camping

Three weekends ago, I went backpacking with a couple friends. it was the big schloss trail in western VA (i think the mountain range is literally on the border of WV and VA). a nice 12 mile hike, to a final altitude of about 3000 feet. I had been camping before, and hiking, but never both. it was fun, but boy was i glad to take the 25-30 lb pack off for good Sunday afternoon!

We got to the bottom of the trail on Saturday at about 11am. Got everything together, and set out. the trail is a big loop, with the first half mostly through the forest, not much to see. after about 7 miles or so, we found a good campsite, rested, setup our tents, made a fire, cooked dinner (freeze-dried chicken stew yay!), and went to bed. I like sleeping in a tent, it's like a fort! i played sudoku by flashlight until i got real tired, and went to sleep despite the cacophonous noise of all the insects and frogs.

loud is an understatement. i woke at about 1am to find that most insects and frogs go to sleep at some point too. the moon had come up by then and i was half expecting to see some scary weird animal silhouette prowling by my tent. i was disappointed.

we woke at about 7 the next morning, packed up, had a quick bite, and set off again. we were walking along the peak of the range at this point, with several lookouts while heading up to the peak.

the view of Big Schloss from a lookout about 2-3 miles away. Schloss is German for castle, and it really does look like the ruins of a castle.

we reached the top of big schloss by 11sh, and relaxed for a bit before heading down. here's John taking a catnap.

On our way back down, the path was only about a foot wide and had thick brush on either side. John was in front, and i was right behind him. we were moving at a nice pace, and then we heard the rattle. John froze, and we backed up. we tried to get a picture, but i had to enhance it a bit because of all the leaves. you can just make out a dark shape in the middle of the picture, diagonally. below that is a picture of the eastern diamondback rattlesnake for reference. the snake was about 3 feet long and 3 inches in diameter at its widest point. luckily, it was already heading away from us, and not coiled up. it was running parallel to the path so we had to make a wide path around it, hoping we didn't run into another one in the thick of the brush.

all in all, a fun weekend!