Northern Half of Shenandoah National Park

Welcome to Shenandoah National Park

Three day backpacking in the park.  Saturday we started out in the rain which stopped mid-morning.  Stopped for lunch and watched the fog rolling around in the valley below.  Lots of amazing views.  Got water and used the restrooms at the Pinnicle Picnic area, same place we stopped years ago on a hike with my sister, Carolyn.  Stopped at a creek for water late afternoon and decided to cook there instead of carrying the water up the next mountain.  Ate and then hiked another hour and a half.
Very windy that night but we were pretty comfortable in the new sleeping bags.
Sunday - cold start in the morning but warmed up nicely.  Stayed windy all day.  Made good time and did 16 miles.  Came to Elkwallow Wayside at lunchtime. Thought we could get water there but there were no winter spigots.  Did sit on the sunny  side of the store and ate lunch out of the wind.   At 3:00 we came to Gravel Spring Hut and stopped to get water. Decided to cook and early supper.  A few other hikers came who were spending the night there.  Had a fun conversation.  We ate and then hiked three more miles.  Amazing how much more energy we had after the hour break and eating a good meal.  Not as cold at night. but still windy.
Monday - only had six miles to go to get to the car. Drove back into the park to pick up the other car and saw two of the hikers from the evening before at a road crossing - quite a coincidence.

Enough with the snowshoes

Traversing the Knife Edge

Started out at route 309 where we tried to hike last weekend but this time  wearing snowshoes.  Went pretty good at first but snowshoes are heavy and do tend to sink some into the snow.  Lost my snowshoe and sank up to my knee when stepping on the snow without it.   So while it would have been impossible without snowshoes, it was very tiring with them.  Hiked 13.3 miles, which took 9 hours.  Saw two skiers who were moving along much easier than we were.  In fact one of the was whistling as he went along.  It was windy but not bitterly cold as it was last weekend.  Finally hit the downhill into Lehigh Gap and it was never ending.  Just kept going down seemingly forever.

The car is down there near the bridge

Sunday - we decided that we would only do 5 miles since it was so tiring the day before.  Started at Little Gap and went up a short incline to the top of the ridge.  The trail took us over a Superfund Site where all the vegetation had been denuded by toxic fumes from a zinc plant.  The snow was really deep and the going was hard.  Had a lot of trouble finding the trail.  I think it was mostly due to the fact that there were no trees to paint blazes on so they painted them on rocks which were covered with snow.  Going down again into the Lehigh Gap from this side was really difficult.  It was all rocks and boulders partially covered with snow and ice.   Took off the snowshoes and carried them the rest of the way to the car.  Five miles took five hours.

This is the trail.  Note the white blaze on the rock.

Monday - neither of us wanted to go the snowshoe route again so we hiked in the only place we could where we didn't need to use them - across the Delaware River into New Jersey, about a two mile hike.  But it was better than a zero day.  The weather was beautiful, warming up nicely and sunny.  Walked around the NJ side a bit and had a snack at Turtle Beach where we walked on the frozen river and then retraced our steps back to PA.

Gave up on today's hike

Started out not too badly.   There was snow on the ground - several inches but the lower layer had been pretty well packed down - only a few inches to plow though on the top.  But as we went on our feet started hitting spots where we sank up to 15 inches.  After hiking an hour and only going 1.8 miles we turned around and went back to the car.  Tomorrow looks like a wash also.  But perhaps Monday we will take our snowshoes and try a hike.

This weather has got to stop

Saturday - another snowy, bitterly cold, windy day.  Snow and sleet and freezing rain.  I know I didn't eat enough but it was too cold to think about taking off my mittens and waterproof shells to get any snacks out.  We stopped for lunch beside a boulder that shielded us from the wind but not the precipitation which was snow when we sat down but changed to freezing rain about five minutes into

our break.  Not wanting our mittens and other stuff to get too wet, we packed up quickly and took off again.  Funny thing is, although we didn't think anyone else would be out there, we passed a large group of people hiking together.  Some of them looked like they would have liked to have been anyplace but there.

Sunday - big change in the weather.  Beautiful day.  Sunny and up close to 40.  Only problem was there was about eight inches of snow on the ground.  While it is nice being the first ones to make tracks, it is extremely tiring.   Neat though, to see the tracks of animals.  We saw squirrel, racoon, and coyote tracks and were very surprised to see bear tracks.  Hiked for nine very slow miles before we came upon tracks made by other hikers.  That packed down snow made all the difference in the world.  The last three miles were wonderful in comparison to the first nine.

We made it all the way to the northern end of the Shenandoah National Park.  But it was not possible to hike today because we needed to park one of the cars in the park along the Skyline Drive but it was closed due to ice and snow.  

Cold,cold,cold

Mike said to look cold.  Didn't have to pretend.

Hiked from Keys Gap, WV to Ashby Gap, VA.  All three days were up and down - called the Roller Coaster.   Bitter cold temps Saturday and Sunday.  High winds and very low wind chills on Sunday.  Waited until noon to start out but it was still bitterly cold.  Didn't even take a picture of the one great view because the wind was too cold to take off my mittens and I wouldn't have been able to stand still long enough to take it due to the wind.  All we wanted to do was to get back into the shelter of the trees.  Yet we still saw other hikers.  Needed Yak-Traks to get down the mountain going toward the car.  Saturday -  still just as cold but not as windy.   Saw no other hikers.

Great four day weekend hike

Mason Dixon Line

Had four days to hike.  Started eight miles north of the MD state line and made it all the way to Keys Gap, six miles south of Harpers Ferry, WV.  Interesting four days with varied terrain, trail conditions and weather.

Tumbling Run Shelter

Friday - hiked almost 15 miles into Maryland.  Very cold.  Most of the trail was snow covered with lots of hills.  Pretty hard hiking.  Because we had two cars, parking one at each end of the section we were hiking, we really didn't need backpacks, etc, but carried them anyway and camped at the Tumbling Run Shelter because we wanted to try out the new equipment at a time and place where we were close to the cars.
Saturday - after carrying Yak-Traks for several days without using them, decided not to take them.  Bad idea.  Overall the hike was easier,  spent many miles up on a ridge.  However, coming down toward the bridge over Route 40, we hit a very well traveled section of trail that was a sheet of ice.  Not good.  Will not neglect the Yak-Traks again.  Passed though Washington Monument State Park.
Sunday - beautiful warm day.  But almost the whole trail was icy.  Yak-Traks are wonderful.   Went through some open fields and past the site of the Civil War Battle of the South Mountain and Gathland State Park.

Coming into Harpers Ferry

Monday - Shorter, much easier hike.   Mostly snow and ice free.  Started out on the ridge that forms the boundary between WV and VA.  Then the trail went downhill to Harpers Ferry and followed the C&O canal tow path for the remaining three miles.  Not too cold but started raining one hour into the hike.  Still not a bad morning.  Rain stopped by the end of our hike.

Hiking in the snow. Made for a pretty hard weekend.

Started out on Saturday at Caledonia SP and headed north to Pine Grove Furnace.  Very hard going in several inches of snow.  There were a few bright spots where other hikers and skiers had packed down the snow but breaking a trail in several inches of snow other places was tiring.  Cold too.  At one point the wind was hitting us right in the face.  Fortunately the trail took us to the other side of the mountain and out of the direct wind.   All in all a very hard, long 16.5 miles

Today was better.  Still walking on snow but it was packed down in more places.  Only did 10.7 miles because of being so tired yesterday.  Passed the neatest shelter I've ever seen, Quarry Gap shelter south of Caledonia.  The Potomac Hiking club that maintains this section of the trail really does a nice job

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