At the Rink

Clearly I am shirking my blogging responsibilities in 2009. I’ve been procrastinating posting a couple of slideshows in the hopes that I would actually write something up about them. That hasn’t worked too well. Admitting that I have a problem is the first step. Recruiting guest bloggers may be the second. For now we’ll just have to settle for the captions in the slideshows…

DC Roller Derby

Harper's Ferry Hike

I do have to make two quick notes:

• Get to the Roller Derby early (like 45 minutes before the match starts) and grab your food and drinks. The line to get through security stretched from the DC Armory back to the metro… and the concessions lines were even worse, hopefully they’ll have more security and concessions personnel next time.
• As for the Harper’s Ferry hike… we never did find the trailhead despite walking past where it was supposed to be once and driving past it twice. I assume that it may actually be the path directly out of the parking lot (despite the guidebook saying 0.3 miles up the road).  

Geotag This!

I am officially not a fan of the current state of geotagging tools/websites. It would be hard to suck all of the fun out of the phenomenal hike/swim that is the White Oak Canyon/Cedar Run hike but Flickr and EveryTrail nearly accomplished it. It seems like a fun little idea to give you a map as the backdrop to the slideshow (and I basically went out and purchased a GPS in order to do just that) but the tools just aren't ready yet. Here is a short list of the problems I have now had with this process:

• Picasa can't read the geotags in my photos edited by WWMX Location Stamper (Solution: Batch edit the version number with an Exif editor or switch editors)
• Picasa photo maps can't be embedded in a blog (Solution: Use EveryTrail.com which creates the embedded code)
• EveryTrail simply fails to read half of the photos uploaded from my PC and can't link to my Picasa photos (Solution: Use Flickr for my photos since EveryTrail can link to them)
• Flickr limits me to 100MB/Month... and the photos from a single hike are 125MB (Solution: Change the default preferences in Flickr Uploadr to resize your photos to 1600—or smaller—and realize that it will still tell you that you are about to upload 125MB)
• Flickr uploads photos and throws away the geotag data (Solution: Change the default setting in your Flickr account profile that disables importing of location data!)
  
• Flickr Uploadr puts photos in reverse chronological order and only lets you reorder one at a time... and the photos don't go into the set specified (Solution: Use the Organizr in the web interface to place the photos in sets and choose Arrange to reverse their current order)
• When Everytrail imports from Flickr... it only succeeds in importing half of the photos! (Solution: Import the other half manually from the computer a couple photos at a time)
• Once they are all uploaded and you are about to manually readd the captions to the ones that didn't import from Flickr... realize that the photos are out of order and EveryTrail doesn't give you a mechanism to reorder them (Solution: Get pissed, write a seething blog entry about your frustration, post the slideshow in its traditional mapless form, get some sleep and try to remember how much fun the hike was instead of how frustrating embedding a geotagged slideshow into a blog currently is)

Oh yeah. Did I mention we had a fun hike returning to White Oak Canyon and Cedar Run yesterday? Enjoy the slideshow :-)



Note to Jon:

• Stop at the Sheetz on the right-hand side of 211 in Warrenton instead of the Wawa on 29 in Gainesville (gas was 6 cents cheaper than Wawas morning price... which went up an additional 8 cents while we were out hiking!)
• Plastic bags full of water apparently keep houseflies away. We saw several bags hung around Burgers 'n' Things and admittedly didn't see a lot of flies hanging around
• Order the Dreamsicle Milkshake for the post-hike treat
• Hike stats:
  Length: 8.1 miles
  Duration: 5 hours, 56 minutes, 9 seconds
  Average Speed: 1.4 mph
  Vertical up: 4193.4 ft
  Vertical down: 4218.6 ft

Memorial Day Hike 2008: Much Less Water

Last year we found the rock slide on Cedar Run Trail which is still my favorite hike in the D.C. area. I'd have been happy to return this Memorial Day but I've been accused of being too rigid in my traditions, plus one of our merry band of hikers doesn't like water... or it might have something to do with the fact that we already had plans to hike Cedar Run again later this month :-)

Instead we selected a hike through Little Bennett Regional Park in Clarksburg, MD for Memorial Day. The hike was an easy 9.1 loop around the perimeter of the park, which made for pleasant hiking through mostly shaded trails but not so much for spectacular views.



Notes to Jon:

• If you don't print out a trail map at home you can use a photo of the park signs as a digital map

• We finally remembered to look up local ice cream spots before the hike and ended up at the quite satisfactory Country Cone Cafe in Germantown, MD

• Country Cone Cafe was perfect for this hike because the lactose intolerant among us could eat their frozen yogurt
  
  
• Looking for tether ball? Country Cone Cafe has you covered there as well
  

• While no one got any we certainly saw plenty of Poison Ivy (and spent quite a while debating what it looked like—are the leaves always shiny? Find out the way we did...)
  
