Checking In

I can't believe it's almost the end of February. It's been two years since I was able to finally snag my first COVID vaccine and almost three years since the start of the whole disaster that is COVID-19. 

Six Flags was the site of a massive vaccination line. I wanted to slalom these cones so bad.

I'm still trying to recover my mental health from the past three years, as being trapped at home and teaching remotely really brought home that a work-life balance is critical to maintaining a healthy outlook. Part of that recovery is trying to keep up with my resolutions (SMART goals). Let's see where I am.

1) Just last week, I was on the C&O Canal Towpath around Snyders Landing before stopping by mom's in Sharpsburg. And the week before, I was at Soldiers Delight NEA again so that I could do the whole Serpentine Trail, so yes, this goal is still being met. 

The C&O Canal Towpath, just west of mile marker 77 near Snyders Landing

The far end of the Serpentine Trail at Soldiers Delight

With Spring Break started at the end of March, I don't see it being a problem to continue hiking at least once a month. 

2) This is a blog in February, so yes, I'm still meeting this goal. I haven't been as prolific as maybe I could be, but I've met the goal. 

3) I've fallen off a bit here. While I started off strong, I've stalled a bit recently while reading Karen Marie Moning's Burned. 

I got into this series years ago, and it's a bit hard to remember all the previous stuff

This is the first book I've been reading on the new Kindle that Pat got for me. It's nice to have the backlit display and not try to finagle a booklight on the Kindle like I used to do. My mom also got me a book I need to read (or at least strongly peruse) for road trip reasons; this is one I requested after Stefanie Payne hosted a #ParkChat evening on Twitter.

So far, this looks like some great ideas even for Parks I've been to

4) Yep, definitely been doing this. If it's not hiking, then it's been doing the Centr Sculpted program. I've even had to buy new weights! 

5) Yeah, that NBCT thing. I have applied the MSDE funding to my components. I just need to start doing the thing. I seriously have to do this now, since mid-May is the deadline for submission. I know what I want to do, so it's really a matter of documenting. 

6) The brakes are still mocking me. Maybe if Pat can actually go to Abacus this coming weekend, I can bring them with me and do that while I'm waiting around. Otherwise, I'm going to be bored. Considering I won't get a tax return, it would be nice to be able to sell the car to someone who is. 

7) I've started slacking on this a bit. I have my journal here next to the desktop, and I think about writing something down, especially after dreams like I had Friday and Saturday night. But then I don't do it. Same at work; I think about writing something down, but it's usually at the time where I just want to go home. I have felt better about accomplishing something each day, for the most part. For instance, today I fixed a cabinet door in the kitchen (after repeated trips to Lowe's) and yesterday I made a bunch of wands to list on Etsy, mostly because someone had requested a custom and I wanted to give them some choices. I just still need to list them!

So, this week is a "short" week because Friday is a half-day for students. It's interim prep day, and if I get all my comments and stuff in early, I can probably bolt just after noon so that we can get down to Abacus for tuning Pat's Camaro. He's been trying to get this thing tuned for the past month, but every weekend he's scheduled it, the weather's been in the low 40s (Fahrenheit) or colder. I just need to make sure I'm caught up on grading, and I need to come up with some lesson plans that don't involve collecting more work. 

I can't wait to be daily driving this beauty again

In the meantime, I'm waiting for my little green terror of a Camaro to come home. The poor car is undergoing a transplant due to a collapsed and stuck lifter. I had those lifters replaced by the hack who left cigarette butts under the hood and didn't properly tighten down a bolt when installing a clutch, so... yeah. I gave that tool more chances than I should have, and it's ended up costing me a lot of money. Fortunately, Pat's former employer, Powertrain Products, worked with me to get an LT1 to Redline Performance quickly. I'm keeping the core, and we'll see if I can do something with it. 

Here's hoping it's a good week!

Reflections on the Potomac River at Snyders Landing

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So Far, So Good

Two days into the new year, and two hikes under my belt. That's making some good progress on my resolutions!

Yesterday, I did an obligatory First Day Hike in Patapsco Valley State Park, starting at the ambiguously defined Pickall Area by the CSX train tracks, then trying to meet up with the Ole Ranger Trail. The trail is very poorly marked, and I didn't find the cut-over to the trail, but I did eventually meet up with the Union Dam Trail. It was a shorter hike than I thought it would be, which is good to know for future reference. I might start at Hollofield next time so that I can take the Ole Ranger Trail to see where I'm supposed to go from Pickall. 

Maryland State Parks gave out these First Day Hike stickers

A Pontiac center cap in the mud

The CSX tracks curving to match the river's bends

A train tunnel underneath US40.

