Chuckanut: Raptor Ridge and Lost Antler (WA)

In early December, I had work to do at the house in Bellingham, as well as another memorial service to attend (for Phil Z.), plus a work party to conduct on the new trail at Larrabee State Park. I flew from one cold place (Salt Lake) to another (Seattle) and vaguely dreaded the sub-freezing forecast and all the outside work I needed to do. But the trail work was fun, as always. It was a momentous work party in that we completed that last short section connecting the new trail to an existing ridge trail. A couple more work parties in the spring should wrap it up. After three years of long-distant effort, it will be nice to be finished, finally. I also squeezed or squoze in a good eight-mile hike with friends along Chuckanut Ridge, Raptor Ridge and Lost Lake, passing hundreds of icicles hanging from the cliffs, and ending with a scenic trek up the entire length of our spiffy new cliff trail.

Holy schmoly! The trail includes seventeen stairways.

The last bit of new trail.

The part we built almost three years ago.

Mormon Temple Lights (UT)

After a weekend visit to Mom’s in northeastern Utah just after Thanksgiving, we raced back to the airport in Salt Lake, hoping to beat a predicted snowstorm. We got all the way down Parleys Canyon before any flakes flew, which was a relief, and even had time to walk among the holiday lights at Temple Square, as mom had suggested we do. It was quite a show. Here are a few more attempts to capture the colors with my smartphone camera:

Giant Santa made with candies.

The upscale mall next door.

Cabin John (MD)

On Thanksgiving (November 28), Kris and I took a foot-spin up the lower section of this local trail, which had been on my list for about two years. Nothing much to say about it, other than it was purdy enough to go back to and do some more of sometime.

What's this bamboo doing here?

Note the waving hikers.

Kennedy and Compton Peaks (VA)

With 18 summits left to scale and less than ten weeks to get ‘er done, I was duly motivated to find myself another twofer—two summits in one day, that is. The weather looked good for a November 23rd outing and my sleuthing led me to Kennedy and Compton Peaks, in and near my old standby for dayhikes, Shenandoah National Park. I might as well get my money’s worth out of that annual pass.

43. Kennedy Peak: The hike up Kennedy, west of the park, was easy, pleasant and lonely. I forwent the easier start at a ridge crest parking area and instead launched at the trailhead a mile below in order to enjoy some semblance of a workout. The trail gained the crest and rambled along an old jeep road with lots of sun lighting up the hardwoods. My pyramidal objective rose dead ahead. At about three miles, a final huff upward led to the highest rocks and summit overlook, an elevated platform that presented a mostly unobstructed view. The stairs and handrails were sketchy but the aging deck felt solid enough for a sandwich break. Yup, that’s Virginia alright. I hate to admit it, but these views of the Shenandoah were starting to feel a little too familiar. Halfway back to the car, I passed a handful of hikers and one squirrel. I still had just enough time to zip over to Compton.

Miles (RT):  6.1 miles; elevation gain: 1,300 feet
Cumulative mileage and gain:  192.0 miles / 52,700 feet

The jeep trail.

Kennedy Peak.

Nice poster.

Columnar jointing on Compton Peak.

44. Compton Peak: Entering the park from the north, I needed to continue ten miles south to the trailhead at Compton Gap. Once there, I had an hour and a half of daylight left and not even three miles to cover, so no problem. The hike to the summit requires no description, other than to say it was getting rather cold and windy about the time I arrived. That other sandwich would have to wait. Nice view though. I did manage to make the stair-steppy side-trip down to the oft-touted columnar jointing outcrop of Catoctin lava, an added visual treat and worth the effort. Reportedly, the lava cooled more than a half billion years ago, which is somewhat more than a wee bit ago.

Miles (RT):  2.4 miles; elevation gain: 800 feet

Cumulative mileage and gain:  194.4 miles / 53,500 feet

 

Scotts Run (VA)

A good trail system runs through a wooded suburban park a few miles downriver from Great Falls. I noticed the Sierra Club was leading a hike there on November 17, so we joined a dozen or so others for a lazy Sunday ramble of about five miles. A highlight was the picturesque waterfall where Scotts Run dumps its bounty into the Potomac. Dry weather had diminished the volume in both streams. We’ll go there again sometime when the creek and river are higher and then complete the trek along the Potomac Heritage Trail to Great Falls.

The Potomac.

It took quite a battle to save these woods.

Relic.

We want to hike this trail to Great Falls, VA.

 

Buzzard Rock (VA)

This easy hike (on November 16) to a very scenic ridge near Shenandoah had eluded me previously because it did not appear to entail a summit. On a second glance, I noticed that the trail, namely the Massanutten Trail, continued along the ridge to and over a highpoint a mile south of Buzzard Rock. So I reckoned that even if the summit was in trees, there would be an excellent view to enjoy both coming and going.

42. Buzzard Rock: The path lazily climbed to the ridge, steepened briefly, then straddled the jaggy crest with fabulous views from the top of a 100-foot wall of near-vertical rock. I marched on and was soon at the high point, where the views were not half bad after all. I reversed course and stopped on the return to watch a couple of rock climbers ascending the slabby wall. Gotta take Kris up this one, ‘twas quite enjoyable.

Miles (RT):  6.0 miles; elevation gain: 1,300 feet
Cumulative mileage and gain:  172.2 miles / 48,400 feet

Kepler Overlook (VA)

This was another hike I found at hikingupward.com and it sounded like a good choice for a cool-ish fall day (November 10) for Kris and I.

41. Kepler Overlook: It took us a couple wrong turns to find the trail, but we eventually got there and suffered a not too interesting ascent to the rockily scenic ridge crest. It wouldn’t take much to improve the trail to the best view point with a nice sitting area contoured into the rock and I was tempted to give it a go right then and there. But lacking any suitable tools to flail around with, I conceded it would have to wait for another day. A quick lunch and a few pics later, we were downward bound, having chalked up another summit for Kenny Boy. Interestingly, the 1,200 foot elevation gain to Kepler put me at exactly (more or less) 50,000 feet and very nearly 180 miles. That’s an average of just over 1,200 feet and 4.4 miles per summit. Nothing superhuman about that, but hey, it’s exercise. I’d originally thought I might hit 100,000 feet, but a handful of itty bitty summits with 100 to 300 feet of gain are scrunching my averages. Guess I better lay off those.

Miles (RT):  6.6 miles; elevation gain: 1,200 feet

Cumulative mileage and gain:  179.9 miles / 50,000 feet

Finding the right road.

Atop Kepler.

An old furnace perhaps?