Raven Rocks

We're having to adjust our hiking now that we are without dog care, our sitter having gone to college. Which seems to be going well: he and a bunch of new friends drunk FaceTimed us late last night as their evening was just getting underway and ours was quickly ramping down. Charlie Dog really can't hike and we leave Grace at home to keep him company. Because of this, we need to keep our hikes short and near home.

We've pretty much decided to head for Oregon the week of Labor Day and so things are moving quickly now and we're really aware now that our life is full of a lot of lasts, including this, probably our last hike on the AT until we return one spring to thru hike it. The AT and I have long history. Rarely have I ever lived more than 30 minutes from it and I have hiked big sections of it from Springer to the Mason-Dixon Line. And to me it feels like home: from home, we can see Harper's Ferry, Key's Gap, Snicker's Gap, and Ashby Gap.

Sunday, Ann wanted to revisit the hike that first confirmed for us that we wanted to get back into hiking seriously, some 16 months ago: Snicker's Gap to Raven Rocks and back. While it's not a long hike, it is the northern end of the so-called Rollercoaster, a long series of pain-in-the-ass ups and downs. In other words, this 2.7-mile stretch of trail feels more like 6 or 7 miles, or so my knees were complaining on Sunday. Our 30th hike of 2017 totaled right at 6 miles, but felt much longer than that.

Roadside Marker on Route 7

As we sped past the trailhead on Route 7, it seemed that the parking there was full and so we went all the way up into the gap and parked in the big lot up there. We started our morning walking the 2- or 3-tenths back down beside Route 7 to the trailhead. It is really amazing how fast cars come at you up this busy 4-lane highway and how much noise they make.

Heading to the Route 7 Crossing

AT Directions on the Pavement

Survey Marker on the AT North of Snicker's Gap

It's kind of fitting that after walking along the Clarke and Loudoun County, VA borders, we crossed into Jefferson County WV and encountered this sign, not for the first time. Though the sense of the sign is backward, that is, VA is on the right and WV on the left, it is a fitting metaphor for our lives right now with two daughters in Charlottesville at UVA and a son in Morgantown at WVU. Living where we do in Virginia with WV on three sides, to our west, north, and east, our lives have been intertwined with the two states for a very long time.

Clarke and Jefferson Counties Meet

Shenandoah Valley from Raven Rocks

Looking East

Great Spot to Sit and Just Be

Annie Adding to Her Boot Shot Collection

Our selecting this hike was unfortunate in that the section of AT from Snicker's Gap to Raven Rocks was crowded with a few day hikers and many larger groups of younger people out for a day in the woods. I'm sure it was much worse on the other side of the gap at the perpetually overcrowded Bear's Den Rocks.

Our style of hiking is quiet so that we can take in our surroundings, the birds singing, the squirrels chattering, the wind rustling the leaves and so forth. We hike to enjoy the peace, quiet, and solitude of the outdoors. And this puts us squarely at odds with the legions of young people on the trail who are making a noisy social event of their day.

We're not right and they're not wrong: we are each hiking our own hike. Our need for peace and quiet has driven us in the last year to the less crowded parts of George Washington National Forest where the hikers we meet are more like-minded and tend to share our reverence for this beautiful planet. Unfortunately our current dog situation is keeping us close to home and closer to the hordes.

I just wish that some of these others enjoying the woods could sense the impact that their actions have on others. Take for example two women coming down the trail towards us. We could hear them for minutes before we saw them and I bet myself that it was a group of at least 8 from all the racket. What are the odds of seeing a doe peacefully drinking from a stream under these circumstances?

And then as Ann and I were sitting on the cliff-top in the shade taking in the view over the Shenandoah Valley, we heard another group approach noisily. "OMG Can believe we have signal up here?!!?" and "Hashtag beautiful!" were just a few squealing exclamations intruding into our thoughts. After they posted their requisite pictures to social media oblivious to our presence, they came the 20 yards further along the cliff-top and planted themselves directly between us and our view, yapping away non-stop. Really, in whose moral code is it OK to plant yourself directly in front of someone else obstructing their view without so much as asking "Do you mind?"

Without a word to each other, Ann and I grabbed our packs and headed back down off the mountain towards the car.

This time of year, up in the woods under full tree cover, there really is nothing to speak of in the way of wildflowers. We did see a few Silene blooms and just a few Tick-trefoils starting to bloom. I don't have any clue how to tell what species of Tick-trefoil is what.

White Campion, Silene latifolia

A Tick-trefoil, Desmodium spp.

The vast majority of the wildflowers we saw were in the ditches along Route 7 where they get sun for a good part of the day.

Great Blue Lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica

A Sundrop, Oenothera spp.

Ditches Full of Spotted Jewelweed, Impatiens capensis

I was happy to see a clematis blooming in the ditch alongside route 7: it's time for the annual fall display. The fence at the restaurant is now covered in its annual white carpet of very fragrant blossoms, but these blooms are from the non-native and invasive Clematis ternifolia, Sweet Autumn Clematis, which is extremely common in Winchester. Up on the mountain, I was especially happy to see the lobed leaves of the true native Virgin's Bower, Clematis virginiana, sadly a bit of a rarity in these parts where C. ternifolia is taking over.

Clematis virginiana with Lobed Leaves

The roadsides were also littered in grasshoppers and hundreds of them were lifting off the ground fluttering on yellow-edged black wings as we made our way back to the car.

Differential Grasshopper, Melanoplus differentialis

In all, our 30th hike of the year was only about 6 miles, but on this particular day with all the rocks and climbs, that was all my knees could take. Farewell AT. See you in a few years.