Sunday, April 29, 2007

Shenandoah Hiking Trip - Part 2 of 3

The following is a travel log of my hiking trip in the Shenandoah National Park, in Virginia.

Part 2 of 3

Day 3 - Saturday April 21 2007

Today would be a race against time. We had arranged to meet Emily for lunch at the trailhead. She was driving from Baltimore with sandwiches for lunch and also bringing along a much desired secret. We had oatmeal for breakfast and quickly set about breaking down the camp. Under time pressure, we started down the trail a little after sunrise. Despite feeling pressured, we had a lot of fun fording the same river multiple times. (river2) When there were stones available, we would dart from stone to stone. As the river grew deeper we had to find more inventive ways of getting across. Jason "MacGyver" came upon a novel way. In this picture you can see him midway across the river. After a time we grew tired of the river and started our ascent out of the valley. Jason was able to send a text message to Emily along our trek up. I was able to receive a text from my other friend Jason. It was a welcome relief to see Emily waiting for us as we emerged onto the road. Emily sandwiches were filling and hit the spot. Now for the secret...To my and Jason relief, Emily had brought along some suntan lotion. Both of our arms were starting to show signs of a slight sunburn. After lunch we loaded into Emily's car and headed back to Jason car. The trailhead looked different under bright sunny conditions. After stashing our trash and we loaded up with our extra food once again loaded up into Emily's car and headed south, to Blackrock trail. The trail derives its name from the black lichens that grow on the edge of the rock face. The parking lot was full of cars, but were able to squeeze in at the end of the lot. We mounted our packs and started down the horse trail. Midway down the trail we met some mounted trail clearing volunteers that had been sawing through recent dead falls. With horses comes, horse waste, and horse flies and a slight stench. These made the journey down the trail a little more challenging. Once at the base of the valley we decided to set up camp along the river. This was a really good decision. There was plenty of water and the next campsite would be a two hour hike away, arid and on the summit. Once we had the camp setup we had a leisurely evening with much time spent cooling off in the river. We had a multi-course meal for supper. It started with a lightly spiced pasta dice with some tasty "Alaskan" salmon as the appetizer. The main course was a stew. We closed out the day with full and happy stomachs.

Day 4 - Sunday April 22 2007

The next morning we were greeted by another warm day and after breakfast quickly started to shed layers. Once we had loaded up all of the Nalgene bottles, Dromedary bags and Camelbacks and briskly started our ascent of Blackrock Mountain. It was slow going as the climb was steep, and its was hot. We took advantage of any breeze to cool ourselves. It would be a day of climbing. As we were worked our way up the mountain we took a series of pictures, Jason and Emily in the scree zone and Chris in the scree zone. Our initial goal for the day was to summit Trayfoot mountain which ascends to a height of 3380 feet. Just as we thought we had reached the summit, around the corner it would start to climb again. We stopped for lunch on one of the inclined sections. Lunch took the form of pita, tuna/salmon, avocado and the infamous brick of cheese. After we summitted Trayfoot Mountain we took a variety of pictures, Emily relieved at reaching Trayfoot summit, Chris and Emily relieved at reaching the summit. In the shade of a tree we took our final picture before starting our descent. Our goal for the afternoon would be to descend to Skyline Drive and to camp in the Doyle/Jones Fall area. It felt great to we walking down for once. Along our trek east we took some pictures while crossing along scree zone. (Chris among the boulders and Jason and Emily among the boulders ). Jason took the following picture as it marks my first time hiking along the Appalachian trail. After crossing Skyline Drive we stopped at the first stream to wet our caps and scarfs. This is a picture of the Upper falls. Jason and Emily hiking down the falls. We would be setting up camp in a sloped area that runs parallel to the falls. Jason went along ahead and was able to locate a flat campsite which offered access to running water. After setting up the tents we spent the next hour or so, trying to cool down. It would take about 20 minutes of standing a cold pool of water before I started to shiver. As I was to find later, I still was warm inside. As we getting ready for supper I snapped this picture from across the river. The next part is still sort of foggy in my mind as the details are not to clear. We had decided to prepare and eat supper on the slippery rock face across from the camp. It was at this point that we had two adverse incidents that caused us to eat our meal on the other side of the river. Our largest Dromedary bag slide down the slide of the rock face and into the quickly flowing river. Emily was able to dash down and grab the bag and got wet feet in the process. Jason darted further down stream, just in case, Emily was unable to grab the bag in time. Jason shouted to Emily that perhaps, we should cook supper at the campsite. A short while later as Chris was setting up the Jetboil, the gas canister slide down the rock face into the river. Luckily, Jason was able to grab it a little further downstream but not before going feet first into the river. He was able to grab the canister just before it disappeared. Chris cooked supper upriver as Jason and Emily tried to dry out the boots and clothes on the nearby rocks. My thought at the time was at I really hoped that no additional adversity would threaten us overnight. Our attempt to have apple cobbler for dessert was dismal failure as you have to prepare and cook the apples and cake crust separately and then combine together once they are cooked. The apple cobbler just tasted weird. One of the first things we did once at camp was to throw the ropes over branches to suspend our food from overnight. Jason always had a knack for throwing it over a branch usually 15 feet in the air. This is a bit of an aside but one of these occasions what I thought happen was that the rock came back to hit but no, he had banged his foot against a nearby log. I had a good laugh until I figured out what really happened. So, what do this have to do with where were left off. When we set up camp Jason had suspended the ropes from a large tree while Emily and I had pumped water. Getting the ropes in the tree once at camp would save us future grief of trying to throw rocks in the dark. Emily, in socking feet, helped me hoist the two food bags as Jason dried out his boots nearby. Much of Jason's clothing had got drenched while retrieving the Jetboil canister. Jason was short of dry clothes. He tried on Emily's Capri but it was too small. I gave Jason my goretex rain pants. It was time to get some rest but I was still hot from the day's exertion. I lay in the tent on just my thermarest until 0130 before finally getting into my sleeping bag.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Shenandoah Hiking Trip - Part 1 of 3

