Labor Day: Lindy Point/Stumptown Ales

On Sunday morning for the first part of our Labor Day weekend getaway, we hiked from the Lodge at Blackwater Falls down to the falls and back. Around 1:30, we returned to the lodge where we left the Jeep. When we went in, they very graciously let us check in a couple hours early. We were happy to jump in the shower and rinse off the dust of our hike before we headed into town for beers.

Backing up to Friday, my uncle and aunt, Marshall and Susan, dropped by the restaurant on the way in to town from Burlington WV, out route 50. I had mentioned to them that we were going to be in Davis on Sunday and Susan said to text her, that they would drive the hour from their house and have a beer with us. I mentioned that I heard that Stumptown Ales had a really good reputation for great beer and that I was eager to try it.

At 12:30 when we had finished viewing the waterfall, I texted Susan and said if they were still game, we'd meet them at Stumptown at 3:30 give or take. I figured an hour to walk back to the lodge, thirty minutes to get checked in and showered, and 90 minutes to check out the canyon behind the lodge, run up to Lindy Point, and then head into town for a beer.

Just behind the lodge, the lawn runs nearly to the cliff edge and a walled observation point overlooking the incredible canyon below. The Blackwater River is visible a little to the west, looking left down the canyon. This was our first view of the canyon proper; we would get great views at Lindy Point later in the day and across the River at Pendleton and Pase Points the next day.

Blackwater Canyon from the Lodge

Blackwater River from the Lodge

I didn't have much time to look into places to visit nearby because we took the decision to visit this weekend at almost the last minute, but the one place I saw great photos of was Lindy Point at the far western part of the park, surrounded by Monongahela National Forest to the south and private property to the north. It's only a five-minute drive from the Lodge past the Nordic Center where you can rent skis and showshoes, so after looking at the canyon from behind the lodge, we drove down to Lindy Point and got front row parking for what was clearly a very popular destination: cars were strung out all along the road. At the end of the short trail, maybe a five-minute walk, we emerged to find the following spectacular views.

Lindy Point Looking Down Canyon

High Above the Canyon Floor

Spectacular View Southwest Down the Canyon

Taking in the View

Though there were a lot of people here, they were mostly couples and most everyone was respectful of everyone else and given the views and the short walk, there was a lot of bang for the buck. It's a view that should not be missed. We were on a schedule/beer mission at this point in the day, so we didn't linger too long and headed back out to downtown Davis just as a big group was arriving at Lindy Point, clogging the road. I'm so glad we missed them.

As far as I can tell, there's really no good food in Davis or the surrounding area, but the one place that I wanted to visit was Stumptown Ales, about which I had heard nothing but good. As we entered the tiny little strip that is downtown, we saw Marshall and Susan standing on the side of the street and pulled in beside them. They arrived about ten minutes before we did, but found the brewpub packed to the gills and so went out on the street to await us.

Stumptown Ales: Great Beer

Decorative Hop Vine

It's a small place with a couple of high-top tables and a short bar made out of slabs of trees sealed with acrylic. The silver tin ceiling doesn't hurt the atmosphere. There was barely room for us, but we got a chair at the end of the bar for Ann and the other three of us sat on the window ledge next to the bar.

It's a Small Place

Though because of the big Labor Day crowd, they were sold out of a couple of beers, we all managed to get something that we wanted and liked. Ann got a Who Tarted? Berliner Weisse, Susan got a Lefty Lucy Amber Ale, Marshall got the deep coffee-flavored Over the Tip Top Breakfast Stout, and I got the Cave Dweller Pale Ale, flavored with Citra hops, among my very favorite hops and I like hops quite a lot. I would have liked to try the Holy Citra Double IPA, but it was all gone. The Cave Dweller was a fine substitute, and at under 6%, I could have more than one. The double weighs in north of 8%.

Marshall and Susan Joined Us

Cave Dweller Citra Pale Ale

Ultimately, we moved to a high-top vacated by a group of young people, some of whom were sporting UVa Sigma Nu shirts. Marshall chatted with them for a few minutes, being a William and Mary Sigma Nu from way back. We parted company with Marshall and Susan after a couple hours of catching up and went back to the lodge, where we snacked on salame, cheese, and bread that I brought from home. After this and approaching dusk, we brought a bottle of wine and two glasses down to the overlook behind the lodge, commandeered two lawn chairs, and watched the sun go down.

