Hiking in Catoctin Mountain Park

Hiking and biking outside in this weather is just miserable!   You see, I am sooooo ready for the heat of this summer to be over!   The older I get the less extreme I want the temperature to be!   I know, I complain in the summer because it’s too hot.  I complain in the winter because it’s too cold….or more correctly, I complain in the winter because of the infernal darkness!  I’m just not happy.  But this past weekend we didn’t let the heat of summer deter us from getting outside.  We decided to go hiking In the Catoctin Mountain Park. And I’m so glad that I did because I realized something very important! 

Long Break From Hiking

The weather was supposed to be a bit cooler (high 80’s as opposed to the 90’s) and we decided to go hiking!   After all, we will be going on vacation soon and whilst on vacation we will be hiking…a lot! We knew we had to get our hiking legs underneath us.   We wanted to get back out and be as ready for our vacation as possible and that means hiking as much as possible as we get closer to our trip.  This is especially important as we have been woefully lacking in hikes!

We have walked on the canal a lot…some long walks.  We have walked at the zoo.  We haven’t been just sitting on the couch. But a real hike…mountains and rocky terrain and all that turns a walk into a hike has not happened.   That fact was brought home to us when we pulled our our dirt encrusted hiking boots.  ‘Wow we were in some mud last time we went hiking’ I declared.  But neither of us could easily remember the occasion in which we ended up mud encrusted.   Shame on us!

Catoctin Mountain Park

We decided to head to Catoctin Mountain Park for our first hike after an indeterminate amount of time.  The Catoctin Mountain Park is part of the properties managed by the NPS and is chock full of beauty.  It is in the mountains so I knew to expect the hills and grades to ascend and descend but I also knew that the views would be a great reward.

We started out our hike at the Thurmond  Vista Parking lot. We chuckled as we thought about our run in with the secret service/park police during a recent visit when we were so enthralled with the wildlife that we totally forgot about our proximity to Camp David.  But this visit we clearly remembered our proximity and followed all ‘edicts’. 

The first trial we decided to traverse was the Charcoal Trail.  This is a half mile loop trail that is pretty scenery but shows how charcoal was generated.   The lessons are learned by historical markers and exhibits along the trail.   It was neat but didn’t take us long.  Soon we were back at the parking lot and ready to head to a longer trail.

We decided to hike to the Thurmond Vista.  The National Park Service had done a great job at Catoctin National Park in making it possible to hike most of the parks trails in a series of loops.  The Thurmond vista loop would be about 3 miles.  That sounded perfect for a first hike (in a long time).  Off we went.

It was about this time that it started to rain.  But no worries.  It was hot and a little rain could only be refreshing, right? 

It’s only a bit further, let’s hike further

After reaching the Thurmond Vista we came to the turn off for us to make the loop back to the parking lot.  The signage was very clear.  But it was also very clear that Wolf Rock was only 0.3 miles further.  My legs were feeling strong…we decided to check out Wolf Rock as a spur trail for our loop. 

We made it there no problem….and the signs from there indicated that Chimney rock was only 0.5 miles further!  Why yes!  Let’s!

It was so stinking hot!  The humidity was super high!  But we were both having so much fun!

It was while we were hiking back to the car that I realized….my legs were absolutely fine and in fact it had been ME that suggested adding the extra almost two miles do hike to Wolf Rock and Chimney Rock.  That is a huge turn around because in the last year or two I have dragged my feet about getting out and when I am out hiking all I can usually think about is getting the torture over with…and never would I willingly add more torture by suggesting adding more hiking onto our planned trip.  (The exception is if I am busy exploring…and buried in the excitement of that…such as our hikes on  vacation last year.)

I did hike using my trekking poles . (Amazon Link)  I know that they saved me a few times as my foot got caught on a rock causing me to stumble!  (Why do I stumble so much?). They also kept my fingers from swelling up like sausages so I was happy.   It’s all about doing what it takes to make my hiking experience favorable and fun!

