I realize Valentine's Day isn't a hugely popular "holiday." But we can probably all agree that celebrating love, whether Agape, Philia or Eros is important no matter what form that celebration takes. This year for us, it did not come in the form of Russel Stovers and flowers. (Although I do like getting flowers and prefer any chocolate but Russel Stovers!) I'm so glad our celebration came in the form of a night at Hogcamp Gap and a night at the fairly new Three Springs Hostel in Central VA on the Appalachian Trail (North of Rt 60/Buena Vista, South of the Tye River).

Our church had a sermon on "What is Love" (queue the Haddaway song) recently. There is no one definition! Because love is not easily definable, it must be other-worldly: out of this world! On Wed night as we were pitching our tent under a perfect blanket of vast cosmos, we were engulfed with this other-worldly LOVE. Seemingly so unreachable for some, and yet always SO near to ALL. 

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
    let the sea resound, and all that is in it.
12 Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;
    let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.
Psalm 96:11-12

You know us, love of course also comes in the form of a sweet black and white face, always so thankful for these trips to "the woods" as he calls it. We enjoyed some day hiking in the Mt. Pleasant/Hogcamp Gap area and let me tell you, it was nice to not carry a full pack!

It was so great to meet Oma and Marcia, the owners of the Three Springs Hostel! We sure enjoyed our stay and were glad they allowed Cooper since it's the off season and we ended up being the only hikers there that night. One of our plans for this mini trip was to spend Thurs night on top of Priest Mountain at the shelter and it was probably below zero up there with high winds, so-- glad we didn't!

The hostel's first season was last year and I'm sure they will have even greater success this year. For $54 (tax included) you get a comfy bunk in the 6 bed bunk room, Oma makes you dinner and breakfast, you get to love on Skiddy the kitty, laughs from Marcia, a shuttle from either Hogcamp Gap or Rt. 60, and long distance calls from the landline. A pretty great deal! We had spaghetti with meat sauce and a salad for dinner, yum! And breakfast was fried eggs, bacon, toast, cheese grits and Marcia tried out her new test kitchen recipe, a ham omelette made in the waffle maker! The food was great!

The property has a neat story. The land was originally owned by the owners of Sweetbrier College. They passed it down to an adopted son and at that time it was 100 acres. He had a working farm and then sold it to a guy who made it into a hunting retreat. That man created the pond out front which is fed by one of the three springs. I asked Oma if anyone swims in there and she said not by choice, it is just too cold! This place is so special and I guarantee you will have a great rest here. Folks like Oma and Marcia add to the atmosphere of the AT trail family. They love to serve and their mission is to make your day full of light and healing.

On Friday we climbed Tar Jacket Ridge up from Hogcamp. We found some ice on the dirt road and tried out our new MICROspikes. They work great! 

In about 1.7 miles we reached Maupin Field campground and shelter area. We didn't walk down to the shelter, but kept up our pace and continued on, now climbing Three Ridges Mountain. This loop hike is very special to me. I've hiked it with many friends throughout the years prior to my thru-hike. It's about a 3.5 hour drive from where we live and so worth the drive for the views and incredible workout. You don't soon forget this hike, as your body reminds you of it a couple of days after and the overlooks become ingrained in your mind. It has become a special place for my family as well: my parents are now members of the Tidewater Appalachian Trial Club, the group that maintains the A.T. from Rockfish Gap to the Tye River, including Three Ridges and the Mau-Har Trail.

We decided it would be nice to make our hot meal at the overlook instead of waiting for camp when it would be dark and cold. (Who enjoys doing "the dish" in the dark and cold at camp in winter??) There was a cold wind on Hanging Rock but the sun and view warmed us and we all enjoyed the break. From this spot we climbed another 300 feet in elevation to the tree-covered top of the mountain and then began the 3.5mi descent and lost 2,000ft in elevation to Harper's Creek Shelter. (Knee killer). 

This section of the A.T. is a doozy even for thru-hikers. It's one of those rare occasions of 3,000ft of elevation gain and loss within 10 miles. Three Ridges is on one side, the Priest on the other and the Tye River in between. If you have several days for a trip, I recommend hiking Three Ridges, the Priest and Spy Rock and get a shuttle back to your car from the fish hatchery near Spy Rock or go all the way to Hogcamp Gap.