Sunset and Red Wine

Still a little hungry after our wine, Ann decided we should grab a quick bite in the lodge restaurant. It was pretty awful. And there ends the tale of our first day at Blackwater, a pretty phenomenal day. We had no idea then what we would do the next day, nor that it would turn out more spectacular than the first day.

Previous: Part One of our Labor Day Getaway, Next: Part Three of our Labor Day Getaway

Labor Day: Blackwater Falls State Park, WV

We had planned for some weeks to take advantage of Labor Day to get away from Winchester for a two-day weekend to Blackwater Falls. Planned is something of an overstatement: we talked about it a couple of times, which the way we operate, is pretty much a plan. We saved the falls for the two-day weekend simply because it is two hours from the house and we wanted to have plenty of time to do and see all there is to do and see. Still, up until a couple of days before the trip, we didn't think we'd be able to get away at all and so I really didn't do my usual reading up on what to do while there.

The trip from Winchester started poorly the evening before with me forgetting my sunglasses at work, thinking I would get them on the way out of town the following morning, and then leaving my work keys at home. Doh! Luckily we were headed west and the sun was behind us all the way out. From Winchester, we took Middle Road out to its junction with route 55 (which is also posted as the new US 48, to be moved when the four lane is finally put in, if it ever is) at Lebanon Church. Route 55 heads up over Great North Mountain (the border between our county, Frederick, and Hardy County, West Virginia), down into Wardensville, and then becomes Corridor H, which terminates 2100 feet higher just before Davis, WV where Blackwater Falls is situated.

I always enjoy the drive out Corridor H as it goes up and over each successive range in the ridge and valley system and then climbs the edge of the Allegheny Front massif just about Mount Storm, where the equally massive Mount Storm coal-fired power plant and the turbines of the Mount Storm Wind Farm dominate the landscape. The amount of effort it took to drive this beautiful four-lane highway through some of the most inhospitable terrine is awe inspiring. The expansive views always make me think that I am driving along the top of the world. In any case, it has made the trip over to Davis in Tucker County, very, very doable, and has certainly enhanced this area's reputation as the winter sports capital of the mid-Atlantic.

And so it was after an unhurried morning and a pot of coffee at home that we arrived at the lodge in Blackwater Falls State Park mid-morning. I was expecting to get a map from a ranger at a contact station on the way into the park like at just about every other park I know, but there are no contact stations and no entrance fees. I cannot believe that a park this gorgeous does not have admission fees. We went in to the front desk at the Blackwater Falls Lodge, run by the state park system, and got a map from them. While there, I asked about a walk that would get us away from people and one of the women rolled her eyes at me, knowing that the area is wildly popular. One of the guys suggested Pase Point, which I filed away as an idea for later or for the next day.

The Lodge at Blackwater Falls

Back out at the car, we put on our walking shoes, moved lunch from the cooler to my pack, consulted the park map, and set out. We decided to walk from the lodge back up river to see the falls. Not knowing our way around, we did not realize that the closest vantage point is on the other side of the river from the lodge, not that the extra half a mile walk really mattered.

We headed off on the Yellow Birch trail in the direction of the falls and almost immediately, all became quiet and peaceful in the hemlock and rhododendron forest, punctuated here and there with yellow birch. These are trees that we don't have in abundance back home. While the trail is pretty well blazed with yellow diamond blazes, the trail is really more of a suggestion than a trail in some places, the woods being so open that you can walk about in any direction and find little hint of a path. Still, only did we once have to hunt around to find the path: it appears that a blaze went missing so we didn't really know where to find the next blaze.

Open Birch and Hemlock Woodlands, Tree on Rock

At one point, the trail went through a narrow gap in the rocks, which was no problem for my gigantic self, but it was a little more difficult for Ann. It's nothing like on Old Rag, but still it was a little creative hiking.

A Little Gymnastics Needed

This tree reminds me of the old chicken and egg question, but it seems almost certain that the rock has been here for eons before the tree, though it surely looks like the rock rolled up and stopped against the little tree.

