Very odd weather in the mid-Atlantic this past week. All week long the weather psychics "forecasters" were predicting a giant ice/sleet/snow storm for the Maryland area starting Saturday am and lasting well into the next century. Of course, it turned out to be your basic standard rain that started late Saturday night and was pretty much over by Sunday am - at least by my definition of over. Carl's definition of over means blue skies and no clouds but I managed to convince him that real men hike in all conditions. Given that there had been some icing to the north, we decided to head west and do the Maryland Heights trails on the ridge that overlooks Harpers Ferry, WVA. Harper's Ferry is kind of a cool place to visit no matter what, and there are many hiking options since the Appalachian Trail goes right through it.
On the drive out I-70 and MD 15 we drove over a small ridge and there was some icing on the trees and we hit some pouring rain - Carl's mood ring turned darker and darker. However, by the time we reached Harper's Ferry the rain had stopped and there didn't appear to be any icing (turns out the icing was hidden by the low cloud level, as you can see in the photo to the left). We parked at the MARC train station on the edge of the old restored town where, as part of this administration's approach to deficit reduction, a young National Park Service guy is paid $10 per hour to collect a $6 parking fee from the three or four cars that show up on Sunday. Actually, he doesn't even collect it - he just tells you to put it in an envelope and put the envelope in the honor system slot...
Years back, there was only an informal trail system that would take you up to the Maryland Height's rocks that overlook where the Shenandoah River feeds into the Potomac River, but several years ago the Park Service put in some nice marked trails along old woods roads where cannons were dragged up to the top to protect Harpers Ferry. You basically hike about 1,000 feet straight up over about 2.5 miles - it is a nice workout. About 1/2 way up, while snaking up a very scenic valley, we hit the ice level - first just at the top of the trees and then gradually down to the bottom of the trunks. Lots of downed branches, but the first 2 miles or so the path is a wide road and they were easy to get around.
However, the higher we got the icier and narrower it got - pretty soon we were forcing ourselves through trees completely frozen with a 1/4 inch covering of ice. By the time we reached the first signs of old forts at the top, the wind was picking up, the visibility was dropping and it was nearly impossible to figure out where the trail was. We reached a junction with a trail we never had heard of (the Elk Ridge trail) so we followed the sign that said "Back to Harpers Ferry" which quickly lead us in a circle back to the same trail we had taken up to the top. Given that it seemed to be getting colder and windier, and we weren't getting any younger, we took that as a sign to just head back rather than find the loop over to the overlook trail.
Gravity was our friend on the return hike and we saw much more scenic icy stuff. About halfway down we hit the melt zone - lots of dripping on our heads and much crackling sounds. We only saw one other hiker out and saw one heron down on the river - weather-wise it was a good day to couch-potate. Even the coffee shop in Harpers Ferry was lethargic - no soup or chili available. We never did get to see the stone fort up on the ridge - that is probably better saved for a day when there is some visibility with which to enjoy the view anyway.
Below is the Googlicious map of the hike - hit the zoom out (-) button to check out the commercial jet liner that Google caught in mid-flight!
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