Last weekend I uploaded all my pictures from Maine 1 at a time from my Picasa Web Albums to my new computer (long story) and was remembering how much fun I’d had and thinking that I needed to get out more! I decided that this weekend I was going hiking.
As the week wore on Saturday was looking less and less like a good day for a hike. Every time I checked the weather the chance of rain was increased, finally topping out at 90%. I decided that I’d wait and see what the weather actually did because many times the forecast is wrong.
Yesterday dawned cloudy, but dry at my house. The forecast was calling for showers, mostly before 1pm. “Showers” implies to me that it will rain a bit, a soft gentle rain, then stop for a bit, then rain a bit more. No big deal I thought. And, the worst of it was supposed to be before 1pm – it was already 10am and it would take me at least 3 hours to get out there, so I was hoping to miss the worst of the rain.
I was about a 1/3 of the way to the park when the skies opened up. It was a downpour. The wipers were going as fast as they could and they still couldn’t keep up. I was seriously thinking I was nuts to go out on a day like this. At a stoplight I pulled up The Weather Channel and checked the radar – it looked like I was sitting the worst of it and the park seemed to be in the clear! Sure enough about 20 miles later the rain had stopped and the sub was peeking out!
I stopped at Sheetz to get an MTO and continued into the park. When I arrived at Swift Run Gap it was raining again, not much, but raining. I headed south on Skyline Drive – my plan was to hike part of the AT, or hike to a waterfall that I could extend to a 7 mile circuit hike if I wanted to. As I made my way down Skyline Drive the rain was coming down harder. I pulled into an overlook where I had coverage on my phone and checked the weather again. There was a HUGE area of rain right over the park! It looked better to the north so I headed off into the central district.
I’d driven a few miles down the road and the rain was not letting up. In fact it was getting worse! It was deluge. You could hardly see another other than clouds all around. I decided that this just wasn’t worth it. It’s one thing if you get caught on the trail in a deluge, but it’s another thing entirely to go out in one. I remembered that the South River picnic area had a picnic pavilion – I thought I’d go there and have lunch and read my book, then head down to the Antique stores that are at the intersection of 33 and 29.
I headed over to the picnic area and was sad to note that there was no pavilion. I was thinking of the Pinnacles Picnic area. But, the rain had let up! I decided I’d head down to the South River Falls. I’d been there once before but I didn’t have my camera. I quickly threw all my stuff in my bag, laced up my boots and headed down the hill.
No sooner had I left the car when I heard a low rumble of thunder. Rain I can do, thunder not so much. Not knowing what might happen I decided to head back to the car. When I got back to the car I heard another crack of thunder, this time right over head! yikes!
My new plan (what are we up to plan Q?) was to have “car picnic” and read my book, then head down to the antique stores. It was a pleasant afternoon to be sitting in the car! I put the back seats down so I could stretch out and left the lift-gate open so I could enjoy the fresh air.
As I was finishing up, the sun came out! That’s right the sun! Well, now I had to go hiking. I put my boots back on and headed out. I decided that I didn’t trust the weather enough to head down to the falls (it was a 3.3 mile round trip) so I took what I thought was a shorter hike down the AT to the Saddleback MT trail and back on the AT. It was a hike that I’d done before, but it was in the Spring.
The first section of the hike was fabulous! Bright sunshine, blue sky poking out, high thin cirrus clouds! It was as if the rain and thunder were a million miles away! :-)
I was about halfway around Saddleback Mt when the woods began to fill with fog. It was pretty cool. I was a bit worried that it would start to thunder again, but at this point I had to keep going forward because it was further to go back.
The woods were very quiet. Silent even. It was kinds weird, because usually there are all sorts of noises. All of the sudden I heard the thunderous roar of hundreds of wings taking flight and looked and saw hundreds of black birds all taking off! It was like something out of that Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds. Only they were flying away from me. Every step I took fleshed more birds out of hiding. It was wild. I tried to get their picture, but it was very hard as I didn’t see them until they were flying. I did get a few good shots, hopefully my dad can id them for me!
Eventually the birds all flew away from my path and I didn’t see them anymore. Soon after that the sun returned! All the fog in the woods disappeared and blue skies were all you could see! The rest of the hike was just magnificent! Perfect temperature (around 60) and perfect weather!
When I rejoined the AT I saw the trail marker and it said that it was 2 miles back to the picnic area, the Saddleback Mt trail was about 1 mile – so the whole hike was about 3.5 miles – not any shorter than the trip to the falls! Oh well! This is what happens when you don’t bring the map! :-) (I had a map, it was just the South District and I was in the Central District)
When I got back to the car it was already 4:00 and I knew that I’d missed the Antique stores, I was pretty sure they closed at 5. I decided that since it was turning out to be such a perfect day I’d try and squeeze in another hike! My first thought was Stony Man, but I re-thought that when I realized how crowded the park was and Stony Man is right by Skyland so I figured it would be swamped. I opted instead for Hawksbill – the tallest mountain in the park at 4,049 ft.
I hadn’t been up Hawksbill since the day I did the “extreme” hike – up Cedar Run from the park boundary, up Hawksbill, down Whiteoak Canyon – more than 10 miles and 3,000 ft of elevation gain – 5 years ago.
I headed out from the parking lot at 5:00, I was guesstimating that sunset was about 6:30, it was a mile from the parking lot to the summit and a mile back, I figured I had plenty of time. The trail up is very easy and I made it in less than 30 mins. There was one other group at the top – a bunch of Asian students, none of them speaking English and standing exactly in the way of all the pictures I wanted to take! I waited them out and they eventually left and I had the summit of Hawksbill to myself! What a rare treat! :-) The views were spectacular!
The sun was sinking quickly as I headed back to the car. I was about 3/4 of the way back and the woods were suddenly enveloped in fog yet again! It was quickly getting dark, but there was still plenty of light. I got back to the car at exactly 6 and the fog was dense. As I drove north on Skyline Drive I came to an overlook where I should have been able to see Hawksbill, but it full of fog!
I headed up the drive to Thorton Gap, stopping along the way at overlooks to check out the sunset. It felt like it was very late at night, but it was only 6:30. There were lots of cars heading out, I guess everyone wanted to stay until the very last bit of daylight had run out!
I’m so glad I went out on what looked to be questionable day! Turned out to be a great day to be in the woods! :-)
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