We had some laughs when we got to camp and realized the tent we had carried was not the tent we thought we were carrying! Powder River and I have a nice non-free-standing tent collection from Tarptent, Six Moon Designs and Gossamer Gear. I give all the credit to Powder River for the gear/tent obsession which led us to starting Groundbird Gear for backpacking dogs. Anyway, in our gear storage area at home, all of the tents are lined up on a shelf in similar sized stuff sacks. The Tarptents are made from the same pale green-grey silnylon. Instead of grabbing the tarp and inner of the two-piece Tarptent Stratospire, I had grabbed the single-man Contrail and the inner of the Stratospire. It actually worked out with me, Kathleen and Cooper piled into the one-person tent. We were quite warm and thankfully there was no condensation so our bags which were touching the tent walls did not get soaked. I will be marking the outside of each tent's stuff sack!

As you may recall from my blog post about our trip to Grayson Highlands this November, Kathleen LOVES to identify fungi! We weren't really sure what this stuff was, possibly decaying chicken of the woods... best not to eat it! :)

The Mau-Har Trail is not for the faint of heart. It has grueling ups and downs. Well worth it for this fun 3/4 mile section next to the Falls of Cambells Creek. Can't wait to go back in July and enjoy those swimming holes!!

Yeah, it took us about 3 hours to do the 3.8 miles from Harpers Creek Shelter to Maupin Field. I say that just to show how strenuous the Mau-Har Trail is. Quite worth it and we were looking for a good workout! The temperature dropped as we came back up to the Maupin Field Shelter and I put the camera away. The descent down Bee Mountain back to the car was so icy, I wish we had micro spikes!! No joke! We had to slide down on our butts and then skip the last bit and just walk on the Parkway to get back to the car. We immediately drove into Waynesboro and since Wheezies Diner (terrible name, I know) was closed, we ate at the Mexican restaurant across from the infamous Tastee-Freeze. Yum! I'm not sorry that I was too tired to make it to the Super Bowl party when I got home. We had a great weekend and I'm so glad we were able to break up the dreary urban winter that drags on and on here in Baltimore! It's much nicer to be out in the cold and moving than caged in a grey city. Thank God for healthy bodies and beautifully maintained trails through the most special parts of Creation!

What better way to celebrate the end of a great year with a short overnight hike on the Appalachian Trail! Thank you to our dear trail friend Bigglesworth (AT '08, JMT '14, NPT '14) for making this trip happen! We have a tradition of freezing our butts off with Biggles each winter, and glad we could do so this year in our home state, Maryland! We didn't manage to beat the low temps from our trip last winter in the ADK but I think we did get down to 10 degrees! Yay for feathers! Birds rule ;)

Camera: on this trip we decided to leave our big three pound DSLR (Canon 6D) at home and instead took the small Panasonic LUMIX GX1. Very happy with how these photos turned out!

We parked in the gravel lot on Wolfsville Rd. and hiked 5 miles to Raven Rocks Shelter. The shelter is a new one, very nice and we decided not to pitch tents afterall. (Although tents would be warmer. We decided we didn't want to pack up a wet-from-condensation, frozen tent in the morning though.) We were the only hikers at the shelter that night. We did see about 3 groups of hikers and 2 solo hikers on our short trip! More hikers than we typically see! I think many people enjoy getting out for the New Year. Last year on New Years we were also out on trail. We hung out around the fire for an hour or so and grilled some kielbasa. Pretty sure we went to sleep around 8pm. So goes "hiker midnight." And we slept for 12 straight hours. Cooper is always ok with this, especially since he was sharing my sleeping bag and air mat.

The walk itself was really nice. A few good climbs but nothing over 500 ft. We certainly didn't mind the workout, post Christmas and all. Most of this short section is what we consider "very flat." And the rocks on trail were dense but not irksome for us. There are several road crossings, stream crossings, a farm field crossing and several powerline/pipeline crossings. We saw no animals although we did have an animal visitor in camp at night and our efforts shining the headlamp did not reveal what creature it was. 

Fun Trip! Below is a breakdown of my (Bobwhite's) winter sleep system and winter clothing. On this trip Cooper carried: 2 TurboPUP bars, 2 cups of kibble (in ziplocks), 0ne spare Muttluks boot (in the off chance of foot injury), one roll of vet wrap, a can of paw wax (although we didn't actually wax his paws this trip...), a plastic container as a bowl, and his homemade jacket. We carried for him the 40 degree Western Mountaineering summer weight sleeping bag and he slept on my winter air mat.

