Biking and Hiking and Kayaking: Be Careful Out There

Submarines in the Bay, Bob's Hill on a Sunny Day

November will pretty much mark the end of the boating season, so Carole and I took advantage of what was supposed to a sunny (but cool) Saturday and took the boat out. It was sunny and about 55 degrees when we headed out of the South River, onto the Chesapeake Bay and turned north to run up to the Severn River. The NOAA random weather forecast generator had said 5-10 knot winds out of the west but it was a bit higher than that but not bad enough to make it unpleasant. 

The winds definitely brought out the sailboats - the mouth of the Severn River at Annapolis was lousy with sailboats, all zigging and zagging and spinaker-ing randomly. There were big private yacht sailboats, medium-sized Navy training sailboats and eensy beensy rowboat-sized training dinghy sailboats careening about. Since theoretically they all get the right of way, it was like trying to weave your way through a dance floor where most of the other dancers are about 5 martinis into their evenings.

Once we made it though the sailboat gauntlet, we headed up the Severn  into the wind where I could open up the throttle a good bit. We enjoyed the view of the bridges and all the amazing houses and the Annapolis area. On the way back out to the Bay, I noticed something up ahead that was either a new island in the Bay or a submarine. We excitedly headed right towards its to get a picture, but we were quickly intercepted by one of the 5 Navy runabouts with flashing blue lights and deck-mounted machine guns on the front who were guarding an actual submarine. Over their PA system they blared "Change your heading, change your heading" and I realized the USS Cole incident of years ago probably changed the standard operating doctrine, and I quickly turned south and away from the sub.

We headed down to the Thomas Point Light for probably the last time this season but by then clouds had moved in from the West and it was actually pretty chilly. The next time on the boat will probably be a work trip to clean it up before winterizing.

The next day Carl and I did an 8 mile round trip hike in Cunningham Falls State Park. We climbed up the trail to Cat Rock for about 1.5 miles, then headed over to Bob's Hill, another 2.5 miles away. The weather was phenomenal but winds and rain earlier in the week had knocked down most of the colorful leaves - there were only a few spots of color. Very few stinkbugs were out, so spending time at the viewpoints were much more pleasant. We scouted out the area for possible future Summits on the Air portable ham radio operation but the arcane SOTA rules don't currently recognize Bob's Hill or Cat Rock as actual summits for some reason.

The return trip was largely downhill and the skies had brightened a bit. As we went under the power lines there was one patch of decent foliage color. On the way home we stopped at a local apple orchard but pretty much the only apples left are those "Delicious" apples that look good but never seem to have any taste. The last boat ride and the last crisp local apples are definitely the true end of summer.

A Blustery But Gawgeous Weekend

I spent the week on business travel in San Jose, CA and Columbus, OH - pretty much opposite ends of the business travel spectrum. On the short flight from Columbus back to BWI, the pilot had the flight attendants stay seated due to turbulence - we had a wild ride. There were dopey young kids in the back giggling and going "Wheee!" every time the plane lurched one way or the other, but it was a white knuckle ride for the adults.

Carole picked me up at the airport and we headed out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Yellowfin on the South River in Edgewater. There were tornado warnings on the radio for Northern Virginia and from our river-view table looking west down the river we could see awesome lightning in that direction. Wind was to be the story of the weekend.

After being on travel I had lots of suburban lawn chores to get done, but I managed to combine a trip to Lowe's with a 22 mile ride on the BWI bike trail. I tried to push my speed, but the hawk was out - 20 mph winds with 30 mph gusts were coming from the west dead in my face on the outward side of the loop. On the homeward side, BWI shields you from wind, so little benefit. And it was uphill both ways, too... I managed a 17.4 mph pace, watched a few planes land and then off to buy supplies for tackling the lawn and all those leaves that have already blown down, and the empty bird feeder, and the...

Photo by WA3SEE

On Sunday, Carl and I decided to do a local hike, the waterfall loop at the McKeldin area of Patapsco State Park. We've done this easy 5 mile loop dozens of times but it is always a pleasant hike. We operated Field Day from a shelter here this past year and we scouted out other possible locations for 2012 FD. For the 20th time we past the point where Carl swears he sees a cave, but I just see a shadow, with absolutely no signs of Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer. Water levels were way up, as were horse back riders and mountain bikers  - hikers were definitely in the minority this past weekend.

