Red Creek hike

Thanks to everyone who filled out that informal survey from the previous entry. Looks like I have some blog links to update based on those readers who have blogs, some of whom are old skool and I didn't know they were still blogging.

I just finished unpacking, doing laundry and drying out everything after this weekend's trip. For the most part I lucked out on the weather, only getting rain on Sunday but by then my tent was set up so I hunkered down to reading World War Z: an Oral History of the Zombie Wars, by Max Brooks, to get me in the survivalist mood. It's really a great book about people, societal breakdown, military strategy and culture. The author did a lot of background research, and the zombies are just a tool to tell a story about humanity. They're going to turn it into a movie, and I'm not sure how I feel about that just yet. I hope they surprise me. Considering the book is a series of interviews with people involved in all stages of the outbreak, war and postwar reconstruction, it might be better as a miniseries or a series. But Hollywood never listens to me. I hope they don't fuck it up.

Anyhow, it took me longer to leave DC than it did to get to Front Royal on Saturday. I take full credit for the hassle because I slept in. I did get there with daylight to spare, but Red Creek Campground was full. I decided to check out the mist netting area used in the fall to band migrating birds, and it was clear of campers so I stayed there the first night and got some spectacular views and sounds that evening and the next morning.

The campsite in this picture looks like it's in disarray, but I was just drying things out while I ate breakfast before I packed it up again for the next leg of the trip.

On the hike in to Red Creek proper, I came across an unlucky Mongahela denizen:

It was a deer, probably taken by a hunter in the fall.

The creek forks where the trail hits Red Creek was also packed when I got there. Mental note: Memorial Day isn't a wise choice. I usually go there the first weekend in October when the leaves are changing. Best to pick a non-holiday 3-day weekend for a visit in the future.

I have a small notepad that I keep in my backpack to take notes on whatever, and add reminders of what I need to put in the pack before the next trip. It's at least as old as my pack, probably 15+ years. I hadn't opened it in a while and found notes in Cyrillic from a long time ago: Cholpon-Ata, Bosteri Guest House, Bereki Sanatorium, tel. 31943 5-25-84. That was when I hiked from Almaty, the capitol of Kazakstan, over the Tien Shan Mountains to Kyrgizstan with two fellow Peace Corps volunteers and two Russians, a British guy and a woman from The Netherlands. The destination "resort" did have the feel of a sanatorium, but it was welcome rest after that trip. I wasn't really prepared for high-altitude and alpine hikes at the time. Another set of notes tracked my mileage in my Ford Festiva as I drove across the country from Wisconsin to the West Coast: LaCrosse -> Worthington, MN -> Chamberlain, SD -> Sturgis, SD -> Little Big Horn/Garryowen -> Bozeman -> St. Regis. I think my final destination was Portland, Oregon.

While it's been rainy here in DC, it must have been a pretty dry spring up there as the creek was very low, but that meant an opportunity to spot fossils embedded in the rocks in the stream bed. Sometimes there were fossils, in other places where you could see the layers in the rocks there was coal. Click on the photo to the left to embiggen and see the fossil details. The other images embiggen too.

On my final morning in the wilderness I finally spotted a red eft crawling through my campsite. It was a goal to take more pictures on this trip and I managed to get a lot of nice photos.

I was eager to get back to allow me some time to unpack and launder, so I passed up the Woodbine Farm Market near Staunton Strasburg, VA on Highway 55 near where it links up to 81 and 66. It's a great place to get a pumpkin in the fall, and they sell pies and delicious oatmeal cookies that must have at least a half stick of butter in each one.

When I got back into town I made the mistake of going to the Ghetto Giant for the week's groceries, where all my enthusiasm and peace of mind from the trip was shattered by typical crappy DC customer service. Zombies would make better checkout clerks.

Adventures and travel always adds perspective, and during the hikes I tried to think of things to look at differently. So far all I can think of is to go backpacking more often.