Sugarloaf Furlough Hike

On what turned out to be the final day of the 2013 Federal government shutdown I headed to Sugarloaf Mountain for a hike. The national parks were still closed by the shutdown; I figured that Sugarloaf, being private, would be safe. There was something ironic about driving up I270 - basically my regular commute - during the furlough. I waved to the building as I passed Shady Grove and continued on up to the mountain.

Bessbug Beetle on the Trail

As I pulled into the parking lot at 8:30 a group of Asian ladies was just getting started on their hike. They reminded me of my days of traveling to Korea. I used to deploy technology to South Korea's equivalent of Cheyenne Mountain: a national command center inside a mountain. The funny thing is that the mountain itself seemed to be a popular hiking spot. Every day, our bus would stop at the first of several checkpoints so the heavily armed guards could check our IDs row by row.While I sat and waited I'd see hordes of hikers passing by just outside the fence.

I wanted to allow some space between the ladies and me and so I lingered a bit in the parking lot. However, once I started hiking I quickly caught up with them and realized that they were just the rear guard of a very chatty battalion sized group of Asian hiking ladies. I like peace and quiet in woods and so I picked up my pace, power-walking past the group. I figured that by walking quickly for a while I would put them behind me for good, but it seems like once they got going they must have picked up their pace as well. Any time I stopped to take a picture or admire the scenery I'd start to hear their voices behind me. A few times they even came into view. Each time I'd feel compelled to do another sprint to open up the distance again. It got to be like the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, where they're being chased by the law and no matter what they do - galloping at top speed, traveling across rocky terrain to throw off the tracking - the pursuers stay on their trail. "Who are those guys?" Finally the ladies must have taken a break since I lost them.

Oh, I should mention some part of my hike other than the ladies. It was a somewhat overcast day, but still pretty for hiking. Some fall color was in evidence, though the gray day meant nothing was really "popping". I primarily hiked the Blue Trail, but since I started at the East View rather than West View I had to do a little trail hopping to get onto the Blue Trail: Orange to White to Blue, and again at the end I had to do Blue to White to Orange.The trail system is very well blazed, which is nice.

White Rocks Panorama

The Blue Trail has a couple of nice vistas, the best of which is White Rocks. I stopped there and took in the valley view, but not long after I arrived my lady friends caught up with me. They parked themselves in a circle just below the overlook (why visit an overlook and sit where you can't see the view?) and picked up their conversation. This motivated me to get on my way again. I didn't see the ladies again after that, but to pay them back for the stress they added to my hike I did slash their tires when I got back to the parking lot. Just kidding! In truth I arrived back at the parking lot relaxed from a very nice hike. I spent a little time looking at the east view (one of the odd things about Sugarloaf is that some of the nicest views are actually from the parking lots) and then headed on my way.

Leaf