From the hiking I drove out to the South River Marina and took the boat out for a spin. Allegedly the winds had dissipated but the snapping flags seemed to belie that. I headed out towards the Thomas Point Light but once I got out of the lee of Turkey Point, the waves picked up and I was getting drenched unless I slowed way, way down. So, I headed back to the shelter of the South River, zipped up and down the river at high speeds for a while and headed back in . At the gas dock I ran into Kathy and Mike who were heading out on their boat to try their luck at fishing - probably gave a nice free meal to some hungry rockfish.

On the way home I listened to the Redskins getting shellacked by the Eagles on the car radio, picked up Carole at some brunch deal she had been at and headed home to play around on the ham radio. Great conditions as Mr. Sun Spots is still in a good mood - many contacts with Japan, Malaysia, Australia and many other exotic places.

 

A Killer B Weekend: Biking, Boating and Beeping - and Bugs

The weather has finally changed in the DC area - bright sunshine, light breezes and comfortable temperatures has replaced rain, rain, rain. On the plus side the mushroom crop is dying off. On the down side, the stink bugs are baaaack! Some local farmer's stands have shut down due to the infestation, I hope bats or birds start learning how to love stinkbugs for dinner.

On Saturday I took advantage of the weather to bike from home to the boat on the South River in Mayo, about a 43 mile ride. Beeyootiful biking weather, temperature was about 50 when I started. The first half of the ride is mostly just transportation - riding on not so scenic roads with lots of traffic. There is a 7-11/gas station at the 25 mile mark in Bowie I usually stop at to recycle all the water I have taken in, but when I stopped they had bricked over the public rest rooms. I had to recycle au naturale behind the store in a wooded area and then I was on my way.

The second half of the ride is much more scenic, mostly along Governors Bridge road and Beard Point road to Rt 214 and into Mayo. Crews were out scraping up tons of mud from all the recent flooding where the one lane bridge crosses the Patuxent. I made it to the marina just a few minutes before the Biker Chix (less Christine, and Chic-let candidate Lauren, who was up to late and chose sleep over hanging out with the 'rents) got there. We had a long wait at the gas dock, as some humongous boats gassed up but then we were on our way out onto the calm Chesapeake Bay.

We headed across the Bay and took a gander at the Bloody Point Shoal light. The Bay has largely recovered from the debris that came down from the Susquehanna after Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee - just a higher than usual amount of floating lumber, but not that bad. We then headed south to take a look at Poplar Island (above), which is being reclaimed from the ravages of climate change to be a wildlife preserve. Up close it is much less impressive - from above or from the other side of the Bay it looks like Tahiti.

We then headed back across the Bay to get a slighter closer look at Chesapeake Beach and North Beach and then headed back to the South River. As the day warmed up, a bit of a breeze was building and a lot more sailboats were out. In the South River, we anchored in the cove off of Quiet Waters Park and enjoyed a nice breeze while we ate our lunch.

On Sunday, Carl and I decided to combine hiking with ham radio again, doing the Sugarloaf Mountain hike but stopping to set up Carl's K1 and a 20 meter dipole to active the Sugarloaf "Summit on the Air" for those who chase these things. I brought my trusty pipe elbow, a few throws into the trees and we had the dipole up at about 20 feet in the air. We quickly worked several other Summitteers in Canada and Virginia, then other Summit chasers in England, Germany, Oregon, Alberta CA and other places.

The longer we stayed there, the warmer the summit got, and the more the stinkbugs found us - Carl was doing the stinkbug dance quite often. When it reach the point where we were slapping at stinkbugs more than slapping at the CW key, we shut down and completed the hike around Sugarloaf. Many people out on the trail, great to see lots of teens and twenty somethings out there. There was a wedding at the Mansion on Sugarloaf, another one at the Comus Inn, and the Sugarloaf Winery was having a wine festival. But being manly man we focused on hiking and ham radio and were soon back at Carl's stink bug covered Jeep and were on our way home after another successful SOTA activation.