caught under a tall tree waiting for the rain to stop. The next tournament in Vineland is July 8th. I'll be on vacation so Cookie and Mel are running that one, but I'll be at both tournaments in August and our September tournament. See the schedule here.

Sunday June 4th was the family christenings. Jimmy, Samantha, and Doug. We met in Gloucester City, NJ at the church. The ceremony was nice but the actual baptisms were disorganized and crowded. Samantha looked like a little princess.

Saturday June 10 was a BEACH day. I loaded the bike on the back of the truck and headed to Jersey. The Black Widow ramps worked wonderfully. I can load it and unload it by myself. The truck performed well, and there were no incidents with the tie-down straps. Saturday morning was sunny but chilly. I rode the bike to Mays Landing, to Emari's apartment on the shores of Lake Lenape. We left her house and made it to the pancake house by 9am. Good ole Ocean City. God how I've missed it. The day was a little too windy to lay out on the beach, disappointingly, but we did walk the boardwalk several times to search for the bubble tea shop. Finally found it on the 3rd trip back down the boardwalk. We caught up and talked about old times and talked about the future. I miss her and I miss the shore. Saturday night I met Kristen and Kara at Sharky's and we schooled the guys on the pool tables and kept the jukebox playing all night.

Sunday June 11th - Happy Birthday Shawn! Today my middle brother turned 18. Marianne and I took the pugs for a long walk in the morning. Then my dad and brothers and I spent some time on the bike. We all went out to dinner for Shawn's birthday at Carrabas. Then I made the drive back to Maryland. That's my dad and Marianne on the bike (geez dad, where'd you get the gumball helmet?) Marianne, lookin good!! Like a biker chick. What a beautiful bike.

Monday June 12th. Today Pittsburgh Steelers super bowl champion quarterback Ben Roethlisburger was in a serious motorcycle accident. I know all of Steeler Nation and the rest of the civilized world (which doesn't include Ravens fans) is wishing for his complete and quick recovery. The classless Ravens fans that I work with are filled with glee and delight that the superbowl champion quarterback had a life-threatening accident. Just goes to show how desperate and pathetic that team is that their fans have nothing positive to be cheerful about. As a biker and a Steelers fan, I will say this. Ben shouldn't ride bikes at this time in his life because he has a higher calling and a greater responsibility to mankind to win superbowls for the Pittsburgh Steelers. With great talent comes great responsibility. However, Ben is entitled to some enjoyment in life. Even though I'm sure Ben is a cautious rider, Ben should know that others are idiots and that he should protect himself from the stupidity of others. A helmet would have prevented his most serious injuries. Hindsight, of course, is 20-20. The accident could have been the type that a helmet wouldn't have helped. But the odds were strong enough that a helmet could have saved him some teeth. What is lost in all the finger pointing and self-righteous judgements the past few days is that the driver of the car was the one who was at fault in this accident. She should be held accountable for her inattentive driving and perhaps for her poor eyesight. Luckily for us, Ben gets tackled by big linebackers all the time and a tiny little Chrysler isn't going to affect him much. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Hopefully he'll retire the bikes for a while until he's ready to pass his legacy on to the next leader of the team. If he doesn't, maybe at least he'll see the prudence in wearing a helmet. Get well soon, Ben. And to all you Ravens fans gleefully gloating - have some class.

For those of you who are wondering if I'll stop riding - only if I'm paralyzed. And only then if they don't have bikes for the disabled. I appreciate your concern, but I'll only learn the hard way. Just the way I am. Sorry you have to deal with it, but you do.

After the baptism, we had a family get-together. This is one half of my family - my 3 sisters (of four) and 2 brothers (of three) and two parents (of four). In the second picture, someone(s) was grabbing my ass. You can tell the guilty parties by the ones who are laughing the most.

Memorial Day in Locust Springs

2006-05-30T11:44:00.000-04:00

Friday night was spent packing, Saturday morning was spent driving. We left the park-n-ride around 7am. Ellen remembered to take her food out of the fridge about 4 hours too late. We stopped on the way to the trail to restock on food for Ellen. Traffic wasn't as bad as it could have been, and the drive wasn't so much slow as it was long. Four and a half hours later we arrived at the trail head. Keith, Tuna, Ted & Mary, Terri, Ellen, Justin & Judy, Jada, Cadance and myself. I don't know why, but I was generally agitated for most of Saturday. The long drive, the heavy pack, the dogs getting tangled up, I think a combination of several things was putting me in a bad mood. The hike in was short and within an hour or two we were set up by the river. The rest of the group decided to do a day hike. I stayed behind and took a nap. When I awoke, I was feeling better, but still not quite chipper. We had a good time sitting around the fire joking and chatting.