The following is a travel log of my hiking trip in the Shenandoah National Park, in Virginia.

Part 1 of 3

Day 0 - Wednesday April 18 2007

I woke up at 0600 and ate the usual granola for breakfast and then jumped into the shower. Next, I headed into the office to check a couple of overnight item and took the O-train to the airport. My mid-morning flight to Newark, NJ was delayed due to weather. At noon, the Continental flight left Ottawa bound for Newark. The Embraer jet was able to cover the distance south quickly but, I still missed my connecting flight to Baltimore. I was relieved when the agent in Ottawa booked me on a later flight just in case the connections didn't work out. My late arrival in Newark gave me a bit of a layover to explore the airport and to have a leisurely lunch. I spent much of the afternoon reading the Wall Street Journal and glancing at the New York skyline from across the Hudson River. The Empire State building was visible and I could make out the World Financial Center building and get a feel for how omnipresent the Twin Towers must have appeared. My flight for Maryland left Newark during the late afternoon and Jason met me at the airport. We went to Jason's office and planned out our hiking route. We came up with a meal plan for our five day hike and then drove up REI to buy some more food and gear. Most of our food would be boil-in-a-bag freeze dried meals which were light and nutritious. I bought a REI travel coffee mug and some Clif bars and was able to make use of my REI dividend from last year. The REI store we visited was up in Timmonium. On our way back, we stopped in at Charm City Swing's newest dancing venue and arrived just as the final song of the night was played. Drats, I missed my chance to show Jason and Emily how much my dancing had improved. Our next stop was Safeway to buy the groceries for the trip. The store closes at midnight which allowed us to shop during the silent hours. We bought pita, packages of tuna and salmon, fig newtons, packaged oatmeal, a block of cheese and hand sanitizer. We forgot one thing which at the time seemed trivial but would eventually become a lifesaver. It was suntan lotion. Our final stop of the day was the hotel and after a shower I bedded down for the night.

