April 11th, 2008 ydant
Spring is finally here, and the weather has been taunting us with beautiful days and yet we’ve been spending most of our time in the climbing gym instead of going out on real rock. By yesterday we’d had enough - the weather was perfect and the rock was calling out to us. Forget pesky work (that’s what vacation time is for), we were going climbing. The crew this time was my original partner in climb, Nick, and our new climbing partner Vivian.
Legend: Nick is in the blue shirt and I am in the orange.
When I say the weather was awesome, I mean it. Mid 70s, clear sky, nice breeze, few bugs. We couldn’t ask for a nicer first day of the season outside.
Great Falls Park is a a National Park split by the Potomac river and it extends on both the Maryland and Virginia sides of the river. Here Nick is surveying the route ahead. The rock you see in the picture is on the Maryland side and, despite looking pretty steep from this angle, is not that amazing for climbing. The river is significantly higher than it was last year, so we were a little worried about finding a good place to stand on the bottom.
Before shots
We start the abseil down, with Nick going first. There’s a path we can walk around, but it’s good to go this way when the water’s high. We also want to become as comfortable with doing so as possible on the small pitches as we might have to finish out long multi-pitch climbs with an abseil down.
And the climbing begins!
Vivian coming back down after successfully reaching the top
Random candid shot
Nick forgot his climbing shoes, and sneakers are almost useless for this sort of stuff, so barefoot it was. He did remarkably well, despite the obvious painful nature of such climbing:
I belayed Nick mostly, due to Vivian being much lighter than him. Although she can handle the weight difference, it does lift her off of the ground if either of us falls, which can be a little treacherous on the rock.
Towards the end of the day I started to get artistic
Who watches the watchers?
The last climb up was after it already started getting dark.
Finishing up
You must be this tall to ride this ride
Finally, the Great Falls of Great Falls Park
We finished it off with a few cold pints of beer at an awesome Irish Pub in Great Falls, VA.
As usual, the full set of pictures are available in the photo album for this trip.
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March 30th, 2008 ydant
This weekend a friend of mine (Vivian) and I went on a backpacking trip. This was her first backpacking trip (although she’d been on long hiking trips many times before), and we got off to a bit of a late start on Saturday morning. Since we were a little pressed for time and not quite sure how much actual hiking she would be up for we decided to pick somewhere fairly easy and close. In the Northern Virginia area that pretty much always means a trip out to the Shenandoah National Park. There are plenty of other places to hike, but not quite so many that allow overnight camping.
Located less than two hours away from most of the Washington, D.C. area, the Shenandoah National Park is a very popular destination for people wanting to get a taste of the outdoors. Luckily, the weather was a bit on the chilly side (mid 40s-mid 30s over the weekend), so we didn’t encounter the usual horde of weekend warriors decked out in the latest in fashionable gear from The North Face. The park makes its money off of these people, sure, but it’s still nice when they stay home.
For this weekend’s trip we decided to go down to the Matthew’s Arm area (and not just because of the similarity to my name). This area boasts a great waterfall view (off of the Tuscarora Trail), some good elevation change, and a decent chance of finding a good camping spot. There are also plenty of trails in the area allowing us to tailor the length of our trip as we went.
The day started out with absolutely perfect weather and temperature, with just a splattering of clouds in the sky and just warm enough that we didn’t really need more than a layer or two to stay warm. Considering the forecast when we planned this trip was calling for cold and rainy the entire weekend, we couldn’t have asked for nicer conditions.
From the beginning of the trip it was readily apparent who would be carrying the majority of the load (my pack is on the right, and holds a full 50L more than hers).
Of course, the bag looks just right when she’s wearing it, so mine must be ridiculously over-sized:
The last time I was on this trail the water was in fairly short supply, but thankfully that wasn’t an issue this time. The waterfalls were all very active, and the river by our campsite was flowing quite nicely. This did mean a couple of water crossings, of course, but none that we couldn’t manage with a bit of careful stepping.
Spring is definitely just around the corner, and the trees and flowers are all starting to leaf and bloom. These little flowers were everywhere along the trail, and while I don’t know what they are called, they are very photogenic.
We managed to find a good place to camp somewhere in the middle of the land of a million rocks (the trail was filled with large rocks). This entire area was obviously within a flood area at one point in time (due to the rocks and general shape of the terrain), but that wasn’t a concern for this weekend.
As usual, my whisperlight handled the task of heating water for food.
As per NPS rules for wilderness camping (and as is just general good sense), our food was stored in a “bear bag” high above the ground in case any such creatures decided to come sniffing around.
