Quarantine can make you a little stir crazy. In particular, I knew that I’d be absolutely stuck at home for the next two days while we have a minor home improvement job done, so I felt a strong urge to get out of my usual haunts and go somewhere different today. The problem is it was a really hot and sticky day. I didn’t feel like roasting myself out on the water, and I didn’t necessarily want to commit to a long bike ride. For a while I’ve been itching to go for a hike – an itch that only intensified recently when I came across the Japanese concept of “forest bathing”, which is sort of mindfully immersing yourself in the woods. Some friends of mine were performing at B Chord Brewery out in Bluemont (about 15 miles past Leesburg), so I decided to head out that way, figuring that if the timing worked out I would stop by and see their performance after my hike. I chose the Raven Rocks hike on the Appalachian Trail: about 5.5 miles round trip of very steep, rocky terrain, but with a reward of an excellent view at the destination.
Reading about the hike online, the first thing I noted was
that there was limited parking at the trailhead but plentiful parking at a lot less
than ¼ mile up the road. Don’t park along the roadside, the writeup warned, or
you’ll be towed. I knew I had reached the trailhead when I saw a small parking
lot and a whole bunch of signs saying Don’t Park Here or You’ll Be Towed. Well,
I could see one such sign – there were cars parked in front of the rest of
them. I guess people aren’t willing to add a short walk to their hike? I didn’t like having to worry about my car all day and so parked at
the spacious lot up the road and walked back along the shoulder
to the trailhead.
The hike is part of what’s known as the “rollercoaster”
section of the AT – continuous ups and downs, ups and downs. This hike was a
series of steep ascents and descents: a descent from 1,100 to 1,000 feet, back
up to 1,100 then down to 800, then back up to 1,200 to get to the summit.
According to the listing for this hike on HikingUpward the total elevation gain
for the hike is 1,530 ft. For the sake of comparison, the Empire State
Building, including spire and antenna, is 1,454 ft tall. So this hike was like
walking to the top of the Empire State Building, climbing the spire and antenna
like King Kong, then walking up another eight flights of stairs in 90 degree,
humid weather on very rocky terrain.
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| Stupidly rocky terrain (note trail blaze on the tree dead center) |
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| Crossing the state line |
My kayaking friend Randi has a bumpersticker that reads, “My dream vacation is your worst nightmare”, and in a similar vein, I’m sure some readers of the last sentence thought, as they were reading it, “this is what you do for fun?” Actually it was quite a nice hike. Yes, I was sweating like a pig, and yes, I was concerned enough about the rigor of doing steep and rugged climbs in the heat that I was monitoring my pulse throughout. But the forest was shady and beautiful, and when I crossed the state line into West Virginia and made the final climb to the summit I was rewarded with a stunning view of the valley below. I settled into a quiet spot to take a break and have a snack. I soon noticed two small lizards moving about nearby. Eastern fence lizards, it turns out (I looked it up later). They weren’t skittish and let me get fairly close to take pictures. Well, let me tell you, nothing beats sitting on a rock ledge looking out over a beautiful view on a sunny day in the company of two adorable little lizards.
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| Vista at the top |
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| Lizards! |
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| Striking a pose |
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| Can one have too many lizard pix? I think not. |
The hike back seemed shorter and maybe a little cooler. At the top I had checked my water supply and realized I had consumed maybe a third of my water and so drank more generously on the way down. A little too generously, since I wound up running out of water before the end – but only ½ hour or so before I reached the trailhead, so not a big problem. As on the way up, I passed by a fairly steady stream of hikers going in the other direction. Everyone was careful about giving each other lots of “social distancing” space. My favorite was a young backpacker who was blasting Jerry Garcia’s “They Love Each Other” as he hiked. I guess a little Jerry helps you get through the day.
When I reached the trailhead I used the remote start feature
on my car so by the time I reached the car it was cooled off inside. Getting
into the car was a machayah (a Yiddish word meaning something refreshing –
literally, something that revives the life in you).
I changed into a fresh shirt and headed over to B Chord, but when I got there I could see that the show was already over so I turned around and instead went to Dirt Farm Brewing, about 2 miles away. I had heard Dirt Farm has a beautiful setting and indeed it’s true – they’re up on a hillside and you can sit out on their patio (at socially distanced picnic tables) and enjoy a great panorama of the valley below. I ordered their Bumpah IPA, a glass of water, and indulged in a bag of potato chips because I was really hungry (I had brought only snacks – not lunch) – but I limited myself to only half the bag, because, y’know, salt and fat. The beer reminded me of Sweetwater 420, which is brewed to have a smell and taste reminiscent of the skunkiness of marijuana (“420” is some sort of reference to marijuana – look it up). I’m not a fan of the skunky experience and so 420 has never been my favorite beer – I also associate it with my stressful year running the DARPA TRAPS project, since it’s the beer available in the Delta Airlines lounge at Atlanta airport where I’d always change planes, but that’s a story for another time.
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| The view from the Dirt Farm patio - no hiking required |
Skunky beer aside, it was still pleasant to have a cold beer in such a scenic setting after a strenuous hike. Since I was by myself I didn’t linger long and soon headed home. The combination of the heat, exertion, and alcohol delivered a knockout punch and as soon as I got home I crawled into bed and passed out for an hour or so, waking to find the electricity in my house in a weird, browned out state where some things worked while others didn’t, but that as well is a story for another time.