Day 1 - Thursday April 19 2007

I was up at 0600 and after a shower, I headed down to check my email and then to eat a cooked breakfast. There was a bus tour from New Jersey and they were puzzled by the scrambled eggs. They were apparently Maryland-style and looked like egg pancakes. The breakfast room was dominated by older folks walking around with gauze eye patches. They were convalescing after cataract surgery. Jason met me at 0730 and we headed back to his place to assemble and pack the gear for our expedition. By early morning, we had most of our gear assembled. Jason left for a medical appointment. I made myself a cup of tea and was able to use Heather's laptop to further catch up on my email. This was really really great. While waiting for Jason I had an AIM session with my brother, Richard, and we had a discussion about some proposed changes to his website. We headed back to Jason office to photocopy some pages from a Shenandoah Hiking guide (AFalcon Guide - Hiking Shenandoah National Park - 3rd Edition Bert and Jane Gildart). Once the trail pages were photocopied we stapled into booklets which would prove very useful when navigating along the trails. We headed back to Jason place and did the final packing and loaded up his car shortly thereafter. Our expedition had finally started. Our drive south from Baltimore was a quick one along the freeway and after three hours of driving we reached the park office. While driving south we listened to swing music on Jason's Ipod and talked about swing dancing. To our surprise, the park office was closed for the day. The conditions at the time were overcast and a light spitting drizzle. It was so quiet. Jason filled out our hiking permit and started our trek along Skyline Drive, which cuts the park into two sections. As we were gaining elevation the fog started to roll in which made for an eerie drive. There were a plethora of deer that were foraging along the road. One had to have a keen and eager eye to avoid them. The tree along Skyline Drive were weird. A recent batch of freezing rain had caused most of the deciduous tree to have their tops splinter off. We reached the Rockytop trailhead late in the afternoon. Just as we were getting ready to embark we met an old guy hiking down the Appalachian trail carrying an old frame backpack. We took some picture and then headed down the old fire road (530pm). (Getting ready to go...) (Starting the hike...) We descended the old fire road and then upon reaching the first cement marker we started our hike on the Shenandoah National Trail. We hiked for two hours arriving at the 3.7 mile cement trail marker at 742pm. We were in luck as there was some flat areas were the trail marker. I cracked open the Celebration Mix and we celebrated our hike to this point. We setup the two tents under a splitting drizzle and then set about preparing the meals. Jason fired up the jetboil and he had hot water in short order. Our two pouch meals were prepared quickly and eagerly consumed. For dessert, we had freeze-dried smores which were yummy. As dusk started to set in the temperature started to drop and up came the humidity. Jason and I put on our winter hats as a way of combating the elements. We were in a loosing battle. We would need all our strength for a long day ahead. We hit the sack early.

Day 2 - Friday April 20 2007

Overnight the weather systems had changed and we were greeted by a warm sunrise. Just at the sun was rising, I took this picture. I really enjoyed spending some time watching the sun rise over valley as it was relaxing, quiet and peacefully. Once again Jason fired up the Jetboil and we had hot oatmeal for breakfast. We started to shed layers of clothing while eating breakfast. I took a early morning picture while we still had our layers on, Jason, and Chris. Once all our gear was packed and we started down the trail by 0900. At this point, we continued our climb up and over Rocky Top mountain . The view along the range was good. The environs were interesting as an accidental fire ten years ago had burnt off most of the trees and despite the regrowth much of the trail was scared by charred trees and stumps. It took a couple of switchbacks before we reached the base of the mountain. At the base we took a quick stretch break. In the background we heard something promising, the hissing sound of rushing water. As we continued further down the trail we reached a river and replenished our Nalgene and Dromedary bags. At around 1300, just as we were heading up a pass, we stopped for lunch. It was packaged salmon/tuna on pita, with avocados. While eating some fig newtons, Jason remarked that we had forgotten the block of cheese. Would it survive the additional days of sitting in the car? I think we ate our lunch on Brown Mountain - Rocky Mountain. During the day we made good hiking progress and decided to keep with our original hiking route and not to rely on our Plan B. I was really pleased with the progress we covered in our first day. Along the way we found some great mountain top campsite and Jason did some bouldering. (Climb on ) (On top ) Over the day we had gained some elevation. We made frequent stops along the trail to cool off. Our campsite for the night was along a river. After a leisurely supper we chatted next to some large logs that gave us lumbar support. Saturday would be along long day so again we bedded down early again.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Exam -- Relief

As I type this entry I am still a little tense but also really relieved. As it is over! Today, I wrote the final exam in my college calculus course. It was a fair exam but a long one. The exam took the form of 15 short answer question and three multi-page problems. I finished the exam in 1.5 hours and then spent the next half-hour double-checking my results. After the exam, I sold the textbook and study guide and so, I will sort of sit on my hands for a while until the marks are posted on the web. It is a big relief to have this behind me.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Absence...

