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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Wanderlust Close to Home

After physical therapy today, I was hit with a bout of wanderlust. Since we have tickets to see Thor: Love and Thunder tonight, I didn't want to go too far, plus I also am a little shy of needing to get gas since the Camaro requires premium. Since I bought a Maryland State Parks Annual Pass this year, I opted to go to the close-by Patapsco Valley State Park and hike around on some trails I haven't really explored. 

Of course, the first thing I realize is that I wasn't going to have my hiking poles with me, since I left them in the Crosstrek after our trip last weekend. I didn't really want to just go along the paved Grist Mill Trail, so I just figured I could find a long enough stick somewhere along the way. 

Wineberries were prevalent along all of the trails I was on

I started off on the Santee Branch Trail, heading roughly north, and when it met up with the Bull Run Trail, I paused for a moment to admire the bike "shop" that was installed there. It looks like it has tools and a bike pump for mountain bikers who find they need it along the trail. I wonder how many other ones there are in the park?

A combination tool/air pump station for bicyclists

There were quite a few birds, rabbits and squirrels along the trail, and some interesting fungi. I found one cluster of slime molds that was pretty intriguing. 

A cluster of slime mold

I paused by a small stream (Bull Run? Though the maps all say "Bill Run," so I'm not sure which is correct), and saw at least two kinds of crayfish, but couldn't really get a photo. 

It's not Cascade Falls, but it was still pretty

An odd looking rock 

Once I met up with the Soapstone Trail, I followed that in the direction that I thought would be taking me back to the Camaro. Instead, I ended up at the trailhead at Rolling Road. No biggie; I headed down a different way. It was a little traumatic at first, as there was barbed wire next to the trail. This triggered bad memories of a random stretch of barbed wire along the Patapsco River that almost ended my life so many years ago on a 4-H trail ride. 

No idea why there was a barbed wire fence here

I ultimately ended up at the Lower Glen Artney area, where some Civilian Conservation Corps-built shelters are found, just as they are in other areas of the park. 

The CCC built a lot of shelters and other structures at Patapsco Valley State Park

I opted to just follow the road back to where I'd parked, as I was out of water and I was tired. My trail shoes also are worn out, and I'm pretty sure I bruised my right foot when I stepped on a rock. It wasn't a long hike, but there were a lot of steep hills and with the humidity, I was soaked with sweat yet not cooling down. Needless to say, the first thing I did when I got home was shower! 

My Camaro makes me happy

Looking over the trail map for the area when I got home, I see lots more opportunities for hiking, even as the Grist Mill Trail will be closed after Labor Day for about a year to fix the footbridges. I need to print out the trail map and keep it with me! 

I'll leave you with a photo of tiny mushrooms; these were barely an inch tall and the slender stalk looked delicate. 

Larger than life

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Beauty in the Rot

Pat wanted to go fishing yesterday, so I tagged along. I didn't bring my rods this time; I just wanted to wander. His destination was Dam #4 along the C&O Canal, and I figured it was high time that I traversed the section of towpath between there and Taylors Landing, if not all the way down to Snyders Landing. 

This great blue heron thought Dam #4 fishing was a good idea, too.

Dam 4 is approximately mile 84.6 along the C&O Canal, and Taylors Landing is at 80.9. Snyders Landing is 76.8. Pat usually fishes for 3-4 hours at a spot, but as I started moving along the towpath, I saw several other people fishing around Dam 4. I wasn't sure if that would affect Pat's decision to fish there, though I have had good luck fishing at Taylors Landing and thought maybe he'd shift downriver if needed.

It was forecast to be in the mid-to-upper 80s, and "low humidity," though I thought it was pretty muggy outside even at 8AM. The temperature never seemed oppressive, but the moisture in the air and the reminders of the damage from a storm the previous evening made me wonder if more storms were on the way. 

Of course, all of the rain and humidity meant there were a lot of fungi, slugs and other decomposers to be seen amidst the fallen limbs and five foot jewelweed.