FF: Feathered Friends, UL: ultralight, BA: Big Agnes, MH: Mountain Hardware, HLMG: Hyper Light Mountain Gear.

Since my (Bobwhite's) 2011 Southbound thru-hike of the A.T., I have been wanting to return to Southwestern Virginia. More specifically, Powder River and I have discussed doing a big 150 mile section from Rockfish Gap to Catawba in Autumn with our sweet boy Cooper. Well, this year we put in about 25 miles and it was grand... great fellowship with our dear friend Kathleen and amazing scenery and the woods were alive with color. We'll keep that longer hike on our clipboard. Maybe we'll even tackle it as a full-on winter hike... the crazies that we are! :)
Photography: photos on our hikes are primarily taken by my husband Jeff, a.k.a. Powder River: www.jeffsellenrick.com

Our hearts were aglow as we entered the rhododendron tunnel. The woods of Southern Appalachia resonate with us and we long for them from our concrete jungle, Baltimore. Kathleen has committed much of her adult life to serving as an educator naturalist in our National Parks. Most recently, she worked at the Smoky Mountain Institute at Tremont. During her time there, she became an expert in fungi. We had a lot of fun identifying many types of fungi on this trip.

We planned to hike for 4.5 days, camping 4 nights on a 45 mile loop hike of the Iron Mountain Trail and Appalachian Trail through Grayson Highlands. On my thru-hike through this section of the A.T. I was doing around 20 mile days. I was hiking with a very strong athlete, "Teeney," and we had our trail legs for sure. The point of this small section hike was to just enjoy our surroundings and each other. Cooper also isn't cut out for 20 mile days, although he could get there if we built him up to it. Cooper enjoys his surrounding via lots of interesting smells, and macro beauty. He's not really a guy for overlook vistas, but more for the "macro" world that is right in front of him. He does have a stance we call "pride rock," there will be a picture later, in which he stands on a nice boulder and surveys the world around him. His goal for the hike was to score lots of treats, especially smoked mozzarella from Kathleen, and score lots of kisses and butt rubs from his lady Kathleen.

If and when we do a longer section hike around 100 miles, we will probably average 15 miles in Fall (fewer hours of daylight) and maybe 18+ miles in summer (more daylight). It is pretty funny how much night hiking we typically do. And we did a bit on this trip too! The frustration of it is always searching for the shelter/campsite and the nagging feeling that maybe you've missed it! Cooper stays on leash during night hikes- his senses are always alert and maybe more so at night when all the animals are out, and we would never want to risk him tracing a scent and then not being able to find us in the dark. Again and again, he proves to us that his night vision is no better than our own. Although his night footing is far superior to our own!

As you can see from the image above, the blaze orange really helps make us visible even in low light conditions- in this photo the sun was setting. We hiked about 45 minutes in the dark before finding our shelter for the night, the Straight Branch Shelter on the Iron Mountain Trail. We chose to start our loop hike heading Northeast on the IMT from the Beartree Parking Area so that we could "build up" so to speak as we made our way around to the magnificent balds of Grayson and the climax of summiting the highest peak in Virginia, Mt. Rogers. (Mt. Rogers is actually covered in trees and there is no overlook on top, or on the way up, but it was cool to see Mt. Rogers from the IMT and know that's where we were headed!) The IMT is "old A.T.": it used to be the official A.T. and then a re-route was developed through Grayson Highlands. We are so glad the official Trail is now through Grayson! It is a highlight for many hikers, especially thru-hikers who do spend most of their days in the Green Tunnel. 

The first night was pretty cold but we did ok and Kathleen is now inspired to buy a nice down sleeping bag and replace her old, not very warm synthetic! Cooper once again was inspired to crawl in my bag with me, although he himself has his own sleep system. The photo above is from our lunch break at the Cherry Tree Shelter on the IMT. About a mile after this spot we joined the Appalachian Trail and started moving trail-South.

Cooper is always exhausted after a day of hiking. Here he is wearily looking out from Old Orchard Shelter (our second night camping) towards some guys who had a fire going and were hanging out. He is not one for crowds, even small crowds after a day of hiking. He definitely would not make a good Nobo, one more reason why he is my spirit animal. We set him up warm in the shelter so he could watch us making dinner at the picnic table in front of the shelter. Soon after, we put him to bed in the tent. 