I haven't blogged for a couple of days as I have been hiking in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia with Jason (http://www.jasonplancaster.com) and Emily. We hiked on I think four major hiking trails and climbed about four mountains. It was a fun and relaxing expedition. We saw a lot of deer on the first day and the last but very few during the actual hike. During our hike we experienced some challenges but were able to overcome them successfully. While traveling north yesterday, I drafted some rough notes which I will convert into most likely one long blog entry to capture all of the details of the great trip.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Hiking - Shenandoah Nationanal Park

As I type this entry it is about an hour before Jason and I head out on our multi-day backpacking/camping expedition in the SNP. The weather is much warmer than I expected so I'm depacking cloths from my backpack which will make it lighter to handle. My flight from Ottawa to Newark, NJ was delayed a little so I missed my connecting flight to Baltimore. Luckily, they had a later flight which was a big relief. The delay gave me a longer layover in Newark and I was able to explore the airport, catching up on the newspaper and look across the Hudson River to New York City. The World Financial Center, and Empire State Building were visible on the horizon. What was missing were the "twin towers?" Looking across the water, I could see how they had once dominated the NY skyline. Jason met me at the airport and we quickly focused on the trip planning task and things evolved quickly. We headed over to REI (www.rei.com) to load up on some last minute hiking gear. It was my first time visiting a REI store and it was sort of like being a kid again in a new candy store but this time the eye-candy was all the latest in outdoor gear. I can see how MEC (www.mec.ca) has adapted many of the REI's concepts. Our next stop was a place that serves really large burritos that taste great. I'll have to ask Jason the name of the place. The remainder of the night was spent buying food, packing and putting stuff together for our adventure. Time to get back to packing...

Monday, April 16, 2007

Exams

The library is once again brimming with students preparing for their final exams. I have my calculus exam at the end of the month so I am in the library studying the various integration technique. The on-campus Tim Hortons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Hortons) is doing a brisk business. I'm not a Tim Horton's coffee drinker, but I imbib on there steeped tea. One of the challenges I usually set for myself is to see how good a job I can do predicting what is on the final exam. Over the thirteen weeks the lecturer usually drops a fair number of hints and you sort of get a feel for his/her favorite types of questions. I'm usually good at predicting this, so I'll let you all know if my predictions were good, fair or poor.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Swing dancing

Last night we were fortunate to have a live band at swing dancing and it was great to hear the live music. I should have stayed longer but couldn't stay awake as I've had some late nights recently. I have been dancing for a short while and slowly learning new moves. I'm working through some issues very slowly but making good progress. They tried to teach us the slide followed by a turn but it didn't work out to well as many dancers were getting confused.

One of the fun things about the lesson is that followers rotate between the leaders during the lesson so you get to dance with many folks over the hour. Something caught my attention last night that had also picqued my curiousity last week and that is, how the follower interacts with the leader's hands. I've got a variety of hand interactions from limp hands, relaxed hands, sweating hands, vulture-grip hand (they hurt) to visibly shaking hands. Does this mean anything I'm not sure? I have danced with Niki a couple of times and every time we dance whether during the lesson or afterwards her hands visible shake while I have relaxed calm hands. What is interesting is that I'm around 6'3" and Niki is 6'6" so I have to raise my hands when I dance with her rather than lowering them for most women. I hope that JL has some ideas about the hand thing.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Minimed

Just as my calculus course has come to an end and I'm starting to study for the final exam scheduled for the end of the month, I have started another course. It is a minimed course at the medical school at the University of Ottawa. I have done the two earlier courses and when the opportunity to do the third course came up, I jumped at it. The curriculum is available at: http://www.minimed.uottawa.ca/eng/curriculum.html Tonight, we had two doctors talk about the anatomy, physiology and diseases and problems of the ear. My takeaway is that the ear is complex component and also home to one of the smallest muscles, the stapedius. The eustachian tubes are cool as they are used to maintain the pressure in the middle ear. One can look at the ear as being composed of three components, the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The cochlea is the hearing part of the ear which is located in the inner ear and the vestibular system is our "balance" component.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Easter

