Ptocheia.net » hiking

Hiking at Elliot Knob, as well as food adventures

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:55:14 +0000

First, the hiking. Drew, Julie and I went to Elliot Knob this past weekend. It’s a bit west of Staunton. As an aside, I really enjoy pronouncing Staunton the way people from Staunton actually pronounce it, doing so entertains me greatly. Anyhow, we ventured forth with two dogs and a nice picnic. The trail alternated between dirt road and actual trail, and we ended up eating lunch in a teeny field amongst some power lines with a good overlook of the valley below. The last mile of the trail was at this insane uphill angle, which caused our legs to fall off. The view from the top was totally worth it, though. Hiking back was interesting as the last 1/3 was done in the darkness. We were super smart, though, and brought flashlights with us. So we ended up only taking one wrong turn in the dark. Mind you, on the way up I totally led us down the wrong trail at one point. Anyhow, if you have good legs and like hiking straight up, I totally recommend it.

Oh, and here’s some pictures I dumped all over facebook!

In other news, Drew and I had an exiting adventure at Trader Joe’s today, which I’d been wanting to do for quite awhile. I first went to one back when I was like 17 and in California with my aunt. So we got some awesome looking pizza dough for a buck, an awesome looking pack of granola bars for a buck, some chocolate and granola cereal for 2 bucks, and a bunch of other things. It’s interesting, some of the prices were higher then what I’d pay for things, and seemed more in line with your standard fancy organic pricing, and some of the prices were cheaper then I generally pay for similar things (AKA the $1 garlic pizza dough). Mmm garlic pizza.

That area out at Short Pump is insane! I generally avoid that area, as unless you go in the middle of a weekday it’s just a sea of cars and concrete mazes and makes me want to start smashing things. And so, at some point or another, a giant strip of field and trees got filled in with giant apartments and restaurants and stores, kinda crazy. I really hate the whole ‘giant boxes of stores separated by giant highway, so don’t even think of trying all of your errands in this area on foot’ kind of thing. However, I can hope they might be moving in a slightly different direction, given that the apartments had stores on their first floor and such, and the buildings seemed to be getting built in the direction of being more walkable and communitylike (mind you, they’re still building stuff, so who knows). I think that everyone needs to read Suburban Nation, especially if you are a developer, that way you will be making places I want to live in. I can hope things are moving in that direction, what with this whole ‘green movement’ thing and all, as a great way to cut down on car exhaust would be to make it easier to walk to stores from your house then to drive there.

And on a completely different note, we saw Coraline a few days ago. I really liked the animation style, and I highly recommend the movie to anyone who likes artsy animation and cutesy horror.

Hiking Adventures at Beaverdam Park

admin — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 04:29:34 +0000

Drew and I went hiking today at Beaverdam Park. The weather was supernice, so of course we needed to go wander around outside for awhile. It’s located near the Chesapeake Bay, and the drive there was a bit over an hour. We did the loop trail around the lake in a backwards C kinda shape, which is kind of like a figure 8 bent in the middle, with the trail crisscrossing over itself at random points. The furthest point out is a grassy peninsula that was covered with seagulls, and then simply covered with feathers after we walked out onto it. The view is rather nice, as you’re in the middle of a large lake and it is very blue and shiny. The hike is about 6 miles, and it took us 3 hours to do it, including time for lunch. Depending on your strategic eating location, there will be ducks and seagulls that might appreciate that sandwich more then you do, especially if it is a sandwich made of fish guts. Mine was turkey, however, so I’m not completely sure on that last part. In any case, it’s a really nice park, and I highly recommend it.

Books, Games, and Babble

admin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:48:36 +0000

There’s a list floating about of the 1000 novels everyone must read, put forth by The Guardian. I scrolled through the entire thing and counted, I’ve apparently read about 58. Only 942 to go!

So this is fun for about 5 minutes: It’s a text adventure version of Guitar Hero!

I’ve started reading The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, which is good so far. I’ve read two of her other books, and enjoyed them. I’ve been looking for some good historical fiction and she has satiated my need.

I recently finished reading Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy, which has helped me to understand why the heck there are all these straight women that want to go to strip clubs with ladies undressing, amongst other things. The research was more anecdotal and less statistically-based, but the observations the book makes are rather interesting.

Drew and I have been trying to get our Hike on lately, as there’s not much else to do when it’s this cold out. We hit Lake Anna State Park this past weekend, saw some people on horsies and got some free 7th Day Adventist book which was entertaining for about 5 minutes. Sparks and hiking go great together, I should mention. Next time I’m at Kroger, I’ll need to check and see if they’ve sold out of all the caffeinated Sparks by now, if not I might have to add a bit more to the ole stockpile.

Oh yeah, and I made chocolate chip cookies that are purple. Purple is a very appropriate color for cookies!

Running around in the woods in the dark until my legs fall off

admin — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 02:40:12 +0000

I went hiking yesterday. In St. Mary’s Wilderness, to be specific, off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was educational. Here’s what I learned about hiking:

1.) Unless it’s a trail that’s plastered all over the internet and trail books as being popular, bring a map of some sort.

Oops. I ended up walking down some dirt road far longer then I was supposed to, as I was under the assumption that the connecting trail I was looking for would be obvious. Not a single sign. Totally missed it. D’oh!

2.) If you get lost, set a ‘turn around by’ time.

I had really meant to do this. First, it was going to be 3:00. But I kept thinking the connecting trail would be right around the corner. Then I kept thinking how far I’d already gone, and how ridiculous it would be to have to turn around when I was over 1/2way done with the hike. I ended up turning around at 3:45.

3.) Always bring a flashlight.

I hadn’t actually thought I’d need it. But I brought it anyhow, and am quite glad. The hike that should have ended around 5:30 or so ended around 6:45 instead. Luckily the dirt road I was on connected back to the Blue Ridge Parkway, and I could walk from there to my car. I only learned this due to an initially turning the wrong way from the path onto this road, then having to backtrack and go the proper direction. I’m rather glad for this, in hindsight, as it saved me much woods-stumbling.

4.) Don’t hike alone.

It’s dang lonely hiking alone. But the semester is almost over, Drew’s up to his neck in HW, I lack a convenient array of friends who also like to hike, and I just really really wanted to go hiking that day. Which was ok while it was light out, but being alone in the woods at night is rather discombobulating. I was saved, though, by my Sandisk. I listened to built up selections of This American Life. The first 2 were rather interesting, but the third was about the collapsing economy and paper markets and bonds and other things my brain really wasn’t all that interested in processing. But, since by that time it was really dark, I left it on anyhow, as the voices were strangely comforting.

5.) If you’re gonna hike alone, tell somewhere where you went.

I totally forgot this part. I told Drew I’d be hiking, told him I’d rejected my initial planned hike as it was over 3 hours away, which I hadn’t realised until I mapped it out. So all he knew was that I was in the mountains, somewhere, less then 3 hours from here. I got home safe and all, but if anything stupid had happened, that would have sucked mightily.

In any case, I ended up missing the more scenic parts of the trail, including the alleged 30 ft waterfall. Not that things would be all that scenic this late in the fall anyhow, what with everything being dead and all, but still. I did come across this bus, though:

It conjured up visions of Into The Wild, minus all the snow and death. That was the photo on the way in. On the way out conjures up a bit more death, for some strange reason.

In any case, my legs are dead. Hiked from 11:30-6:45, with brief stops in there for food and bladder relief. Hiked way too fast near the end, due to paranoia of being stuck in the dark. Good post-Thanksgiving workout, though!