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February 2nd, 2012 in Friends, Fun, Med School, Party, Photography, Pictures, Sports, Travel, Trekking
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Archive for the ‘ Friends ’ Category
Loudoun Heights, Harpers Ferry, Maryland Heights
Spanning three different states and about nine miles, this venture was particularly meaningful because of where we were. Countless times, the Links have joined friends in tubes floating down the Potomac River past Harpers Ferry, under the pair of railroad bridges that disappear into the cliffs of the Maryland Heights to eat lunch on the famous Andy Bopp Memorial Rock in the shadow of the Loudoun Heights. We have always viewed them from the river. On this crisp spring day, we swapped swimsuits and beer for hiking boots and water and off we went.
First, some history.
Harpers Ferry lies at the juncture of the Shenandoah River (which winds northward from the Shenandoah Valley) and the Potomac River which continues east until it bisects Washington D.C. It is an absolutely stunning place that inspired Thomas Jefferson to laud its beauty. It is also dominated on two of three sides by high cliffs, which makes its selection as the primary location of America’s armory prior to the Civil War a questionable tactical choice.
To the south lie Loudoun Heights in Virginia, which feature great view of the famous Andy Bopp Memorial Rock (pictured here). This rock figures prominently in the escape of Andy Bopp, who would be the only survivor of John Brown’s Raid.
To the north is the Maryland Heights, a sheer cliff face that still features a fading advertisement for borated toilet powder which was painted on the cliff face decades ago.
Both of these areas of high ground overlooking Harpers Ferry and a substantial portion of the Union arms and gunpowder featured prominently in the Battle of Harpers Ferry. This is a story I have told many, many times. But until this day, I had never actually hiked up to either location.
The hike starts in West Virginia, where finding the actual trail up to Loudoun Heights is a little tricky and requires you to walk along a tiny shoulder on a very busy road. We had parked a car in Maryland as well – the loop requires you to cross a bridge that his closed to pedestrians for construction. We missed the trailhead the first time, but eventually we found what we were looking for and began our ascent.
We arrived at the cliffs just above the Andy Bopp Memorial Rock after only about 30 minutes of hiking. It was a great view, although the weather was still cold and cloudy. We were with tubing friends, Andy and Brian.
In this picture, we are sitting on the cliffs at Loudoun Heights. Out of the frame to the left, the Shenandoah River enters. Slightly off frame to the left is Harpers Ferry, the origin of the two railroad bridges you can see. And right over Andy’s shoulder, you can see your ultimate destination, the Maryland Heights.
After playing around on those cliffs for a few minutes, we trekked up the ridge-line for a few miles, and then cut downward into the Shenandoah valley. We hooked up with the Appellation Trail, which got us across the Shenandoah and into Harpers Ferry. Passed Jefferson’s Rock, and onto the railroad bridge.
If you don’t understand the barrel monument at Harpers Ferry, you don’t know your history of John Brown’s Raid. That’s the Andy Bopp Memorial in Harpers Ferry.
From the bridges, we hiked north along the trail we know very well from tubing to the famous ‘lower lot’ where picked up the trail and began the strenuous climb up to the Maryland Heights. It was a trail head we’d had seen countless times, but never ventured to explore. At this point, the whole hike was a little surreal – like watching your favorite movie dubbed in a foreign language.
The Maryland Heights hike was much more crowded, and the trail was much wider. We came across some real dobermans and pit bulls (my hand still has the scar, thank you). But they were really nice. Still, I gave them a wide berth.
We pushed up over the ridge, and then down again to the cliffs. Again, the view was spectacular. Totally worth the hike. But it had been miles and miles, and everyone was tired, so we didn’t do the full Maryland Heights loops (saving ourselves another 4 miles of hiking).
And then… we did Cracker Barrel.
Catoctin Mountain Park
We were on a role, but Tiff’s schedule was a bit tighter, so we decided on a closer venture back to Wolf Rock and Chimney Rock in Catoctin Mountain Park. Catoctin is actually a pretty regular fare for us because it’s only an hour away from Columbia, D.C. and Baltimore (here and here for example). The trails are pretty confusing, but we’ve figured them out pretty well by now.
Even so, this time around, joined by Andy, we found a totally new – and excellent – new route.
We took the long route past Thurmont Vista to Wolf Rock. From there, the flat trek to Chimney Rock. For some reason, we had decided against packing a lunch. Fortunately, we had some nuts which we were able to barter with Andy for dried fruits. At this point, eager to get the most bang for our buck, we decided to take “the long way” home.
I think we’d actually tried to do this once before, but run into problems when the trail disappeared. This time was no different. We found out later when we talked to the ranger that the trail actually has disappeared from under-use. They are in the process of ‘re-claiming’ it.
So here’s how it went down. You’re going down a ridge when the trail forks. To the right is the normal, shorter route. To the left is the longer loop that circles down by the stream and the road at the valley floor. The left-hand trail only disappears for a few hundred yards (maybe quarter of mile) – exacerbated by the leaves on the ground. But when it’s gone, it’s gone.
