Maryland Heights Trail

The Maryland Height trail is another one of those trails that's quite popular out here. Some saw the view from the top, looking down into historic Harper's Ferry, is one of the best in the state. Last time I was in Harper's Ferry J. and I kept hiking to a minimum due to the humidity, so I had to go back and actually do the trail. It's uphill for the first half, but well worth it. And though we skipped the stone fort, there are other civil war things to see since so much happened in those hills.

It ended up being a drizzly day but was never raining hard so we embraced it. A light mist is quite refreshing when you're going uphill. And mist/fog make for interesting photos.

View from the top. Confluence of Shenandoah River and Potomac River.

 A Fordham Spiced Harvest (get some, it's delish) joined us.

Becasue Leah had never been we took the C&O Canal trail to the big bridge and walked over to Harper's Ferry.

 Thanks to the shutdown pretty much everything was closed. Even the bathrooms. But I was ready to storm the barricade!

And we did hike a little more up to Jefferson Rock. Jefferson wrote, about this spot: "this scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic"

And then there was more beer.

Old Rag

Yes, still playing catch up with the blog. I've been so buys enjoying life and not documenting it. So this was from the end of September.

Old Rag is one of those hikes that everyone out here talks about. The views are amazing. There's this crazy stretch where you have to scramble up, over, and around rocks. And it's completely uphill. 

The first time I did this hike it was July and 103 degrees. I got a heat rash across my chest despite my best efforts to stay hydrated. It was awesome and miserable. This time it still kicked my ass, but was so much easier and enjoyable.

The first part of the trail, as I said, is almost straight up. There are a bunch of switchbacks to make it a bit easier, but it's still not for anyone who just wants to stroll through the woods.

Since it's only about 4.5 miles to the mountain summit (so 9 miles total) it's not long before you escape the woods and start coming to the views that make Old Rag memorable. Seriously, after maybe 2 miles you get all of these crazy mountain views.

And then, there's the rock scramble. Narrow passages, a little bit of climbing, jumping over crevasses, squeezing under boulders. It's a crazy workout, for sure, but it's so fun. I hate the upward climb, but once I got to the rock scramble, I was in heaven. And the first time I did the trail I hadn't started climbing yet and it was still so awesome.

I felt bad for the two girls I was with, who were both afraid of heights. I didn't think the heights were bad, except for the one leap you have to do. They overcame their fears and made it to the top of the mountain, but it was obviously a struggle. But they both said they appreciated my help and encouragement. This was new for me, being the experienced one. I mean, I've very experienced in the outdoors, but it seems like there's always someone faster, someone been out there more, ect. And I've had some not nice people who think if I'm not racing up the mountain I'm not meant to be out there. So it was very nice to meet people, other than J. who appreciate my awesomeness. And then really did do an amazing job.

Yes, we'll all somehow fit under that boulder.

Maybe not through here though.

Climbing all over a rocky mountain!

Here you can see all that we climbed over. Three large rock outcroppings.

The deep pit of fear we had to jump over. Unless you're me. Then you do an awesome little boulder move to get up this rock around the corner. I felt amazing after that.

After all that crazniess you finally reach the summit!

Which means even more awesome views.

And beer.

Once you reach the summit, you have two options. The official trail goes down a nice easy path through the woods. It's all downhill, so unless you have really bad knees, it's a fun reprieve after the crazy uphill/rock scramble. When I did it the first time, it was the most awful thing I'd ever done. It's just through the woods so it gets boring fast. And in the humidity I just wanted to die with no breeze off the mountains. I knew it wouldn't be as bad, but I still wasn't keen on the fire road from hell.

The other option is to do the rock scramble backwards. I was certainly up for this challenge, so I went for it. Made the total hike a lot more difficult but it added some new fun. You're going up once you once jumped down from and vica versa. So a lot more arms than I imagined. But I'm glad I did it that way.