Yet Another Crazy Rock/Tree

Yellow Birch Trail Namesake

Although we had noticed along the trail sections of deep mud rutted from mountain bike tires and other soggy areas, I hadn't realized that we would come upon a couple of full-on cranberry-peat bogs where we crossed Engine Run and Falls Run. They reminded me greatly of nearby Dolly Sods. I wish we had more time to poke around the bogs; what little we saw of them is unique to this part of the world and not something we are likely to see again in the near future. In places the ground was very shifty; there's no telling how deep the sphagnum mosses are there.

Wild Cranberries, Vaccinium macrocarpon

Behind the gentian in the photo below, the first I have ever seen or recognized that I have seen, you can see a lot of strawberries with their set of three leaflets and their red runners growing on top of the very shifty sphagnum moss. Aside from these, the bogs had a fair share of ferns and various club mosses that I would have liked to have spent more time looking at.

Narrowleaf Gentian, Gentiana linearis

Cottongrass, Eriophorum angustifolium, in Sphagnum Bog

The trail came back to the paved park road right at the parking area for what they call the Gentle Trail to the falls overlook and right where the River Road Trail heads into Davis. A hundred or so yards after starting down the Gentle Trail (all the trails we took were gentle with almost no elevation change), we came to the edge of the canyon and a deck overlooking the falls from high above.

First View of Blackwater Falls

Blackwater Falls from the South

From above, we could see that people were crowding the decks on the north side of the river opposite and far below us, so we decided to walk around over the bridge and see what was over there. We had to walk along the park road to get there and the margins were covered in all manner of fall-blooming asters (mainly tall white ones with masses of tiny blooms, but some smaller purple ones with larger single blooms), oxeye daisies, and goldenrods.

Beautiful Purple Aster

At the point where the park road crosses the Blackwater River, it looks like any other fairly peaceful river flowing through the mountains. It looks like a wonderful trout stream, in fact, with lots of room to cast without trees in the way. Little would you know that right around the corner in the photo below, the river takes a hard left-hand turn and starts with a whopping 62-foot drop over the falls and races through Blackwater Canyon which is between 200 and 500 feet deep. It is really hard to imagine that though while standing on the bridge looking at this idyllic scene.

Blackwater River Above Falls

Blackwater River Looking Upstream

Once on the far side of the bridge, we wound around back downstream for a few hundred yards to find a parking lot packed with dozens and dozens of vehicles. Welcome to the crowds. We walked down the paved trail to a set of wooden stairs with tens and tens of other people come to see the spectacle of Blackwater Falls. And they are an impressive set of twin cataracts formed where the river splits along a horn of rock and dives over the cliff to the floor below.

Blackwater Falls from North, Note Rainbow

With the sun almost directly behind our backs at the viewing platform, the near waterfall had a constant rainbow near the base. The photos do not give any sense of scale, but the trees on top of the falls are largely full-sized trees and you can stack two or three of them end-to-end to reach the bottom.

Sixty-Two Feet High

In the photo below, if you look at the water as it topples over the ledge, you can see that it appears brown. This is not an artefact of the photo: the water is brown. The river takes its name from this brown water, tea-stained from tannins leached from the abundant hemlock and red spruce needles in the local watershed.

Tea Colored Water Spills Over Ledge

She's Not Having Any Fun

At the very lowest of the observation decks, we came out in the full sun along the riverbank, giving us a chance to see a lot of flowers, including some very impressive Joe Pye weed with bushel basket-sized bloomheads, lots of asters, and lots of solidagos.

Pink Turtlehead, Chelone lyonii, at Falls

Bittersweet Nightshade: Solanum dulcamara

Jack-in-the-Pulpit Berries: A Sign of Fall

The Selfie Queen

On our walk back to the lodge and the car from the waterfall, we encountered a lot of rocks adorned with trees, but none crazier than this one. It was really good to get back in the woods and away from the crowds.

One of Many Crazy Trees

A Sure Sign of Fall

Blackwater Falls was impressive from afar and even more impressive closer up. But they are too popular for our liking. Stay tuned for the two other falls that we liked far better, both because we could get right up close to them and because we were pretty much alone to enjoy their splendor without a lot of company. We both like people but too many people just spoil a good outdoors experience.

