Hike 4: Beaverdam Park

This past weekend, my husband and I went for a quick weekend getaway to the Tidewater area of Virginia.  I've been traveling to this area of Virginia my whole life.  My family has property there that has been in the family for generations. Even though we were on a mini vacation, I still wanted to get a hike in.  I found Beaverdam park located in nearby Gloucester, VA that had several different trail options.
Once again the weather was on our side.  The temperature reached 60 degrees and the sun was shining.  There are several trails at the park of varying mileage so you can really tailor your hike to your needs.  There is a trail for hikers only and trails that are considered multi use meaning horses and bikers are also permitted on the trail.  We opted to start out on the hiking only trail which is about 3 miles.

Most of the trail runs along the edge of the Beaverdam Reservoir.  There were quite a few boaters out fishing.  Beaverdam is apparently the only freshwater fishing hole in the Middle Peninsula of VA.  I'm used to the saltwater fishing on the rivers and bay in the area.  Unlike the trails at home in Pennsylvania, the trail here had very few inclines, and the ones it had were short and not too steep.  There were no rocks either, but there were areas where the tree roots stuck up across the path.  I think I almost prefer rocks as those roots seemed to pop up out of no where under the leaves.
When hiking the hiker only trail, you can either return on the same trail, or you can choose to return on the multi use trail.  My husband and I decided to take the slightly longer multi use trail return since the weather was gorgeous.

As the sign says, take caution on the multi use trail, there might be poop.
I've hiked trails that are considered multi use, but I've never encountered more than one or two cyclists.  On this trail, we actually encountered 4 different horses- and 2 of them more than once.  There were also many people on bikes.  I'm going to take this moment to mention a PSA about courtesy on the trail as it seems to be something a lot of people need help with (here anyway).  The rule is: Everyone yields to horses
Bikers and joggers yield to hikers and downhill hikers yield to uphill hikers (unless I'm the uphill hiker then I use the moment to catch my breath and let the others pass).  I want to stress the horse thing.  I know there are a lot of people who do not have horse knowledge.  If you are hiking or biking and come upon some horse back riders, step off the trail to let them pass.  Be visible and ask the riders if you're in a good spot.  Some horses spook at the strangest things, and if they haven't realized you're there and you scare them, it could cause a situation where a rider is thrown or someone is kicked.  Cyclists- this means don't ride up on a horses butt.  I saw a family out riding bikes that rode right up on a horse.  The kids were lucky the horse only picked up speed because if the horse had kicked, it would have surely hit one of the kids.
Anyway, it was a very nice hike.  It was warm and it smelled like earth and pine.  We were actually pretty tired from the hike, though we are pretty out of shape.  This one completed one of my hikes to a body of water.  I have 1 more left of those, and I already have an idea of where I'd like to go for that second one (it involves looking for shark teeth fossils).  I've completed 2 of my 5 waterfall hikes as well.  I still have a bunch of challenge objectives to complete, but we have 48 more hikes to go!
On a side note, Beaverdam Park is a great place to visit for the day if you're in the area.  It has very clean bathrooms, boat rentals, picnic areas and of course the trails.  Our family will definitely be visiting again!.

The funny thing about this, my husband's name is Ernie.

Cascade Falls: Hike #3

Last week the temperatures warmed up to the 50's, so we headed out to someplace different.  We opted to make the hour drive to Patapsco Valley State Park to see if the waterfall located in the park was still frozen. Cascade Falls as it's known, descends down a 10-15 foot face, and is reached by the Cascade Trail located near the parking lot in the Orange Grove Area of the park.  Patapsco Valley State Park is pretty special to me for many reasons: I grew up going to this park when I was a kid, my great-uncle (who was like a grandfather to me) was a superintendent of the Park back in the day, and I was married in the park (I even hiked to the falls in my wedding dress).  So, because I had extra prepaid admission passes I had purchased for the wedding, we headed to the outskirts of Baltimore.

 The Cascade Trail is about 2.5 miles.  The beginning of the trail makes one think the entire hike might be too strenuous, but it isn't.  After the initial climb up the hill (really not bad- remember I did it in my wedding dress), she begin to see some of the rapids before finally coming to the falls.  It's a popular place in the summer as families like to splash around in the pool at the falls' base.  Turns out it's just as popular in the winter.  Despite having a couple of warm days, the falls were still mostly frozen.  You could see the water rushing behind the ice, but the rocks were coated with ice and the pool at the base was frozen solid.  Usually my journey along the trail ends at the waterfall, but we wanted a longer hike so we continued along the trail. 

We followed the stream that feeds Cascade Falls.  It was ice crusted, but not frozen solid probably because of it's fast movement and the few warmer days.  The trail was also incredibly muddy.  A good moment to mention Leave No Trace- it's better to go through mud than around it.  If everyone starts going around, you make a new trail and that's not really a good thing.  So make sure you wear shoes you won't be upset about getting full of mud.
We continued along and eventually reached the far end of the trail that butts up to some houses and another parking area for the trail.  Here the trail makes a large loop before joining back to the original trail and heading back down to the falls.