  
• Hike times: Total time about 7 hours. Hike and lunch 4 hours 45 minutes. Left Ballston just after 10am. At trailhead by 10:45. Finished hiking about 3:30. Ice cream at 4:00 and home by 5:00
  
  
• The tool I use to geotag my photos—WWMX Location Stamper—doesn't play well with Picasa and requires the additional step of running something like Exiftool to adjust the version numbers
  
  
• I investigated embedding a geotagged slideshow in the post but haven't found a good option yet (I'd like something more interactive than the interesting solution Rocky found). For now I'll link to the new capability in Picasa and Google Maps which is fairly good and just lacks the ability to show a GPS track and easily embed the result in a blog
  

King of the 'Loaf

Once we discovered that Punxsutawney, Pa is nowhere near Philly, we gave up our dreams of a joint Groundhog Day/Philly Cheese Steak adventure, and settled instead for enjoying an un-February-like hike around Sugarloaf Mountain in Dickerson MD. Thanks to Mary for coming up with the idea!

Here are some notes from the hike:

• We met at the West View parking lot, which meant we started the hike by driving nearly all the way to the top!

• We did a 7 mile circuit primarily along the Blue loop, with some excursions along the White loop around the summit.

• "Well it is possible to burp and taste fish oil" Dave reconsiders, after first defending fish oil vitamins as not having a bad taste.

• Always check for a post-hike-ice-cream-venue before the hike. My car's GPS left us with the options of a "Jimmie Cone" (where no one answered the phone) or a Dairy Queen.

• At the DQ, most of us felt a small Blizzard would have been big enough, and while I didn't know it on Saturday, I now whole-heartedly endorse the Banana Split Blizzard with Chocolate Ice Cream (you have to ask for the chocolate ice cream specially).
  
  
• Right next door to the Germantown DQ is a Blimpie that serves Boardwalk Fries that really hit the post-post-hike-ice-cream spot—but they lie about serving the Nathan's Hot Dogs on their poster.
  
  
• Rocky joined us for what would be his last hike before moving to San Francisco, and we got to see some of what his gadgetry could do on a hike. His GPS created a map of where we hiked, and by simply "synchronizing watches" between his camera and his GPS he has software that will automatically tag the exact coordinates of each picture... now if it just knew the orientation of the photo. Rocky pointed out that you can even import the data into Google Earth to get a 3D walkthough of the hike (as seen above), complete with embedded photos—each dot will bring up a photo.
  
  
• The "Don't Try This at Home Kids" note of the hike was Dave stepping across a 40 foot deep chasm to climb into a crack in the rock that let him slide through the cliff and come out the other side where he was thankfully able to scramble down.
  
  
• The diamond shaped blazes we saw around White Rocks don't seem to be standard trail blazes, but the offset vertically stacked rectangles indicate the direction of the turn, and triple blazes can be used for trail heads, ends, or spurs depending on the configuration.
  
  
• Reagan received a testimonial, "She's cute and furry" from a little boy on the trail (despite her penchant for rolling around in dead animals and scat on this particular hike)
  
  
  

Top o' the Mutton

Spending the night without electricity or indoor plumbing may not be a typical New Year’s Eve… but I hope it becomes one. Kevin secured Mutton Top Cabin for our friends to welcome 2008 and, while I did break the low-key dress code, I think it was exactly the New Year’s everyone was looking for.

The trip began with a detour to Big Al’s Tavern near Stanardsville (which Jeff correctly pronounces STAN-erds-ville) to watch the Redskins advance to the playoffs. We sacrificed for our loyalty though when the access gate was locked, leading to a fully laden half-mile uphill hike in the dark and the rain (I had anticipated this though and safely waterproofed my tuxedo’s garment bag).

We dried off over a salacious game of Bag o’ Nouns (which involves three rounds of guessing the same words in the styles of catchphrase, password, and finally charades). Some highlights of each round included a debate over whether “quattro” was a valid word for explaining “foursome”, “heterosexual” as the password for the noun “Darren Biggs”, and that it helps to have Jan Louis around if the word is “hog fat”.

After waking up to the panorama of hills humping up like whales through the cloud-filled valley, Linny picked out a short water-filled hike off of Skyline Drive that would get us back in time for her to prepare her trademark pho for lunch (tuxedos and pho, probably two things that have never been in Mutton Top before). While the Brown’s Gap->Doyle’s Run Trail->AT loop turned out to be a couple miles longer and farther down the drive than expected, we still got back before the lunch crowd mutinied, and everyone agreed Linny’s pho was worth the wait (though there was some disagreement on how it should be pronounced…).