Moisture drips from a yellow jewelweed flower

A small helicoid snail

A wood ear fungi grows on a fallen log

I saw a lot of wood ear (jelly ear) fungi and the ubiquitous shelf fungi, and not a whole lot of the stereotypical club or mushroom fungi. I suppose the mushrooms would take another few hours after the storms to pop up. 

The remains of a tree, showing the internal structure of a trunk and wood ear and shelf fungi

A reddish orange jelly fungus on a fallen tree at Lock 40

Split gill fungi on a limb

It's July, and so flowering plants were in the minority. I did see some small, unripe pawpaw fruits, and lots of jewelweed, but that was about it. There were tons of mosquitoes, and I was pretty happy to have bug wipes with me to keep them at bay. 

Pawpaw fruits knocked down by the storm

A few months ago, I hiked up from Ferry Hill to Snyders Landing and saw Lock 39. This time, I saw Lock 40, between Taylors and Snyders Landings. The stone is in really good condition, though it's far enough from anything else that the vegetation around it is completely overgrown. 

Upstream side of Lock 40

Looking through the lock channel from the upstream side

Looking at Lock 40 from the downstream side

Probably the strangest thing I saw on the trip was the interaction between two black-and-yellow flat millipedes. When I first saw them, they were about an inch apart, crawling in opposite directions. They quickly turned towards each other and started..... I don't know what. Mating? Fighting? It wasn't clear. I took a few photos and left them to do their Mutual of Omaha thing. 

This was right after they "noticed" each other

I can't tell if this is fighting or mating

Anyway, I had little-to-no cell service most of this hike, so while I was trying to keep Pat updated on where I was, I wasn't getting any response from him. When I arrived at Snyders Landing, I send a text and a photo, then wandered over to the parking area where I saw the Crosstrek. He said he hadn't caught anything and so finally just gave up. I had texted him that there was no one at Taylors Landing, but he hadn't stopped there to try. His loss; last time I was skunked at Dam 4 and drove to Taylors Landing instead, I ended up with a 17 inch walleye. 

It was a good hike, with lots of little things to see if you know what to look for. I need to do this more often. 

A small brownish-orange slug crawls on the cut edge of a fallen tree

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Stone and Inspiration

Over a year and a half ago, I bought in to the Stone Brewing Company's IndieGoGo campaign to build brewing operations in Berlin and on the East Coast. The collaboration beers that were made available included partnerships with Dogfish Head, Victory, Surly and plenty of others. Once the East Coast operation was announced to be Richmond, I was excited. Troegs is already a routine destination, being about an hour and a half away, and now here was another great venue. The Stone Bistro and World Gardens in Escondido is pretty awesome, and eventually the Richmond site will be host to its own gardens and bistro. For now, it's just a taproom.

Anyway, I'd received notice back in November -- right after I'd made a trek to grab my bottle of Zuper Magik w00tstout -- that what had originally been a Surly collaboration was ready for pickup. Since Todd Haug, the Surly brewer they were going to work with, had left Surly, this was now a "Todd Haug/Stone" collaboration, and was called Saurer Axtmann. The name did not bode well for something Pat would like, as he is not a fan of sours.

I plotted a trip to get the beer during my winter break, but didn't receive confirmation from Stone that they knew I'd be arriving, so I pushed my journey back to January 6th. It was freaking cold yesterday morning (eight degrees Fahrenheit, but negative eight wind chill), but I trundled out of the house and down the 95s to Richmond.

Wanting to do more than just hit the brewery and go home, I'd already hit up the National Park Service website to see what was in Richmond besides the obvious Civil War sites. I settled on an historic site dedicated to someone I was not familiar with -- the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site. It was right off of I-95, and only about 15 minutes away from Stone.

Quality Row in Richmond's Jackson Ward

When I arrived, I found street parking (the only parking available) right in front of the alley that led to the visitor center, and a ranger who was more than eager to show their new video and lead me on a tour of Mrs. Walker's home. 

Watch the video to learn who Maggie Walker was and why she is an important civil rights icon, even though she was born in 1864 and lived in an era when women couldn't vote. I can't believe I haven't heard of her until now. 

