So, anyway, this post is about the three day backpacking trip that I went on during Spring break. Shortly after, I wrote an outline, but am just now taking the time to complete it.
It was Spring break. I had already hung out at home, and gone out to a bar with my friend Joe, so I decided to hike on the Appalachian trail.
My first time hiking on the trail was with Joe, and my friends Tony and Ryan when we were sixteen. I had to miss the first day of hiking for Passover, but my mom graciously drove me out to meet them for the second day. I packed a tent, but we hiked the whole route in one day, so I ended up carrying it all of the way to Harper's Ferry without even using it.
The next hiking trip was for my senior project, at the end of high school, in which my friend Andrew Kramer and I hiked from Harper's Ferry to Port Clinton, Pennsylvania (about 200 miles). He showed exceptional adaptability and ruggedness, in spite of never having gone on a backpacking trip before. We also started with another companion who lasted for two nights. I kept a fairly comprehensive diary of that trip, and will eventually finish typing it up, eventually. When we were done, my grandparents graciously drove to the middle of Pennsylvania to pick us up, on a day's notice.
Then, the summer before my sophomore year of college, I did a hike where I started at the southern point of where Joe, Tony, Ryan, and I had started in 2009. My mother graciously drove me out to the trail, and I made it to Harper's Ferry in two nights, finishing in the dark. In the morning, I took the train home.
So, starting this trip, I had done a solid section from the middle of Northern Virginia to the middle of Pennsylvania. I decided to go south from where I had started three summers ago.
I made the typical preparations for backpacking, but also went on a slightly expensive trip to Casual Adventure in Arlington, where I bought, among other things, a dry bag, and a pair of red flip flops, that I am wearing as I write this.
The morning of the hike, my mother graciously drives me out to my starting point (shown above).
I start hiking in the right direction. See, it was Spring break, so I was expecting it to be a warm hike. In reality, though, it was the last day of Winter. Still, I had been a boy scout from fifth through eighth grade, so, naturally, I was prepared.
As I was climbing up the very first ridge, I noticed the phenomenon where ice crystals raise up small bits of mud, creating a crunchy hiking experience. I broke off some of the ice crystals, and saw how they were formed in an array of hexagonal columns.
At some point, as I was walking down a slope, a raccoon was walking ahead of me on the trail. It noticed me, and we both stood still,oll with it's body facing forward, and it's head looking to the side and backwards. It left the trail to the right.
I also saw a family of deer.
Throughout the day, I kept on seeing things that looked familiar, and realized that I had not started at the place that I thought that I had started; my previous summer hike had actually started further south of where I had started, so some of the hike was re-tracing in reverse where I had been before.
I came upon yet another familiar sight: a shelter that I had slept in before. I realized that I had also hiked this part of the trail on a trip led by my AP Chemistry teacher Junior year of high school, David Soles. I was not sure, however, whether that whole trip was on the Appalachian Trail, so it did not factor into my knowledge of the sections of the trail that I knew for sure that I had hiked.
As I walked, I saw some bear scat on the trail.
Also, I had packed matzah, and ate a lot of it that day. I am not sure whether matzah is a good backpacking food or not; it is dense in calories, but the square box does not fit cleanly into a backpack. I nevertheless thought to myself: 'I may be eating the bread of affliction, but I am not feeling afflicted; to the contrary, I am having a great time'.
I saw a woodpecker (with a red, crested head) on the side of the trail, pecking away. I stood and watched it, until it noticed me, and flew away. There were quite a few more audible wood-pecks in the depths of the woods as I hiked that day.
Eventually, I came to the shelter, and I decided to set up my tent inside the structure. I also remembered this place from my junior year hiking trip. I took out all of my stuff, and put it into an array, putting it back into my backpack, in a more organized way. Pack organization is a key point of enjoyable hiking, but it can take two weeks or more to nail a good system down. This reorganization is one of the several candidate times at which I may have lost the family heirloom that I lost on this trip.
A guy named Paul came to the shelter. We chit-chatted a bit, but he set up his tent further away. I made myself dinner on my white-gas stove. A bad combination of dried vegetarian chili, mashed potatoes, and ramen, but very filling.
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The next morning, I woke up, and snapped this photo:
and this photo:
And it was still snowing.
I had a quick breakfast of fig newtons and bread of affliction, said goodbye to Paul (who started at the same point as me, but was just doing an out-and-back), and started on my way.
I was walking through powdery, virgin snow. It was hard work, and I was sweating. I should have taken off layers earlier in the day than I did.
So, powdery virgin snow, and it was still snowing. At first, it was a mixture of small flakes and sleet. It was getting all over the bushes and trees, and everything was white and quiet. This was the solitude in nature that I was looking for.
As I kept on walking, I noticed remarkable ice formations on the trees. On the branches, and on the jagged bark edges of trees, ice crystals, lines of hexagonal columns, had deposited, all facing the same direction. It was as if someone had moved all of the trees, and some of the rocks, two inches in the same direction, and that they had grown tiny streaks of ice in the wake of their path. When I saw these, I was surrounded by frozen mist and clouds, and the crystals were deposited into the wind.