Next: Part Two of our Labor Day Getaway

Arroz con Pollo

Sometimes, I just know what I want to cook for dinner. Given that that is 98% of the battle (the execution being the very easy part), my day went really well. For once, there was no struggle, no back and forth in my mind about what to make for dinner. Life is just so good when I know what I want to make for dinner. And I haven't done much cooking this summer, so this was fun.

It all started because Ann wasn't feeling well and she asked me to make something simple for dinner. I had hoped to go get some sushi but with her not feeling well, that wasn't happening. Within a second of starting to think about comfort food I had already decided to make arroz con pollo, that cousin of paella that is super comforting, super delicious, and easy to make.

Arroz con Pollo

Arroz con pollo is really easy if you break down the components: chicken, rice, stock, and sofrito. For chicken, use what you like, but I have no use for the breasts and so I use hind quarters only. Besides being cheaper, they are much more tasty. For rice, you can use what you will as well. People really try to overcomplicate it saying that only Bomba will work, or in a pinch Arborio. Phooey. I usually use Basmati because that's what we have on hand. Today, it was Jasmine. We are not making paella here, just a simple rice with chicken. Stock, sure I love to make my own stock but that wasn't an option today. A quart of commercial unsalted chicken stock worked just fine. And finally, the fourth component is the flavoring base, the sofrito.

You can by and large do whatever you want for sofrito. I know a lot of people just chop an onion and use a commercial sazón (fancy bouillion mix), but I like to make my own sofrito. I just went into the fridge and used what I had on hand: green onions, shallots (because I had no yellow onions), a long red pepper from the garden, tomatoes from the garden, garlic, part of a poblano (only part because it was really spicy), finely minced cilantro stems, cilantro leaves, and a pinch of saffron. Basically, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, and cilantro (or culantro). Quantities are not very exact. For seven thigh quarters, I used a bunch of green onions, three shallots, one red pepper (because that's all I had), a bunch of cilantro, three medium tomatoes, and about 8 large cloves of garlic. More or less of anything isn't really going to matter.

Mise en Place

After all is prepped, season the chicken on both sides and brown it on both sides, then remove it from the pan.

Brown the Chicken and Remove it

Add the sofrito ingredients and cook for a couple of minutes. I did two additions, the harder ingredients with the saffron followed by the tomatoes and cilantro leaves at the last second.

Cook the Sofrito and Add the Rice

To this, stir in the rice. For this big pan, I used two cups of rice stirred into the sofrito followed by a quart (4 cups) of stock. Two to one is a good ratio for stock to rice. I also added Kosher salt at this point, one half teaspoon per cup of rice. And then I put the chicken back in the pan.

Add the Chicken, the Stock, and Bring to a Boil

Once it came to a boil all over, I put the pan on a sheet tray (in case of boil-over in the oven), covered it in foil, and baked it at 375F for 45 minutes while we watched TV. I cover mine with foil because I want a moist dish. If I were going for crispy crust on the bottom, I would have used a touch less stock and cooked it uncovered.

Bake Until Done, About 45 Minutes

And there you go. Simple, easy, and nobody is not going back for seconds.

Cirque du Soleil/Lyon Hall

We try to catch Cirque du Soleil every time they are in town. Ann booked our tickets to Kurios probably six months ago and we had been looking forward to seeing the show for a long time. After a whole lot of hassle trying to find our designated parking in Tyson's Corner, we finally made it to the show in time to have a glass of wine before things got kicked off.

Kurios Was a Good Show

Prosecco at Intermission

I really enjoyed this show. It was a lot better than Michael Jackson: One which we walked out of at intermission and Totem which was too small. I don't think it compares to Ovo in terms of large acrobatic feats, but it was well staged and over far too soon. Both the Victorian-Steampunk mashup costumes and haunting music from vocalist Eirini Tornesaki were fantastic. Though it was really too dark inside to photograph anything, I was able to get one grainy photo while the house lights were still up.

A Steampunk Extravaganza

After the show, we zipped down the tollroad from Tysons to Ballston to try SER Restaurant which features mainly small plates and tapas. I had been looking really forward to trying their real Spanish food for some time, but it became apparent as soon as we walked in that we wouldn't be staying: their AC was broken and it was about 85 degrees inside, just slightly cooler than outside. We regrouped at the bar with a glass of Verdejo for me and for Ann a cocktail called the Stigma: Cava, ginger honey, and saffron bitters. This was a really great cocktail. We decided to move to nearby Lyon Hall and called Drew and Bill, who were on their way to meet us at SER.