I spent the early evening sawing and splitting firewood before contributing potatoes and asparagus for dinner. We gathered around Sarah’s crotch-warming bonfire, and then after dinner AB and I changed into our ironic attire for the rustic festivities. While we failed to go through with some of the photo ops we’d discussed (prom pictures with the outhouse as the background, and before and after photos of the-outhouse-as-supermans-phone-booth) it was nostalgic standing in front of Joel’s 2008 banner with about six cameras trained on us as our eyes darted from one to another trying to guess which would go off next.

We timed our countdown off of a consensus of cell phones and satellite-synced GPS clocks (which spent most of their time searching for signals). In the revelry I managed to get four New Year’s kisses which I believe is a record for me and hopefully bodes well for my New Year’s resolution of more nookie in 2008 (though, while fun, various photographic reenactments and the Alexandwich don’t technically count).

As they roll in, I will link to my friend’s photos and accounts. Including for the first time ever Dave's photos! In my opinion he got the best ones, and he came up with some damn funny captions for them as well...

Thanks to everyone who worked so hard setting up this trip and doing all the necessary chores during it (and of course to PATC and all the volunteers for making this possible). Happy New Year everyone and here’s to 2008!

Antietam: Bringin' Sepia Back

On Sarah’s suggestion, we took a different style of hike Sunday as we visited Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, MD. More than anything else I think the trip was inspired by her knowledge of a local ice cream shop to hit after the hike (something we’ve deemed essential as a post-hike ritual… even when it is in the 40s apparently) While it was cold, Sarah’s booty music warmed us up (and inspired some ribald inside jokes) and while it wasn’t the solemnest of visits the Battlefield has seen I would recommend this as an interesting change of pace hike. Here are some notes to recreate our success:

• Depart Ballston around 10:45. Sleeping in and hiking, a new concept for us

• Pick up lunch at Sheetz off highway 65 (we missed the 5 subs for $10 deal, but may go for that next time). Optionally, make assorted jokes about where AB can store food, the Fizzinator, low hanging front ends, riding handlebar mustaches, and general ho-liday puns (it worked for us)

• Our “family” arrived at the Visitor Center about 12:40 ($6 per family or $4 per person) and took a 20 minute “running” tour of the quarter mile loop of memorials around the visitor center. Leave more time for a more respectful pace (honestly, once Darren decided to bring sexy back with his Civil War era mustache, we knew what kind of a day it was going to be and decided not to fight it)
  

• Watch the 26 minute video at 1pm on how General McClellan failed to press the Union advantages, potentially resulting in another three years of war (it also gives an overview of the fighting that day which is useful as you hike those areas)

• From 1:30 to 4:30, take the driving tour and stop to re-enact the day’s battles along the Cornfield Trail (download an audio tour), the Union Advance Trail, and the Final Attack Trail, which total about 4.3 miles of easy hiking (except for the perilous groundhog holes! You have been warned…)

• Reward yourself with a stop at Nutter’s Ice Cream Shoppe a mile away on the main street of Sharpsburg. We worried it would be closed by 5pm… on a Sunday… in November… but they are open until 9pm (not that we stayed that long)! We agreed the Pumpkin ice cream was our favorite flavor but it was hard to beat the Hot Apple Sundae with Vanilla and the Hot Fudge Sundae with Peanut Butter Ripple.

I’d climb the highest mountain...

Jemaine: Would you really do that, climb the highest mountain?

Bret: No, probably not

Jemaine: Why not make it a bit more realistic… things you’d actually do?

Bret: Well, I’d hang out with her… (check out the Flight of the Conchord's song)

Or in my case, I’d hike Old Rag. And since I wasn’t hiking up for, or with, anyone in particular I reveled in my mostly solo hike (which made for some fun shadography). Thanks to Diana for getting me to finally do this climb for the first time (it only took about 31 years of living around here!), for driving, and for letting me cast the deciding scheduling vote so I could hike it on my birthday weekend.

Notes to Jon:

• I theorized that we witnessed the latest sunrise ever over our morning pitstop, Wawa. This is the first year of the new daylight savings time and Saturday was the last morning before we fell back, so that sunrise shot was taken at 7:41 am.

• We spotted the strangest rainbow (a rainspot?) which was a prism of color that kept glowing out of one spot in the clouds a good distance away from the sun. It remained for the final 15 minutes of the drive and was visible even as our road twisted off in different directions.