Being in the middle of the woods doesn’t mean you can ignore proper hygiene!
Being in the middle of the woods also doesn’t mean you have to give up some comforts.
The weekend ended quite a bit colder and cloudier than it started, with the smell of wetness (rain? snow?) in the air. We were quite happy to make it back to the car when we did and as warm as we did.
A cloudy sky might have made the views a little darker, but this part of the country is still beautiful.
While a short trip, it was a lot of fun, and I think Vivian’s gotten bitten by the backpacking bug, so I imagine there will be more trips in the future.
The rest of the pictures are available in my photo gallery.
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March 28th, 2008 ydant
For me, every backpacking trip is planned almost as if I’ve never been backpacking before. The only thing that changes (since I’m such a gearhead), is that I always have more to choose from each time I pack. Luckily, I always seem to remember the crucial items (often just as I’m pulling out of the driveway) - mainly because I keep most of the gear in the same place.
While packing for the last trip I went on (to Ramsey’s Draft, VA) I decided to end this cycle of forgetfulness and so I documented every item I packed (except for clothes). Now I’m finally putting that online.
- Backpack - I have an “old” Jansport Rockies 100 that has been with me for quite some time. It’s a large pack, which only encourages overpacking. Still, I can’t find any reason to replace it.
- Sleeping bag - temperature appropriate. I am currently rethinking my sleeping bags - for a long time I got by just fine with a 20F synthetic bag, but having recently purchased and absolutely loved my North Face Solar Flare -20F, I’m moving towards a range of down bags. For this trip I plan on purchasing the Mountain Hardware 32F Down bag.
- Sleeping pad - A sleeping pad serves for more than just comfort (rocks, uneven ground) by insulating you with air from the ground and thus reducing the amount of heat that leeches into the ground. Get at least a 3/4 length pad. Self-inflatable is best.
- Camp Stool - this is a purely comfort item, but everyone seems to love using mine when I bring it. Mine’s almost ten years old now, but REI sells a similar lightweight camp stool.
- Water filter - Obviously an essential. I have an old Sweetwater Microfilter from before MSR sold them (I think). Change the filters, and they last forever.
- Stove (and fuel) - MSR Whisperlite, as a fairly recent purchase. I have no complaints with this stove, although there might be better ones out there. Don’t forge t the fuel!
- Pot - Something to boil water in, at a minimum. For this MSR makes a perfectly serviceable Alpine Stowaway aluminium pot. One medium sized one does me fine for 2-3 people trips.
- Bowl, Cup, Utensils - For pure zen, go Alpine Bowl. It’s not fancy, but it’s light and works. An alternative are the squishy silicon bowls. Any spoon will do. Or just eat from the bag. No gourmet allowance here.
- Pack cover - get one that fits your bag, and keep it handy. Even waterproof backpacks leak.
- Utility rope - for hanging bear bags, etc. Consider a small pouch that can be tied to the rope to hold rocks for weight for throwing.
- Water/camp shoes - especially if there will be stream crossings. Flipflops or Solomon Amphibian water shoes. The latter are loved by me.
- Hat - not necessary, but can be nice. I have a floppy brimmed hat.
- Knife - Something simple is fine, but you never know when you’ll need one.
- Matches - Something to start a fire and light your stove.
- Flashlight & batteries - I’m a big fan of LED head lamps. Don’t forget the spare batteries.
- Pack towel - Something microfiber and small. From sweat to spills, these are handy.
- Tent - trip specific.
- Collapsible hiking poles - A lot of people don’t like these. I love them. I have three sets because I have forgotten them too many times and had to buy at the trail head.
- Water bottles - At a minimum I take 4L of water on every trip. I can always pour it out, but not always add to that. Take 6L (per person) if water will be scarce. I use a combination of Nalgene water bottles and Platypus water bags.
- Clothes - I almost left this one off… Appropriate clothing for the weather! If you pack synthetic or wool for everything, you won’t have to pack as much (sweat doesn’t render it unusable for multiple days). Proper clothing for the weather is a long discussion.
- Stuff sacks - Not just of the compressible variety. Waterproof stuff sacks come in handy. Everything gets wrapped in one (clothes for one, food for another). Also one can be used as a bear bag.
- Resealable bags - Traditionally I packed clothes in ziplock bags, but years of lack of problems with water getting all the way inside my waterproof stuff-sacks has made me more lazy about this. The side-effect is that I never have bags to store trash in. Every trip should have at least one resealable bag.
For gear reviews, I like this site: Backpack Gear Test.
For gear, I obviously like REI.
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