The link to the Union Dam Trail

Cold, clear river water where the Union Dam once stood

A thriving community once stood here, until repeated floods in the mid-1800s kept destroying the dams, mills and homes of those who tried to use the river for their living

I texted Pat that I was at the entrance to Hollofield, and chatted with the ranger on duty there until he arrived. Turned out that someone's car had been broken into -- rear window smashed and stuff taken -- so I was watching the response to that. The thieves were quite brazen, as the vehicle in question was easily visible from the entrance gate. 

For today -- the Federal holiday version of January 1 -- I decided to go to my other standby, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath. I needed to stop by my mom's anyway, and I initially thought to go to Ferry Hill and from there, maybe up to Snyders Landing. Then I thought, maybe I should go to Catoctin Aqueduct? Finally, I settled on parking at Point of Rocks and heading downstream, a section I don't think I've been on before. 

Point of Rocks is at MM48.2 

The last time I'd been to Point of Rocks was just over a year ago, when my friend Andy Howe was in town. Being an engineer who designs bridges and the like, I think he wanted to see the aqueducts and locks of his 19th century counterparts. Sadly, there are no locks or aqueducts east of Point of Rocks, at least not until past Noland's Ferry. There are culverts though. 

A culvert right at Point of Rocks

Seek says these are "stinking orange oysters". The area smelled like garbage, so, yeah.

I hiked down to mile marked 46 before turning back around. I was going to be cutting it close to get back to the Crosstrek by sunset. 

As far as I went today. 

Like yesterday, the drab Winter colors in the forest made nothing stand out. That's probably why I noticed the orange oysters. The sunset was pretty, reflecting off the river, but other than that, there wasn't too much else to see. 

A larger culvert east of MM48

The sun's getting real low

One of the reasons I was really hankering to get out on a trail was because one of my holiday gifts from Pat was a new and nice pair of Merrell Moab hiking boots. They are super light compared to my old boots, and I wanted to see how well they handled muddy conditions. 

So far, so good with the boots! I know I'll be testing their waterproof-ness and more in the coming months. 

After a short stop at Mom's in Sharpsburg, it was back home to wrap up Winter break and prepare for the end of the semester.... and to think about camping and hiking and where to go next. 

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Struggling to Get Out of the House

Three weeks ago, I left on my usual yearly road trip. I wanted to leave on Monday or Tuesday of that week, but it wasn't until Wednesday that I finally could get myself together enough to head out. Even then, I left the house so late in the day that I only made it to western Maryland before calling it a night at Spring Gap Campground along the C&O Canal Towpath. 

Depression sucks like that. I had the same issues last year as well. 

I'd changed the oil the day before in the Crosstrek, and I actually started the trip with a quick stop at the local grocery market and the nearby carwash. 

Me demonstrating the proper way to pour oil so that it doesn't slop all over the place. 

My driving companions for the first week and a half

Fresh and clean!

Since I had a late start, I knew I wasn't going to get super far on the trip and made the reservation at Spring Gap before I left the house. Campsite 1 was reserved for the whole week, and everything else was open. I opted for site 5 to give whoever it was at 1 plenty of space. 

I rolled into the campground around 5:30PM and set up my little tent. For those new to my adventures, this is a "Rhinowolf" tent which I bought via Kickstarter a few years ago; they have since apparently gone out of business. Anyway, one of the selling points for this tent was that single tents could be zipped together. So for the first part of the road trip, you'll see my green single tent, and after Pat joins me, you'll see his blue tent zipped together with my green one. 

My campsite at Spring Gap

As I put up my tent and contemplated what to do for dinner, I did notice that site 1 was very occupied; there was at least one family there with at least two dogs. Everyone (including the dogs) was super friendly, and the kids were kind of goofy and totally into fishing for catfish. A group of cyclists came by while I was settling in and set up in the group camping area at the "end" of the campground. And, in site 3 there was a small pop-up tent and a couple of chairs, but no one else around. 

I decided to wander up the towpath;"up" the towpath always means "towards Cumberland" to me for some reason, while "down" the towpath is "towards Georgetown. I'd last been in this area almost a year ago to the day when I camped here on the first night of my 2021 road trip. No surprise that there were things to see. 

Ruins of bridges are somewhat frequent along the towpath. It's not clear if this was for a train crossing or a road (automobile) crossing

At first I was like, "Yay! A turtle!" and then I was like, "OMG, it's dead," and I was very sad. There was no evidence of trauma to the shell.

Storms have been fairly frequent and brought down a lot of trees in Western Maryland this spring and summer

Lock 72. There are three more locks upstream of this; they are the last three locks on the canal. 