Once we were back to the parking lot where we started, a couple of us headed across the iconic swinging bridge to the other side of the Patapsco River.  We were looking for a spot to be able to walk down to the water's edge and rinse off our boots.
Did I mention that the trail was super muddy?
The swinging Bridge does "swing", or rather, it bounces a little as people walk across it.  Back when I was a kid, it would really sway and bounce.  Then someone fell to their death and the bridge was redone in a way to make it have less movement.  The bridge was built as a replica of one that spanned the river in the 1800's and allowed employees of the mill to get to work.





At the river's edge, there were a lot of ice piles deposited by the river.  They were all several inches thick.  Had we managed to get to the park before the warmer weather, we would have seen a frozen river, or at least witnessed some ice flows. 

Maybe we would have even seen a couple of penguins and a polar bear riding the ice flows as well.

Hike Number 2: Hashawha

 

For my second hike, I headed out to a local Environmental Center that has several trails.  I hike here often as it's close, offers a nice bathroom in the Nature Center and has enough trail options to be able to tailor your hike to several different mileage lengths.
The weather was still cold.  I think the dashboard temperature reading showed 12 degrees.  I'm pretty much over the frigid temperatures.
The small pond at the beginning of the trail was frozen pretty thick.   I don't know what it is about frozen water and the way it whispers to you, "Come on, walk on my, I'm solid."  I always manage to resist because, you know, hypothermia. We ended up doing what has become our usual hike at Hashawha that is about 3 miles long.  It takes us past the raptor cages where I always hoot a greeting to the resident owls.  They don't hoot back, in fact, one turned his back on me.  The lower portion of the trail follows a stream before coming to the larger pond on the property that you cross using a series of boardwalks.  There were still icy patches on the stream, and one section looked pretty cool with the water running under the ice.  It was cold, but the sun was strong, so I was almost sweating towards the last portion of the trail.  As always, I was pleased I had pushed myself to go.  It seems every time it's cold out, I start talking myself out of going outside.  But in the end, getting some exercise in the outdoors helps clean out some of the winter head fog.

Hike 1 of 52: The 52 Hike Challenge

I don't really make New Year's Resolutions anymore, but I do make goals for myself to try to accomplish in the coming year.  One of those goals is to try to hike every week at least once.  So I signed up for the 52 Hike Challenge.  
There are three different challenge options.  The first is just committing to hike 52 hikes (1 for each week of the year) anywhere you like to hike.  The second option is the adventure series and the third is the explorer series.  I opted for the Adventure series.  





It asks you to complete these 17 specific types of hikes within your 52:

• 5 Waterfalls (even if they are dry)
• 1 Forest (if not possible, go to National Park/ Site)
• 1 National Parks, Monuments, Preserves, Recreation Area or Historic Trail
• 2 Hikes to bodies of water: Lakes, Rivers, or Ocean
• 1 Stewardship hike (pick up trash or join group to help with a restoration project)
• 1 Group hike (if you are regular to one group, visit a new group to meet new people)
• 1 Introduce someone new to hiking (on an easy trail)
• 1 Sunset or Sunrise hike
• 1 Hike from your Bucket list (somewhere you have always wanted to go)
• 3 Reflection hikes (journal at the beginning, middle, and towards the end of your challenge).

The weather here, as with much of the East Coast, has temperatures in the teens.  My area hasn't gotten too much snow, really just about an inch with the "Bomb Cyclone" that came up the coast.  Still, those temps in the teens have kept me in the house. So, I missed the First Day Hike because of the weather.  This made me more determined to get the first hike of 52 accomplished. 
Because the temperature was supposed to rise to the 20's (balmy compared to the weather we've been having), my husband, mother and I planned a short hike.  So yesterday we headed out to Cunningham Falls State Park to do a short mile hike to Cunningham Falls.



I don't think the temperature ever reached 20 degrees.  And I'm pretty sure my husband asked me 5 times if I was sure I really wanted to hike.  But I was/am determined.  So we headed down the trail.  I wanted to get a look at the waterfall frozen.  The trail is only a 1 mile round trip trail.  I'm horribly out of shape and didn't want to push it- plus it was cold. 
It didn't take long to get to the falls.  It was cool to see it frozen, though it wasn't as spectacular as some other ones I've seen photos of. We took a few photos and then headed back towards the car.  We all said we could have gone longer, but the other trail option was more difficult with steeper inclines.  Since I'm so out of shape, I felt it was best to stick with the easier trail.



It felt great to get outside.  Hiking definitely helps clear out the brain funk when you're stuck inside in the winter.  I'm looking forward to the next hike

Me on "Little McAfee Knob"