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Sunday Hike
My big event of the recent weekend was our annual hike to Wolf Gap/Big Schloss, along the border of Virginia & West Virginia.
The weather was not promising initially... we had three inches of rain the night before --what a fun drive that turned out to be-- and we drove through rain in the morning to get to the park. However, once we were there, we discovered the paths were nothing like as muddy as I had feared, and the clouds soon blew away to give us clear blue skies and perfect hiking conditions.
The hike is about five miles, starting from the national park parking lot 2/3 of the way up to the summit. There's a moderately steep climb for the first quarter mile, then it evens out as trail follows the crest of the ridge. The schloss peak itself requires some minor gymnastics to ascend but it isn't difficult and the view is worth the effort: it's where we typically stop an hour for lunch and general communing with nature.
The longest portion of the hike is the trail leading down from the peak to a series of switchbacks which meander down to the floor of the valley. Being not entirely brain-damaged, we pre-empt further pain & effort by strategically leaving a vehicle at the lower parking lot so the majority of us can soak our sore feet in the cold waters of a stream while others head back to the upper lot to collect the remaining vehicles.
The full gallery of photos are on my web site at: http://www.office-assist.com/~jarvis/wolfgap2006/wolfgap2006.html
The weather was not promising initially... we had three inches of rain the night before --what a fun drive that turned out to be-- and we drove through rain in the morning to get to the park. However, once we were there, we discovered the paths were nothing like as muddy as I had feared, and the clouds soon blew away to give us clear blue skies and perfect hiking conditions.
The hike is about five miles, starting from the national park parking lot 2/3 of the way up to the summit. There's a moderately steep climb for the first quarter mile, then it evens out as trail follows the crest of the ridge. The schloss peak itself requires some minor gymnastics to ascend but it isn't difficult and the view is worth the effort: it's where we typically stop an hour for lunch and general communing with nature.
The longest portion of the hike is the trail leading down from the peak to a series of switchbacks which meander down to the floor of the valley. Being not entirely brain-damaged, we pre-empt further pain & effort by strategically leaving a vehicle at the lower parking lot so the majority of us can soak our sore feet in the cold waters of a stream while others head back to the upper lot to collect the remaining vehicles.
The full gallery of photos are on my web site at: http://www.office-assist.com/~jarvis/wolfgap2006/wolfgap2006.html
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Our Valiant Team This is the "before" photo. The "after" wasn't quite as pretty. |
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Gay Hikers Can't take them anywhere without forming a chorus line. |
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Big Schloss |
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Valley View |
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Fungus |
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Stream |
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Obviously, there are tons of great hikes out here -- hopefully, when you come out next year for Square Dance-O-Rama, you'll have time to avail yourself.
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No such luck... it was a pile of tired, aching men. If we had the hottub powered up, we would have simply passed out & drowned when we got home. The first significant hike of the year is always a little traumatic: there's no avoiding the cold reality that most of us were sadly out of shape.
I'd like to check out the hiking possibilities of Colorado, but at this point, it looks like I'm going to be insanely busy before, during & after the convention. Nothing quite like visiting other areas of the continent to be trapped behind a computer for the duration. :-^
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Truly the world is coming to an end.
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On the good side, we didn't need a medevac helicoptor. On the downside, I've paid good money for that life insurance policy on him and haven't had any chance to collect on it yet, so I still don't have a large screen plasma TV I need.
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