I had a good Easter weekend which started off with a 10 mile road race which gave my legs a good workout. G, my father and I located seven geocaches over the long weekend and were surprised by the effort that some folks will go to camoflauge a cache. One of the more interesting disguises was a hollowed out log which was six inches in diameter and had removed a large section by spinning it on a lathe. My extended family got together for a large meal at my brother's place and it is surprising to see how quickly my nieces and nephews are growing. It was great to catch up with everybody.

I'm starting to get excited about my upcoming trip to Baltimore which has as one of its highlights a multi-day hiking trip in the Shenandoah National Park. I'll have to visit the outdoor store on the weekend to pick up a couple of items and will go to REI to pick-up anything that I forgetten. It is currently unseasonably cold in Baltimore after recently get a couple of days in the 80s. By the weekend, I hope to have a better feel for what type of gear I'll need to pack. Hmm, polartec polar-weight or shorts....

Friday, April 6, 2007

10 mile race

This morning I raced 10 miles as part of a Good Friday road race near where my folks live. Overnight we had a dusting of snow and along with it came some cold conditions. I raced in my wamup gear as I didn't bring any other warm clothing. It was the first time that I had raced the course, so I took it out conservatively and sped up on the second five mile loop. To give you a feel for the conditions, after the race the director was apologizing because the water in the paper cups was frozen. I finished in a time of 1:12 with the first lap completed in 36:23 and the second half in 36:23. I was really pleased with the way the race went as all my long runs and intervals are paying off.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Tonight's workout...

Tonight's workout was a challenging one from three perspectives. It was 4 x 1km interval repeats on 60 seconds. The conditions were challenging as it was cold, wet and very humid. When the conditions get this cold and humid I start to feel all my old running injuries which makes running the intervals hard. I have been sleep deprived for the past couple of nights which doesn't bode well for running fast. My times were off a bit tonight but I soldiered through and finished the workout.

On Friday morning, I will run in a 10 mile race and my father will run in the 5km. It is a family tradition that we do the Good Friday race. I think it will be the tenth year that we have done the race. There is one slight difference this year and that is, I will be doing the 10 mile race as I have always done the 5km. After the race we will do some geocaching near the race site.

Much of the weekend will be spent chain sawing in the back 40, geocaching and visiting my extended family. G will be eager to go geocaching and I'm looking forward to exploring some recently placed geocaches.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Omnibus entry...

I write this current entry with a fair amount of relief as a project that I have been working on for a little over a year has finished. Today, I delivered the final software components to the clients. The software will have to go through various levels of tests on their side before going formally into production. It is just nice to get the project complete and to have a happy client.

I did some shopping in anticipation for my upcoming adventure and stopped by Wal-Mart to get some trial size products that are compact and pack well. After Easter, I’ll head to MEC to get a replacement hiking pole and to buy two sleeping bags. I guess you could ask, is it that cold where I’m going and the answer is no. The first sleeping bag will have a -12C/10F rating which is replacing a down sleeping bag that my father has had since I was a young boy. We will use the bag in the fall, and winter when the weather gets cold. The sleeping bag has been on my “gotta-get” list for a little while. The other sleeping bag has a 10C/50F rating and will be used for my upcoming adventure. I was recently thinking about the trip and surmised that the “down” sleeping bag would be overkill. With each passing day, I’ll do a little more preparation as myperception of time will speed up as the trip grows ever closer.

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Childhood heroes...

It is said that kids need heroes and mentors when they are growing up. JL had a recent entry where he talked about one of his childhood heroes. When I was growing up, one of my heroes was Jacques Cousteau, the oceanographer and scientist. I read every book he wrote and watched every movie he made. When he was doing some diving in Lake Ontario I was able to talk to him by ship-to-shore phone. One regret I have is that I didn't get a chance to meet him before he died.