We wandered around in vaguely the direction we expected the trail to re-appear. Meanwhile four or five giant vulchers began to circle overhead. We began to wonder if we’d lost the trail for good. No one was very worried; this isn’t exactly the wilderness here, there was no chance we would get lost and starve to death – although we were really looking forward to breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, which we had decided to do after the hike.
We found mysterious stacked rocks and evil tree-killing vines which Andy and Mrs. Link went crazy on (swinging, ripping, tearing). And then, all of the sudden, we were back on the trail.
And what a trail it was. The sun came out from behind the clouds, a babbling brook that we had all to ourselves. It was surreal and beautiful. It bumped the solidly average Wolf/Chimney Rock hike into a solidly serene. It was the best part of of the hike!
It turned out to be a great hike, and boy, was Cracker Barrel good!
Shenandoah: Buck Hollow, Buck Ridge Loop
Next week, we loaded up the car and headed down to Shenandoah again. This time we were joined by Capitol Hill Tubing Society Founder Andy, his new room mate Eva visiting from Switzerland and her friend from Germany, Erika. Eva showed up with her DSLR camera and camelpack. Erika was in blue jeans, a leather jacket and a great attitude!
The Buck Hollow, Buck Ridge trail is technically a loop. It’s three miles steady down hill through Buck Hollow (which you can’t really enjoy because you know every step down on this side will be a step up on the way back), followed by a very, very steep half mile up onto Buck Ridge and then a steady, semi-steep 3-mile return.
As you descend from Skyline Drive, the Buck Hollow creek – which starts as a mere trickle – gains water and speed. By the time you get to the bottom, it’s got some energy to it. The entire hike down was beautiful, made more so by the fact that there weren’t any leaves on the trees so there was good visibility. We ran into a guy and two kids who told us that we had only just missed a black bear on the trail.
After lunch at the bottom of Buck Hollow, we girded our courage and set off for the infamous stairs. The most challenging part of the hike is also a hidden blessing. While downward grade of the hike down Buck Hollow was unrelenting, a short, brutal half mile of elevation gain at the very beginning of the trek up Buck Ridge (at this point, you’re literally climbing onto the ridge from the valley floor) makes the remaining miles much, much more gentle.
Once we got up the stairs (the book said there were 65, but Mrs. Link counted – that’s what she does – and got 570), the rest of the hike was very relaxing.
At one point, we stumbled on a really cool outcropping of rocks slightly above the trail. We stopped, cooled down, and enjoyed the view.
Buck Hollow, Buck Ridge was a good hike, but forgettable. The highlight of the trip was going to Carousel after the hike. It had finally opened after being closed for the winter. We got some sea salt fries. They were amazing.
Get Out Da House (Winter 2011)
This year, because so many of Mrs. Link’s weekends were snuffed out by her med school schedule, we didn’t get out to go skiing. Not even once. So by February, it’s safe to say I was getting rather antsy to get out of the house.
It was cold and there was snow on the ground, but Mrs. Link was quite amiable to a winter hike. A friend suggested suggested Sugarloaf Mountain, a few minutes south of Frederick, MD. We put on our Helly Hanson cold-weather ski gear, and hit the trail.
Hiking in the middle of the winter was great. First, obviously, we had the trail more or less to ourselves. Second, even though you still sweat under all those layers, the crisp air is quite invigorating. You do need to watch your step a little more since you can’t always tell what’s under the snow, but it was a very nice little hike to the Sugarloaf Summit.
Later, after that snow had melted away, another friend suggested we try the 8-mile loop at Prince William Forest National Park. Although it was almost entirely flat, we once again had the trail almost all to ourselves. This area is actually famous for the beaver dams – we saw several.
Sadly, Mrs. Link couldn’t come on this one, even though she wanted to. She was busy working on the weekends.
The 2010 Yearbook
The 2010 Yearbook is done. Another 60 or so hours of work in the layouts over the course of the year (again, this year, I tried to do them as we went). This is a monumental undertaking, but the final product has always been worth it.
This years edition clocks in at 98 pages – largely because once Tiffany left her PhD program we both started doing things on our own. Since 80 pages is the limit allowed by PhotoWorks, we had to look for a place that would allow us more pages. And we found Viovio.
You can browse the pages below.
The Yearbook Accounts of the year in words is below:
January 29th, 2011 in Domestic, Entertainment, Family, Friends, Fun, Med School, Party, Photography, Pictures, Travel, Trekking
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Antietam Battlefield
It is still the bloodiest single day for American casualties in our history. The Battle of Antietam is generally considered to have ended as a tactical draw that resulted in turning back the first Confederate incursion into the North. At a time when the South was on a role and needed a win, even a tactical stalemate was a strategic defeat. Over the course of about 12 hours, 23,000 men were killed our wounded on the fields above Antietam Creek. Six Generals were killed – three on each side.