The next morning we enjoyed hiking through some abundant green moss and ferns on our way up to the balds...

As soon as we got to the clearing, the beginning of our bald mountain hike, some rangers on an ATV drove up to us and warned us about the impending storm. Half a foot of snow and 50mph winds. We were planning on camping at Thomas Knob Shelter that night, at the foot of Mt. Rogers. Yeah, we changed our minds!!! We instead changed our plans and hiked on the Crest Trail to make our way over to where the wild ponies live (Grayson Highlands) and then make our way out to the road to look for a hitch back to our car!

Cooper was not at all stressed or disheartened about the change in plans!

We found a couple of cars willing to help us. Powder River got in a car with some Texans who were in the area geo-caching and he got to geo-cache a bit with them as they made their way to our car. Kathleen and I hitched with a nice couple out to Rt. 58 where we pitched a tent to stay out of the cold rain and wait for Jeff. Ended up being about an hour wait... the hitch was much longer than we though (17 miles!) . We are always thankful to the generosity we find in fellow man when we hitch. Thru hikers rely on hitches to town to re-supply and it is nothing new to Powder River and I.

We eventually made it to Damascus and were glad to be warm. We stayed at a new hostel for us, Woodchuck's and enjoyed the company of many other hikers who were also glad to be warm and dry. The next morning, we woke up to snow! Sadly we didn't take any photos. We headed out of town with a hiker named Gumby who just so happened to need a ride to the exact place we planned as our next destination of our altered trip: Catawba, VA. We had a great two hour ride getting to know Gumby. We dropped him off at the hostel in Catawba where he planned to stay for a while and do work-for-stay. We then headed up to the trailhead for the A.T. and made our way up to camp at the most photographed place on the A.T., McAfee Knob. We had a nice 4 mile hike to the Catawba Mountain Shelter, where we camped for the night. We attempted to hike up to the knob, and did get very close that night, but darkness and cold wind sent us back down to our sleeping bags. The next morning we left our tents set up and hiked to the knob soon after sunrise.

We didn't stay up there very long, it was incredibly cold and windy. The sky and fall colors made for some awesome photos! We returned to the campsite, packed up quickly and made our way back to the car and the famous Homeplace Restaurant in Catawba!!!

During our annual snowshoe trip to Lake Placid, NY, we didn't get to even use our snowshoes -- but Cooper did! We bought him some Muttluks for the adventure, after reading about how famous little Atticus in the book Following Atticus by Tom Ryan wore them in the Whites. They worked pretty good, but we'll probably try wrapping the cuffs with athletic wrap to keep them solid on his feet and keep snow from entering the cuff. It always takes him a few minutes to get used to them, then he's off, running around like normal. He also sported his Groundbird Gear jacket.

We've met up with our trail friend Bigglesworth three different winters for snowshoeing. She's the one to go with! She lives west of Albany and has no power or running water in her little cabin. So when she finished her AT thru-hike in 2008, she ended up carrying on the lifestyle to some degree! Now she is on a quest to hike the 46 4,000 footers of the Adirondacks.

We stayed at T-Max and Topo's hostel in Lake Placid. David and Terri run the hostel. Terri was out of town but it was good to meet David. He has quite a resume of high peaks and trail miles. He certainly loves to entertain and host avid Adirondacks hikers. The hostel has a great industrial kitchen, dining area and living room. Each bed is named for one of the ADK high peaks. The resident old lady cat, Nervina, wears a "bikini" (diaper) and is still scooting around. Cooper was admitted because we had one of the 2 private rooms, but he was not allowed in to common area-- probably best for Nervina!

The night we arrived in Lake Placid it started to rain. Big unhappy face :( Most all of the snow covering the ground outside the hostel melted. And then directly following the warm spell was the infamous "polar vortex." So all the little streams running down the trails turned to shear ice. We only went out for a few short walks and rented MICROspikes from the High Peaks Information Center near the ADK Loj. It was zero degrees when we hiked from the HPICenter. Here's Biggles with her hair frozen from her breath:

Our favorite spots in the town of Lake Placid: 
Liquids and Solids (weird name we know, but has a very creative and tasty menu!)
Big Mountain Deli and Creperie (they have 46 crepes, all amazing!!)
Lake Placid Pub and Brewery 
EMS (we've found some great gear on clearance!)
Henry's Woods and a great dog-friendly local trail. There is a nice overlook of Mirror Lake.
The John Brown Farm Nat. Historical site has a nice field with view of the Olympic high ski jump tower-- locals take their dogs here to run around.