Stigma: Cava, Ginger Honey, Saffron Bitters

They beat us to Lyon Hall by about 10 minutes as we finished our cocktails and liberated our car from the parking garage whose attendant was not to be found when we got to the exit. They had just come in from the new house, Avon Hall, that they purchased in Washington, VA. We got caught up over cocktails before moving on to dinner. I had a double IPA from Evolution Brewing and Ann had a shandy.

Holding Down the Table for Us

Evolution Double IPA

Mini Hot Dogs with Kraut and Mustard

Our server brought us a plate of mini hot dogs on the house. They worked really well with my beer, but we soon moved on to a bottle of Fitou from the Mediterranean Coast of France, a Carignan-based blend with Grenache and Syrah. I've had a bit of Fitou in my life and it's mostly been pretty tannic and brawny. This, by contrast, was softer and much more approachable.

Tuna Tartare

For dinner, among the four of us, we had a good sample of the menu. Drew had steak tartare and a massive pork schnitzel. Bill had a tuna tartare and a hanger steak. Ann and I had a tuna tartare, a sausage plate, and a cheese plate. After our appetizers, it was getting too dark inside to photograph so no more food pics. We really enjoyed our visit with Drew and Bill but despite the excellent company, we found the food wasn't at the level of our last visit in 2012. Back then, the food was exceptional, especially the sausages. The new chef's food is good but not what we had hoped for, better than average, but not exceptional. Still, I like the restaurant very much.

Back Yard Wildflowers

Annie got sick as we were heading up the trail to Veach Gap last week and so we had to call it quits before I could get my nature fix, though I saw a lot of interesting Hibiscus along the Shenandoah River. Still, this week I managed to find in my own back yard three flowers that I have yet to find anywhere else this summer. To be fair, we are just getting into their bloom periods though. I also figured out that the iPhone sucks for wildflower photography when compared to my big Nikon, but I don't carry the big Nikon when out walking the dogs.

An Orchid, Nodding Ladies' Tresses, Spiranthes cernua

Common Blue Curls, Trichostema dichotomum

Virgin's Bower, Clematis virginiana

A Great Sandwich

Ann and I often remark to each other that it is damn near impossible to find a great sandwich. I am not sure why that is exactly, because a great sandwich is not at all hard to make.

A Great Sandwich

At long last, the weather was truly nice yesterday, a glimpse of fall, and it seemed perfect for sitting out on the back patio. Though we had thought to go out for dinner, I made an executive decision to stay home, enjoy the weather, drink a little wine, and make a really awesome sandwich.

What makes a great sandwich? Let's see: great bread, high quality ingredients, and a little care. That's all it takes, no matter what kind of sandwich. So why is it so bloody hard to find a great sandwich?

I was in the mood for an Italian cold cut sandwich, so I set out with that in mind. And since I had to make a Costco run yesterday, I availed myself of several ingredients there. First, the bread. They don't bake their own, but they do parbake decent bread daily, and while it is not the best in the land, it is pretty decent. I grabbed a loaf of rosemary parmesan bread.

Then over to the refrigerator cases where I got a pack of mixed capocollo/salame and another of prosciutto, again not superior quality, but decent enough for a sandwich.

At the restaurant, I remembered a few slices of unloved provolone in the bottom of the cheese bin and I found a couple of super-ripe Cherokee Purple tomatoes on the counter, so ripe that they wouldn't make it to dinner the next night before needing to be pitched.

At home, we had plenty of butter lettuce, olive oil, and, though not a traditional Italian sub ingredient, a roasted turkey breast.

That's it for the great bread and high quality ingredients. Now for the care, as if selecting great bread and high quality ingredients is not already taking great care. I split the loaf of bread, gave it a good drizzle of olive oil, salt, and pepper and put it under the broiler until nicely toasted. Out of the broiler, it got a good bath in great olive oil and healthy sprinkles of oregano and crushed red pepper flakes.

From there, it was just a matter of assembling the sandwich and devouring it.

Now why is that so hard?