I saw another bird. Lacking a crest, I am not sure whether or not she was a woodpecker, but she was certainly pecking wood: a thin fallen tree, broken halfway through the trunk, reclining at an angle. I briefly stood there watching her.
She turned to me, and said "Heed well the words of Aristotle and Plato" and then she flew off.
Due to my swishy rain pants I had been making slow progress, and I was slightly worried about reaching the next shelter. Still I took the time to walk point-two miles to a lookout point. The lack-of-a-view, just mist, snow, and clouds was deeply calming. I thought further of the reason that I was not taking very many photos. Doing so would make me focus on documenting everything, and negate the serenity that is a natural part of hiking.
At some point in my hike, I walked through a grove of trees that had been charred in a fire, or attacked by gypsy moths. Their skeletons formed silhouettes against the mist and the grey sky, reaching upwards.
That day, I also saw a dead tree trunk with the most perfect array of mushrooms that I had ever seen. Diagonal lines in both directions.
As I walked, I soon found myself in grave peril; it had gone just above freezing, and the blades of ice were falling from the trees. I was hiking in a forest of falling razor blades, and it caused me great discomfort.
Also, since some of the snow was melting, but it was still around freezing, I saw icicles forming on the rocks in real time. I thought back to the time, when, as a kid, my dad tricked me into thinking that the large icicles on the rocky outcroppings on the way to Pittsburgh were 'world famous'.
At some point I had crossed into Shenandoah National Park. Also, I had passed two men at some point, and was no longer walking on Virgin snow. Instead, I was walking on two sets of footprints.
It was getting dark, and I was almost at the shelter, and I decided to stop, and check my map. I saw a strange dark blob about 25 yards ahead of me. I should add that I was not at the shelter I wanted to be at; there was one further ahead, that I would have liked to reach. I look up from my map and I see a hiker coming through the woods. He calls out to the dark blob, which then moves and responds; the dark blob was a guy, with his back towards me, and a trash bag covering his backpack!
There were three guys a couple years younger than me, and they told me that we were right by the shelter. We had to walk down a long, downward-sloped side-trail to find it. There was an older couple there, who had been hiking at a similar pace as the three guys for a few days.
All through the day, I had been fairly warm, but at the campsite, I was fairly cold. My boots were slightly damp, which was no problem during the day, because in the morning they were dry, and in the afternoon it was slightly above freezing, and I was moving. Now, the temperature was definitely below freezing.
There were many things to do to before bed, and brushing your teeth and cooking dinner can take a long time when it is freezing and you are trying to keep your pack organized. My dinner that night was a better combination. Also, I had a hard time staying warm that night but by using all of my clothes I was able to get comfortable.
I got up early the next morning but got slightly lost trying to leave the shelter site; there were several trails going off in other directions, and the trail to leave was actually obscure and hard to find again in the dim light; the older couple had left, and the three guys were still asleep. Being lost is especially disconcerting in the freezing cold. But I found it.
So, in the morning, it was still nice to be hiking in the snow, but it was not a fresh powdery wonderland like the day before. Instead, the footprints in the snow had melted, and refrozen in an icy fashion.
As the morning progressed it quickly grew warmer; the snow was melting all around me, and I could see the grey clouds blowing away in the wind. It seemed like they were being fed by a cold steam from the melting snow. I went to a lookout point and snapped these photos:
The steam on the mountains and the overcast, yet still moving sky created a sense of changing weather. It was, after all, the second day of Spring, and some blue is even visible in the pano-shot. This was a change from the other photographs, shot a minute earlier.
Saw another woodpecker.
So, there were many other beautiful views; the Shenandoahs really let you see the 'shape of the mountains'. I crossed Skyline Drive many times, and the signs were in that national park font that evokes a strong feeling of Americana.
The trails here were my favorite, very narrow, and on interesting, rocky terrain along the ridgeline, with small trees to the side, not much taller than me. The pine trees were, of course, very green, but the cool, sunny, and pleasantly moist weather made them seem even greener. It is difficult to describe this weather, but I had taken off all of my layers, except for the standard shorts and t-shirt.
Saw some interesting wood:
I was hiking quickly, though, because I had to meet my mom at six. My diet during the day consisted mostly of Fig Newtons.
Eventually I get to the road where I was supposed to meet my mom, but I decided to talk to the ranger at the ranger station of the Shenandoah National Park entrance. There were two roads, and I was not exactly sure where to find her. If I had thought for a second I would have known what to do, but I was really tired. Again thanks so much for graciously driving out there to get me!
The ranger was not very helpful, but so I walked for two minutes, and found the white car by the side of the road; but it was locked and empty! All I could do was wait, and ponder all of the terrible scenarios that could lead the car's being left empty by the side of the road. But then mom came to the car from the direction I had originally come; she had gone hiking that way while I was talking to the ranger.