We drove through Harriman State Park on our way back to Baltimore and enjoyed a quick walk beside Lake Skannatati. Cooper tried out ice dancing. 

The prayer I prayed the most when preparing for my thru-hike in 2011 was that I would have great friends, for the whole journey. God answered. I met Bogart, Tag and Coach at the Rainbow Springs shelter, 30 miles into the hike and finished with them on our very last day, 5 1/2 months later. I also met Twisted Turtle and Teeny in Maine. Teeny rejoined us South of Waynesboro, VA later in the hike and walked nearly every day with me for the last 800 miles (she did a flip-flop hike). For great stories and photos of my thru-hike, visit mainetogeorgia.wordpress.com.

We had a really great couple of days hanging out at the Mountain Harbor Hostel (in the town of Roan Mountain, TN) and a couple of nights on the Trail, one of the nights out was New Year's Eve! I made Teeny and Dana's little 30lb pitbull Donut a turtle neck jacket for the hike. Donut and Cooper did a great job modeling! For our first night out, we hiked 9 miles from the hostel to the Overmountain Shelter (photo above). It was an incredibly cold and windy hike over Hump Mountain. Cooper did not even seem to notice! He was rolling in the snowy grass and running back and forth. My Wyoming raised husband did not seem to mind much either. But I'll admit, that was one of the coldest experiences I've had backpacking. There was an added discomfort for me because my glasses kept frosting over! Our last 2 or 3 miles to the shelter were in the dark with Coach and Savannah. Savannah's first backpacking trip and first night hike!

The next day we went back to the hostel from Carvers Gap. On New Year's Eve we did a short 4mi. hike from Erwin, TN to the Curley Maple Gap Shelter (photo below). Teeny packed in a bottle of champagne for everyone to share. We all had a great time hanging out around the fire and stuffing our faces with kielbasa, mac and cheese and lots of candy.

Powder River, Cooper and I went on a short hike this weekend with two friends from Baltimore. It was our friend Lee's very first backpacking trip! We drove up through Gettysburg around 5pm on Friday. We decided to scrap our plans of cooking in the woods and instead ate at the Lincoln Dinner.  After eating we drove up the ridge via a gravel road in Caledonia State Park to have a shorter walk to the quaint Quarry Gap Shelters. There was a group of guys already there, a college reunion tradition for them to hike together every year. Powder River and Lee played a riveting game of checkers. The "Innkeeper" of the Quarry Gap Shelter takes great pride in maintaining this place and keeps it equipped with a few games and hanging seasonal flowers! I met him on my thru-hike in 2011, he was just hanging out at the shelter as I was walking by midday. This is a great place to take friends to show them an exception to AT shelters. Most are NOT quaint or very well taken care of! Cooper posed for some pictures in the morning. He did a great job test driving the new Groundbird Gear hiking harness pack system!

 Saturday held true to the weather report and was very cold. We relocated one of our vehicles about 12 trail miles South of Caledonia to Old Forge Rd. Our friends enjoyed seeing The Tumbling Run Shelters just up the hill from our parking spot. They have signs on each one: "snoring" and "non-snoring." And there is an Ent tree. We hiked to the Rocky Mountain Shelters that night. Christian had steaks marinating in a ziplock in his pack all day and they were a real treat, cooked in foil on campfire embers! A trail culinary first for me and Powder River. It flurried a bit and was a good night to test my new zero degree sleeping bag by Feathered Friends! Cooper enjoyed snuggling with me! I'm still working on developing a good sleep solution for him in cold weather. In the morning we made coffee and oatmeal and hiked our remaining 5 miles back to Caledonia. A very cold, windy ridge walk! All in all it was a fun trip with our friends! Capped with another fun expedition into Gettysburg, a happening place this month as we remember the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. We ate at the Appalachian Brewery and viewed the Cyclorama, a giant battlefield painting from 1884 that engulfs you in it's circle.