On Sunday, we awoke and started hiking up Slabcamp trail. This was less a trail than a bushwhack with trailblazes. It was fun but after awhile, the slow going started to wear on me. I was carrying Jada after the first mile and a half. After a while, I was tired of searching for the trailblazes, so I stopped and waited for the rest of the group. Once we made it to the top, I decided to hike a different route than the group. We split up, and the girls and I hiked back to the cars to get more beer.

After splitting from the group, my agitation started to dissolve. I began to relax and the hike was extremely enjoyable. I think I just needed a little reflexion time on the trail without logistics and stress. This trail was more trail-like, easy to follow, a beautiful river hike. The weather was perfect the entire weekend. After hiking 3 miles back to the cars, I hiked 4 miles to our base camp. With 8 beers and a 5th of Jack Daniels. When I got back, everyone was still gone, so I decided to go swimming. The water was ice cold, but it was refreshing and it felt good to clean up and cool off. That night, sitting around the campfire, I got to hear about the other hike. Tuna gave a good imitation of Keith's reaction to a snake. Something about screaming like a little girl and jumping 4 feet in the air as Tuna watched a 6 inch water snake slither off into the water. Then he gave a hilarious imitation of Ted's reaction to a charging grouse. "IT'S ATTACKING!!" I would have loved to see Ted running down the trail with a tiny grouse flapping after him. Must have been one of those rabid grouses. That night the beer tasted good and the food even better.

Monday morning we all ate breakfast and packed up. We reflected on the weekend and decided that the weather was a huge success. We had camped in a grove of Rhododendrons and most of us thought it would be worth coming back during the blooming just to see all the color. A brisk 4 mile hike back up Laurel Run Trail back to the cars. Even though I was in a bad mood upon arrival, it only took a few hours for my spirits to improve and the weekend was a great time. Traffic on the way back wasn't as bad as it could have been. All in all, it was a good trip. Justin and Judy - hope to see you both again on more ODC trips. More pictures of this trip on Cham's page.

Sugar Knob Cabin Wrecking Crew

2006-05-22T12:21:00.000-04:00

Saturday 20May06 - 9:15am at Larkin's country store.
Our raggedy group formed. Keith, Catherine, Terri, Ron Smith, Valerie, Leena, Sam, Suds, Tuna, myself and two pugs. 4 men, 5 women, 3 dogs. Age range 25-83. Suds unloaded 4 very large bottles of wine out of his delapidated Prius. As Keith started handing out supplies, we stood around and gawked at all the gear. Paint cans, tools, brushes, buckets, a case of beer, a box of food, a 10 foot aluminum gutter. I started unloading things out of my pack to make room.

We started our hike along Little Stoney Creek. The weather was beautiful. About 90 minutes later we arrived at the cabin. The trip in was uneventful, but beautiful. The cabin is small with a large fire pit in front. It sits directly on the trail, and about 100 yards away from a cool spring. We placed the beers and wine in the river to keep them cool. After setting up camp and eating a sandwich, I started to paint.

About 3 hours later, Suds was still not with us. Keith had gone back down the trail to look for him and neither one of them had made it to the cabin yet. We all worried a bit, but figured Keith had everything under control. About 5 hours after we had started on the trail, Keith and Suds made it. Apparently there had been an altercation with some timber rattlers, and Suds had to go bushwhacking around the hazard. Luckily, everyone survived unscathed, including the snakes.

We painted and sanded into the late afternoon hours. Around 6, happy hour began. Beers cracked open, the wine flowed, cheese and peperoni and chocolate and salsa, steamed trout, Suds' homemade bread and whiskey. It was an extravaganza. Catherine returned from her trail maintenance trip around 6. She had been hiking all day with four single male 20-somethings, and she didn't invite me along - so Catherine and I are no longer speaking. Seven younger hikers on their way through stopped to have a drink. Four of them stayed and partied with us through the night. The highlights of the evening were Suds' singing, Tuna's chair collapsing, the imitations of Ron Eshleman (aka Ben Finklestein) "I can't make it, I have to study...." and the story of Keith's dumpster-diving in Jefferson. Tuna had Catherine laughing hysterically. The most notable highlight of the evening was the birthday cake that Keith had packed in for Terri. The cake was in the shape of a cabin, complete with an edible roof with awnings and decorations. The cake was delicious. We all sang happy birthday and drank and joked. It was a good time.