• Departing Ballston at 7am was early enough to avoid the bottlenecks on the rock scramble section despite being one of the busiest weekends of the year. Leaving later would have been a disaster. Hiking back down the rock scramble around 1pm we encountered people who’d presumably arrived closer to 10 or 11am. They were in a line that easily stretched back 100 people and couldn’t possibly have taken less than an hour to work through the bottleneck.

• There is a bypass to the left of the bottleneck (as seen from the bottom), but it isn’t for the faint of heart and I needed a hand (actually a bent leg) to get started. It also isn’t much of an option when the line gets as long as it did because no one is going to let you pass through the line to get to the bypass. Coming back down on the other hand worked just fine!

• We chose to hike up the rock scramble and then back down it rather than taking the easier fire road home. If you are willing to crab walk down the bypass I think that’s the better option. I didn’t take the fire road but I can’t imagine it would be more exciting than another trek through the rocks.

• The hike took about two hours each way, which accounted for a decent amount of time wandering off for photos, but not much for waiting in line if you go later.
  
  
• My winter biking gloves were perfect for keeping my hands warm and scrape-free.
  
  

Safety Knots

I'll take a quick break from chronicling my trip to West Africa (I'll keep updating the entry below this) to bring you this public service announcement: Always tie safety knots at both ends of a rope you rappel down - or better yet tie the two ends together in a double fisherman's knot. Note to Jon - learn how to tie a double fisherman's knot!



You might not want to read this mom. We climbed Juliet's Balcony at Great Falls VA this morning and decided to rappel down. This was nearly a "very bad idea". I made it down to the balcony without incident and then threw the ropes down the rest of the way. Robert pointed out I needed to verify both ends had reached the ground. I'm pretty sure they did (it was hard to tell from the angle where I was at - not that that's a good excuse) but when you rappel the ropes can feed through your belay device at different speeds as I found out when one of the ends fed right up through my hand and out the belay device, essentially meaning there was nothing holding the other end of the rope I was hanging from. I caught the rope but it was out of the device and I was now dangling from the end of a rope with nothing to hold me up. Thankfully I was only about 5 feet from the bottom at this point and was able to fall safely (except for some nasty rope burn). When Garrick from Sportrock came by later and rappelled down the same rope he pulled the entire rope back to the top and tied the double fisherman's knot between the two ends before coming down. I should probably take the outdoor safety class :-) Good thing I just got a gift certificate for a free class!

The climbing went well though after I shook off the nerves from my (mini) fall. I did a couple of 5.7s and a 5.10c which clearly was mis-rated (or I used some holds which weren't intended for it). Garrick had climbed it before me and rated it a 5.8 so we'll go with that, and modify the name from Randomly Vicious to (Not So) Randomly Vicious. I think the difference is that we climbed a bit up the flake to the left of the intended face at the bottom (though Yvonne definitely climbed the intended route once) and perhaps too far to the right at the top. Either way it was a fun climb and I definitely recommend it if you are looking for a 5.8 level climb.


My day outdoors on Sunday was a tad safer, with an easy hike out to Raven Rocks WV. It is a 5.5 mile out and back hike with a great view and lunch spot in the middle, where we discovered some climbers on one of the cliff faces. I'll have to investigate the area online more and see about doing some climbing out there. I do think I'd have to rappel down though...

Rock Slide!

Started what may become a new Memorial Day tradition this year with the White Oak Canyon/Cedar Run hike in Shenandoah National Park. I can't believe I lived here 30 years without knowing about "The Slide" on Cedar Run (AB took this shot of me on the right - as well as the video on the sidebar). The hike up White Oak Canyon, across the fire road and horse trail and back down Cedar Run was about 6.5 miles to the Rock Slide and took us from 10am to 1:30pm so it made for a late lunch. When I do the hike again I would do it exactly the same way though since the rock slide was fantastic and you can stay as long as you want and know you are nearly at the car (in case an afternoon storm moves in as it did today just as we reached the parking lot). The best swimming hole other than the slide (and the best for pure swimming) appeared to be the bottommost of the waterfalls on White Oak Canyon (the first you reach hiking up).

One of the goals of the hike (for me) was to test out Mimsi's backpack and the Keen Newport H2 Sandals (on the right with Ann's Keen hiking boats) I got as possible gear for Africa. Both passed the test.






Ann at the top of the main White Oak Canyon falls with a view down from the top on the right.










In front of the second falls on White Oak Canyon and a photo Ray took of me at the top of the main falls during our snack break.





AB hanging out on a log and Dave hanging out in the water (he ran ahead and was in the pool here at the lowermost falls when we arrived)









Ray took this sequence of shots of tandem rock sliding...







And these of a memorable run...