Sunset on the Potomac River at the Spring Gap boat ramp

I didn't bring any wood with me, and it was warm enough I didn't really want to start a fire anyway. Around 8:45, I checked my phone's battery and service levels because it was getting close to #ParkChat time. There's nothing like participating in #ParkChat while being in a park! 🤣

Karen, still in Maryland tonight, but camping out in the western part of the state along the @COcanalNPS at Spring Gap. 😁 #ParkChat

— Karen (needs another roadtrip) (@CamaroWRX) July 28, 2022 

Some foreshadowing occurred during the #ParkChat conversation....

A9 #ParkChat no one yet. Maybe during this road trip?

— Karen (needs another roadtrip) (@CamaroWRX) July 28, 2022

And then just after 10PM, it was all done. I was tired of trying to keep the mosquitoes at bay (the repellant and the Thermacell can only do so much), so I retired to the tent. 

Sadly, around midnight, the mysterious campers at site 3 showed up, lights ablazing directly towards my tent. They were loud. They were shining lights every which way. They were clearly drunk. It was Camp Groinia all over again, minus the lighter fluid shots and 30 degree weather. With the National Park Service short staffed, plus knowing that rangers on the 184.5 mile towpath are often spaced quite far apart, I just gritted my teeth, put my good ear to the pillow and tried to ignore it. 

I have to admit though that I, the cyclists at the group campsite and the family(ies?) at site 1 made absolutely zero effort to be quiet as dawn broke. The hungover jerkwads were clearly struggling as the rest of us did our morning things with just an extra touch of noise. 

Carolina horsenettle

From the campground, I headed into Cumberland to poke around at the very end of the towpath and beginning of the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail. The visitor center was closed, so I just wandered around and looked at the railroad cars and caboose that were there. I was testing my ability to figure out when they were built, something I was taught years ago when visiting the Western Maryland Railway Museum in Union Bridge. 

There should be something that says "BLT" with numbers for the month and year, but evidently these are repaints.

 

The trucks have the manufacturing date built into them. These are from January 1957.

Pat had been talking about maybe getting tickets to a train ride out of Durango, CO as part of the road trip, so maybe that's why I stopped here. I do know that I would like to do one of the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad trips some time. 

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad Depot

I headed out from Cumberland with no real plan in mind. After tossing around some ideas in my head, I decided to go to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, since it had been a few years and it wasn't all that far away. Waze took me off I-68 and up to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, joining the turnpike from an area where Pat and I had stopped on the way out to Detroit in the spring. 

I rolled into the Boston Mill Visitor Center parking, parked next to a cool gray khaki Crosstrek twin, and headed towards the visitor center when I saw a group of people next to a sign that said "Citizen Science." I remarked, "That's cool! I need to do more of that with my students," and next thing I know, they invited me to join them. It was a group of rangers and park employees/volunteers who were looking at the pollinators in the areas around the visitor center over a few weeks time. We started by looking at the different types of flowering plants we saw, and using iNaturalist to identify them as needed. We also estimated what percentage of the surveyed area was covered with each type of plant. Then we went back and started looking for pollinators, and again, used iNaturalist to identify them. We also added our findings to a group on iNaturalist (that's the citizen science part!), to help with the documentation of which pollinators were found with which type of flower. 

I totally want to do something like this with my students this year!

Don't you park next to your car-twin when you can? 

Ranger Chuck is the brains behind this citizen science project

It wasn't always clear if something was a pollinator or just happened to be in the flower

This is a pollinator, on red clover

Wild carrot (Queen Anne's lace) was one of the predominant flowering plants in the area we surveyed

After my work-related diversion, it was suggested to me that the Ledges Trail would be a literally cool place to visit for some hiking. With the tall trees, hidden springs and small caves, a cool breeze was present during much of the trek around the ledges area. 

The Civilian Conservation Corps left their mark throughout this area of the park.

The rock faces were marred with these honey-comb patterns from years of rain washing over them. It made me think of boxwork in Wind Cave.

It was quiet, cool and peaceful among these rocks.

One of the many small springs

Life finds a way

A jelly fungus

I finished the day by getting a campsite at a nearby KOA campground, one that Pat and I stayed at on the end of our 2019 trip. They've made some improvements, including covered picnic tables since we were last there. I heated up some water to rehydrate some spicy sausage pasta, which turned out to be one of the best dehydrated meals I've had (good enough that I literally sought out a Cabelas later in the trip just to buy some more!). 

This was a great spot

The trusty Biolite campstove with the kettlepot "attachment". This thing has been so great over the past 8 or so years since I bought it.

Spicy sausage pasta

The sunset made the sky look to be on fire as I wound down for sleep. I had no idea where I'd be going the next day, and I would figure it out as I went along. 

Goodnight

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