And her home! It's gorgeous, and most amazingly, 90% of the furnishing are original. The books in her makeshift library. The mirrors. The cut glass and china. The toy dolls. Even the reproductions are done so well and based on known items (either to match the rest of a set, such as the dining room chairs that needed reproductions after four of the six were stolen in the early 1970s, or to match something in a photo of Mrs. Walker, such as the recliner in the parlor) so as to blend seamlessly with the rest of the decor. 

the parlor was off limits to the rambunctious Walker children and grandchildren, unless they were practicing on the piano

Over 600 books were in Maggie Walker's collection

Walker and her husband both graduated high school in a time when segregation was law. The Richmond Colored Normal School and the blue ribbon on Maggie Walker's diploma indicated that she'd taken extra classes to become a teacher. She had to give up teaching when she married Armistead

Mrs. Walker was very proud of her family's achievements as well, as seen by the display of her son Melvin's Shaw University diploma.

The kitchen did not have a refrigerator, just this small reproduction icebox. 

Growing up poor and helping her mother wash, press and fold clothes for a living, Maggie Walker knew the importance of a good wash room. Three sinks, a stove for heating, electric fans to circulate the air, and an automatic sheet press are all found here.

As Mrs. Walker aged, she suffered debilitating effects of diabetes, leading to her becoming wheelchair-bound. This manual elevator was installed to allow her to move between floors of her home without the need for her to be carried up and down the stairs. It was actually outside the confines of the house, and so, yes, that is snow on the floor. 

Children and grandchildren were a big reason the house had two additions put on the house after Maggie Walker purchased it in 1904. These are some of the original toys played with by her grandchildren.

Even though Mrs. Walker had the home converted from gas lighting to electric lighting, some fixtures remained dual purpose, in the event of a power outage.

In a time when both women and people of color were actively discriminated against, Maggie Walker rose to a position of  president of a bank that she founded herself, generous philanthropist and community leader. 

Mrs. Walker died here in her home in 1934, surrounded by the things that she loved and cherished. 

I was very moved by my visit, and it dovetails beautifully with my 2016 road trip visits to Little Rock Central High School, the Brown v. BOE site in Topeka and other experiences. 

Saurer Axtmann

Loral & Dr. Rudi's Inevitable Double IPA

From there, I drove the short distance to Stone Brewing RVA. The Saurer Axtmann is a Berliner Weisse style, though not overly sour to me. In the meantime, I had two growlers that I needed to decide on filling, so I sampled some others.

I found six packs of the Exalted IPA in the cooler, so I figured I'd do a growler of the Koteka Rise and Grind (an Imperial Red Ale tasting of coffee and bourbon) and something else. The bartender suggested the Chai Infused Russian Imperial Stout, which is a 2015 offering. I tasted it and went with that without much hesitation. As she said, the chai and the aging has taken the bourbony edge off the beer, and it is smooth as silk. Of course, that's dangerous in a 10.6% beer. ;) 

Exalted IPA and Koteka Rise and Grind

From Stone, I still felt I had some time to kill before heading home. I figured I needed to be back by 6:30 in order to be able to get over to the Autocrossers, Inc holiday party at the start (since Pat and I were bringing food and participating in the gift exchange). I decided to swing by one of the Richmond National Battlefield Park units, Fort Harrison. Sadly, it turns out the visitor center here is seasonal, and so was closed. But I still wandered around the snow-covered paths of the fort for about thirty minutes before I was too chilled and went back to the warm confines of the WRX.

The battle here took place in late September 1864

Most of the earthworks were of Confederate origin, but after the fort fell to the Union, they renamed it Fort Burnham and changed the configuration somewhat

Confederate cannons aimed towards the James River in the distance

Earthworks

A lone cannon protecting Confederate earthworks. To the right of the cannon, most of the Fort is Burnham (Union built)

Cannon at sunset

I bolted for home, heat cranked in the WRX, and considered maybe journeying back down this way next weekend for the MLK holiday. I forgot to bring a Stone Brewing giftcard with me, so there is that, plus I would like to visit the Richmond battlefield in warmer conditions. 

But overall, it was a good day, and I learned things that were inspiring and new to me. This is why I like to explore and wander.