Oh man I Hurt Today

[fish-aholic]

Well, didn't get to go fishing this weekend, however Ciara decided she wanted to go hiking. Knowing that I'd been trying to get her to do an overnight hike for a while now, she agreed since she knew I was passing up fishing to spend the weekend with her. We packed up friday night and had a leisurely morning around the house Sat while we loaded the car, had coffee and got ready to roll out. We were finally on the road around 10:30, with a short stop into Sunny's Surplus, where Ciara got new hiking socks and boots, I know you never wear new boots out on a hike, but no matter how bad new ones were, they were going to be better than the old ones...From there we jumped over to PetSmart to try and find a doggie backpack for the second dog, Maddie already had one, then over to Dick's Sporting goods to see if they had anything we wanted to pick up. With all the shopping done we jumped on 66 and headed west. We found Chester Gap, (where the Appalachian Trail crosses 522 just south of Front Royal) parked the car, strapped the packs on our backs and off we went. Man, let me tell you what...it was a beautiful day for hiking but I think I was a little over confident in our abilities. We planned on heading to the Jim and Molly Denton shelter, 4.5 miles away, staying the night there and heading back down to the car on sunday. Little did I know that (according to the GPS) we were starting at about 890ft then we were going to climb to 1900ft, then descend to 1300ft where the shelter was, all in 4.5 miles..actually , the ascent, was pretty much all in the first 1-2 miles....anyone who has ever done any hiking knows what kind of grade that is. Talk about pain....I guess thats what I get for letting myself get out of shape. Well we finally made it. It took us about 4 hours to get to the shelter but we did it. I immediately started getting a 2 fires started. One to cook dinner on, and another so we had a good fire to sit around. With the cooking fire going great and the campfire smoldering we ended up hanging around the cooking fire all night. We wrapped Chicken, Carrots, Potatos and Onions, seasoned with Salt, Pepper, Season All, Garlic and Paprika in foil and threw it on the grate...man what a great dinner that was. We had the shelter to ourselves, so we sat around the fires and talked while the dogs investigated every smell and sound in the area. Finally we crawled into our sleeping bags shortly after 8pm where I found it nice and toasty, but Ciara found it quite chilly The dogs wouldn't sleep in the shelter with us, they insisted on sleepin on the shelter's front porch where they kept guard all night long. They let us know when anything go close to the camp by growling or short choppy barks. Woke up slightly sore sunday morning, but ready to get some coffee in me. I lit up the stove and got breakfast and coffee going (instant oatmeal and instant cream of wheat). Loaded up we headed out. With the majority of the trip sunday being downhill, we shaved 1 full hour off our time to cover the 4.5 miles. Once in the car we were relieved and headed home...Let me tell you, we move no more than necessary yesterday. I hurt today, but not near as bad as I hurt yesterday.... now the pictures...Top left, Ciara and the dogs taking a break on the way up to the shelter, Top Right Ciara sitting with Brenna by the cooking pavillion waiting on dinner trying to stay warm, Bottom Left, Close up of the previous picture, Bottom Center, Shower (notice the icicles hanging from it needless to say we didn't use the shower), and last bottom right, is Maddie and Brenna playing around Sun morning before we left, I'm willing to bet that by the time we got to the bottom, they wished they had saved that energy for the hike.....

[ocsnapper]

looks like one nice hike out on the trail. Gets alittle cold for me this time of year.

[fish-aholic]

You know, that is what Ciara said at first, and with the right equipment it was defenitely tolerable. The coats and fires kept us warm while we were up, and the Sleeping bags (once they warmed up) kept us warm at night. And man, I was sweating to death in a longjohn shirt and a Tshirt on both days....I don't think I would've survived it it was much warmer out. And yes, it was nice out on the trail, they leaves were incredible. Just a wonderful outing for the weekend....

[Randy Stinchcomb]

Jeff, looks like alot of fun. I havn't done any real hiking & camping in a long, long while and Im way-way outta' shape to try it anytime soon

[fish-aholic]

Im way-way outta' shape to try it anytime soon

That should've been my thoughts too on sat morning before we left

[Charkbait]

Jeff,

Best thing you can do today is get out and walk 3-4 miles, it will go a long way the rest of the week. Gets the blood pumping and get's the evil out!

This afternoon and tomorrow will most likely be your worst days.

Good times, beautiful dogs. Been looking at adding to the family lately. We already have 3 goldens though, add a Berm to the mix and it will be one serious hair fest.

[chomper]

sounds like a good hike. Cold weather sucks though....

[Sam]

Yup, get out and walk. Good story and pics, thanks for sharing.

[Steve]

Man, I need to get back into having that kind of fun!

[DaveH]

Man that looks like a great weekend, I'd love to try that sometime

[fish-aholic]

Steve, Dave, you wanna try it sometime we can set that up.....Could even work in a little fishing depending on the trip we wanna take....if we go into the Shenandoah National Park we could possibly get into some NATIVE trout...not big, but a rare catch.....

[ocsnapper]

Have to think on that one. If you are hurting then I'll be dead oh and wait till it's warmer.. and then will talk.

[trowpa]

I've always wanted to do some hiking to some more remote fishing holes - I've never been one for hiking for hiking's sake - I enjoy it much more when I'm headed to a destination - one with some wild brookies for instance :glasses10:

[fish-aholic]

Well if we ever plan it.....I'll make sure you get an invite