Sunday 21May06
Sunday morning began the most extravagant effort of community breakfast making I've ever seen. There were 4 stoves and a full blown fire going to cook pancakes and eggs and ham. There was orange juice and breads and jams. The meal was wonderful. Terri's pancakes were very good. Almost as good as Art's apple pancakes. The 4 drifters who had decided to stay for happy hour were treated to a bed and breakfast. They ate and then continued on their way, probably discussing amongst themselves about those crazy old people with all the food. After breakfast, Tuna and I hurried to finish our painting so we could hike up to Big Schloss. Tuna was telling Valerie about his Nano Schloss, and Val wasn't impressed. So he gave up and Tuna and I headed off to the Mill Mountain trail with the two pugs. About 7 miles into the trip, Jada refused to walk any further. I picked her up and slung her over my shoulders and hiked the rest of the way down the Big Schloss Cutoff Trail. Tuna and I made it back to my truck by 2pm. We were back to the Baltimore area by 5.

It was a great trip.

A Full Moon Night At Halfmoon Lookout

2006-05-14T19:39:00.000-04:00

Saturday, 13May06

It's 7am at the designated meeting spot and we see other hikers meeting to head off in different directions. Ellen and I were ready to hit the road. We were headed to the Great North Mountain region of the George Washington National Forest.

Bristol and Heather made the 5-hour drive from Virginia Beach to Columbia's Furnace, VA. We left Wolf Gap Recreational Area at 10am. After a short climb to get the blood flowing, we reached the ridge and every 40 yards or so, you could see the valleys on either side and the ridgelines of the neighboring mountians as we hike along the Virginia/West Virginia border. The weather was beautiful on Saturday, unlike the forcast for Sunday, so we decided to check out the Big Schloss views as we passed. Breath-taking scenery. Worth every minute of the 2 hour drive and the 1 hour hike up to the top. Our group seperated slightly for the first leg of this trip. Bristol and Heather stopped to take lots of pictures of the beautiful spring flowers. We didn't see many hikers on Saturday.

Ellen and I arrived at Halfmoon Lookout around 2:30. We set up camp on the peak and chatted while admiring the views. After a while of waiting for Bristol and Heather, we decided to nap for a while. A brief, light rainshower blew through the area while we were napping. Around 6:30 we awoke and ate dinner. Bristol and Heather had set up their camp on the cliff below. They came up to the peak and we all sat on the west side of the peak to watch the sun set. Then we built a fire and chit chatted into the night.

I slept out by the fire, watching the moon rise over the heavy clouds to the east. The temperature when the sun went down didn't sink below 55. It was a comfortable and breezy night with the trees slowly moving across the moon. It was absolutely serene. I climbed out of my sleeping bag to go out to the cliff's edge and look across the valley below in the moonlight. It was lit brightly from the moon with shadows from the clouds darkening some areas. A light fog had decended in the valley, and with the moonlight, the town looked like I had dreamed it.

Saturday, 14May06 - Happy Mother's Day Mom & Marianne

I remembered it was Mother's Day. I stood on the very edge of the peak holding my cell phone as high as I could while I watched the sun rise. I couldn't get any cellphone service, so I just had a cup of tea and reflected on the morning. It was beautiful. At 6:30am, there were no clouds - the sky was blue and clear for as far as the eye could see. By 7:30am, the entire peak was wrapped in low-lying clouds. You could barely see the trees along the edge of the trail in front of you. We broke camp at 8am.

We hiked down along Stoney Creek out to the gravel Road 92. Here, Bristol and I hiked up the Big Schloss Cutoff Trail and across the top of the ridge while Ellen and Heather continued along the road and then bushwacked up the side of the mountain to the road. We finished the hike about 2pm and hit the road. We were back to the Baltimore area by 4:30. It was a great hike and I'll be leading this route again in the September/October timeframe.

For the record, Bristol, it was 1100 feet over 1.9 miles in 43 minutes (48 for you) and then 3 miles over 1 hour. You need to make time to get out or else you're gonna be huffing on the easy ones. (I'm done lecturing).

View pictures from the trip at Cham's page (check May 14th's entry).