We had a blast hiking in the Catoctin Mountain Park!  Sure it was hot and humid.  It even rained on us a few times.  But we were so happy to be back in the woods.  I was encouraged by the way my body handled the hike. My workouts through the past few months and my trekking poles made this hike painless and enjoyable!   We can’t wait to get out  and hike again!!!

Vacation

Where did vacation go?   I swear it was just yesterday that I was so excited to leave for vacation!   Yet here I am back at home and already halfway through a work week!   Ahhhhhhh...such is life!    Even with it flying by, we had a great time on our vacation to the wilds of West Virginia!   We hiked a ton and saw some amazing things!!!!!   So here is a brief overview of what we did!

We hiked to quite a few different overlooks.  The overlooks here are pretty spectacular.  They all sit on the edge of a huge steep gorge, many on rock ledge ledges that jug out over the precipice that is the gorge! The views....incredible!

There are remnants of life in a bustling coal mine area everywhere.  We hiked rail trails and saw numerous abandoned mines and went back to Thurmond a complete abandoned town.  

 

We went to Babcock state park and took in the beauty of the grist mill. (And hiked the trails)

And we went to Hawks Nest State park and ride the aerial tram (and hiked the trails!)

The big success is the kaymoor miners trail.  I had attempted that back in June when we were there and gave up because I was honestly terrified!    I came home and pondered and went out and purchased trekking poles ...and have used them since that terrifying hike. So the very first place we headed on our vacation was that trail....I wanted to see the abandoned mine!!    I went down that trail lickety split!  I won’t say it was easy...but with the trekking poles to add in my descent I was able to navigate it with ease (and with no fear)

We got to the shelf on the side of the mountain and enjoyed exploring the ruins there. But then we headed down .  When I say down I mean down 821 steps!   (That is the equivalent of about a 42 story building!)  

Down at the bottom are more ruins!  Well worth it!   After we explored it was time to go UP those 821 steps and then back up the trail with the steep rock scramble!   It was one heck of a hard hike!  That day I only felt ‘tired’ but after the next day of hiking I couldn’t even touch my legs without feeling pain!  My muscles were toast!   (I kept hiking through the muscle aches...there was too much to see!!!) But you know what?  That was the best hike of the week!  We toyed with hiking it again on our last day there!   And I can assure you that if/when we are back in that area that we will definitely hike that again!!!!

So you can see that we had a fabulous and active time!!!!!!!   

I

Hiking at Seneca Creek State Park

We had the nicest weather of the summer on Sunday!  The humid was low and the temps were steady in the lower 80°’s!  How awesome is that???   We knew we couldn’t let that slip away form us!   We were up and moving early figuring out what we were doing.   And we decided to hike at a state park about 20 miles from us.  We had never been to this park so it was all new to us!

Hiking Plan

We had read online that a pretty hike would be to hike a 2 mile trail to a lake.  Once to the lake, we could traverse the trail around the lake and once that look was completed we would be able to hike back the two miles on the trail to the car.  Easy Peasy!  

We were all in!   We drove to the trailhead with excitement because we were going to hike somewhere new.  New trails are the absolute best!  It’s all a mystery.  It’s all fresh and new!  It’s all exploration!

How fun!!!!

We got to the trailhead and parked.  But there were No clear signs indicating where the trail began. Luckily we ran into a nice lady who was able to answer my questions!   And we were off!!!

Hiking adventures

At the beginning, the trail was not well marked at all and it was confusing as to which way we needed to go.  A slight part of this was due to the way the blazes were marked.  Admittedly part of that was due to our newness and the not so clear maps.  And thirdly, the disc golf course that we were hiking through made it a bit confusing (I almost always find trails confusing when they meander through a disc golf course).   But even with the confusion we were happy!   We were exploring and if we took a wrong trail...oh well....we would just see something different than planned!!

Have no fear though, we found the right trails and we did our planned hike!

It was a great hike!   We had a blast!   Jason even found some mushrooms to bring home to eat!!

My new boots worked well, but my heel (plantars fasciitis) is really kicking now that it is one day later! 

We will definitely go back and hike that trail again!  We plan on doing it this fall to experience the changing colors of the leaves!!!