Last November, we went to Gettysburg – the turning point of the Civil War. This November, we drove a little past where we regularly go river tubing and visited Antietam on a cold, windy day. We took ourselves – along with our friend Adam – on a self-guided car tour.
The battle only took place over the course of a single day (the South would be allowed to escape over the Potomac, much to Lincoln’s chagrin), so it covered a much smaller area than Gettysburg. There are three major elements that I remember.
The Cornfield – Imagine a wide open space full of men with artillery shells raining down from both sides, and you’ll get some sense of what Col. Stephen D. Lee referred to as “artillery Hell.” This is where the battle began at sunrise and raged to a stalemate for much of the morning.
Bloody Lane - Eventually, the South fell back to a well-defended position on the western slope of a road that had sunken below ground level as the result of years and years of wagon use. To the South it must have felt like a foxhole. To the North, however, it became a chicken-shoot that would come to be known as Bloody Lane.
Burnside Bridge – More or less trapped on the wrong side of Antietam Creek, General Burnside had to take the bridge that would eventually be named after him. But the opposing bank was high ground with good cover and the approach to the bridge was exposed. Confederate troops could just sit in small ditches and shoot the Federal troops across the river with lethal results.
When the shooting stopped, 12,401 Federal casualties were almost matched by 10,316 Confederate casualties. The South tucked tail and crossed back to the South, ending it’s first invasion of the North. While the Federals didn’t win, for the first time in a major engagement, they didn’t lose either. That gave Abraham Lincoln the excuse he was waiting for to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in the South and preventing the French and the English from intervening on behalf of the Confederates.
Trap Shooting
Growing up in Montana where the Second Amendment is holy script, hunting is a way of life and you’re regraded suspiciously if you don’t own a gun, perhaps it’s sad that it took more than 30 years to fire a shotgun.
In my defense though, the only kind of hunting I’ve ever done is big game (deer, elk, antelope) and most of my target shooting was either to site my .270 or shooting various hand guns and pistols for fun. I’d learned all about shotguns in Hunters’ Safety courses, but never had occasion to shoot one.
Until my friend Brian invited Andy and I out to the Prince Georges Gun Club to shoot trap. We rented guns, bought a box of target ammo and spent a good hour shouting “Pull” into noise-activated speakers to launch clay pigeons. I was actually rather proud of myself – I guess all that practice with Duck Hunt paid off, and I did pretty well.
Hitting the C&O Canal
Way back in 2007, when Tiffany and I were training for our Granite Peak adventure, our friend Adam suggested the C&O Canal as a good, local hike. By design, the towpath (which was used by mules and horses to pull cargo up the canal itself) is very flat. But there are also three “Billy Goat Trails” near Great Falls which provide a little more challenge and even a rock scramble or two.
Recently, our friend Adam invited us to join him and his son CJ on a return visit to Great Falls. With the kid in tow, the towpath seemed most appropriate and the rock scrambles a little more hazardous than was justified. But it was an absolutely beautiful Sunday stroll amidst changing leaves and crisp, cool air.
And Adam let me try my hand at still more portraiture!
2010 Maryland Renaissance Festival
The famous Maryland Renaissance Festival is always fun. Nerds in costumes, bustiers that defy gravity, beer, meat on a stick and medieval-themed entertainment; what’s not to love. Unfortunately, Tiffany was on call again and couldn’t go. But our friend Steve got us a great deal on tickets, so off I went.
The RenFen is fun, and it’s a photographer’s paradise: Vivid colors, interesting people doing interesting things. So this year, given my pursuit of photographic experience, I decided to embrace the opportunity to push comfort levels. Specifically, shooting strangers in public places. This has been one of my goals for the year, and one that I’ve been hesitant to push.
But here, among paid performers and people who dress up, I found no shortage of people willing to let me take their pictures. In fact, of the several people I asked, only one reacted strangely. More often, they loved to pose and even gave me email addresses to send them photos. That made the Maryland Renaissance Festival a personal Rubicon.
Of course, there was the Jester (best photo from October). He was the first guy I asked to shoot; he was out trying to recruit people to his show. He posed for several shots; this was the best.
Then there was ‘Gandalf” who was watching a show with me. He was just a regular guy, and it took me a glass of delicious October Ale to summon the courage to ask him to take his picture. He asked to see the shot, liked it, and I was off to the races!
This guy looked big an mean, but he was actually really nice and (probably) gentle. His fiance asked me to email her the pictures and was very grateful for the shots.
Yep, still creepy even in context.
And then there was this fairy girl. By the time I got to her, I was on a role. I asked her if I could take her picture, she said I could, but seemed sort of weirded out. That made me feel weird, too. So I took off as soon as I got the picture. Which, in matter of fact, made it weird. Oh well.
It was a great experience and really broke the ice for the portrait-style photography I really got into in November. Look through the pictures – there are plenty of shots of the usual friends in there too. Had a great time – hopefully next year Tiff can come!
