Cybersecurity Newsbites: Be Careful Out There

Boating (well sorta), Biking and Hiking Weekend

Spring has sprung and this weekend was full of fair weather outdoor activities. On Saturday, Carole and got the boat ready for the season but the weather (and other afternoon commitments) didn't actual support any actual boating. But if it doesn't start snowing again, the first boat ride should be happening this coming week.

So, while Carole went running with a friend, I did a 25 mile loop from home on my new Trek Domane bike. Very windy out - the new bike is much lighter and the rims are more aerodynamic in the forward direction but have a larger wind profile from crosswinds. Very fun to ride but I'm learning how to avoid having wind gusts (or passing trucks) send the bike flying sideways...

On Sunday, I had another dual sport day. Carl and did a 5.6 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail from the Route 70 bridge up to the Washington Monument (not that one) and continuing on to the South Mountain Inn. From there I drove about 35 miles west to Hancock,MD and did 44 miles total on the paved Western Maryland Rail Trail - 22 miles out to the western terminus at Pearre and back. Lots of fallen shale and tree schmutz on the trail, and this relative new paved trail is starting to reach the age where tree root bumps are getting annoying - but still one of the most scenic (and pancake flat) paved biking trails in the area.

Cycling with the Biker Chix Convoy to York, Climbing to the Cliffs of Weverton on the Appalachian Trail

After a long delay, the weather is finally starting to change - making this past weekend a great one for hiking and biking.

Started the weekend off escorting 3/5th of the biker chix on a York Heritage Trail Ride  on the 11 mile segment from Hanover Junction to the York Market The Biker Chix made friends immediately.

After some coffee and snacks at the York Market while listening to a celtic music trio (2 fiddles and either a bassoon or a giant bong) we headed back. I took off at higher speed for a longer ride down to New Freedom PA, where they were running the steam locomotive and excursion train.

The Chix were apparently attacked by a rafter of turkeys along the trail but they survived the scare, put their bikes back on my car and then drove down to New Freedom to pick me up, where they also enjoyed artisanal grilled cheese sandwiches at the New Freedom Rail Trail Cafe.

The next day Carl and I did an old favorite, the the 6.8 mile section of the Appalachian Trail between Gathland State Park in Burkittsville and Weverton Cliffs. We did it the hard way - going north to south means you immediately climb up 800 feet to the top of Weverton Cliffs, where the arrival of fall gave us a great view to the west.

That 800' elevation gain is done in the first .8 miles. The next 6 miles is a pleasant traipse through the woods, with a stop to check out the Garvey AT shelter along the way. We are in a September-long drought, so lots of leaves falling already and the trail was almost sandy in many places.  Lots of people out hiking with dogs on the trail, maybe there was a Hike with your Hound festival.

At Gathland, we admired the oddball monuments to George Alfred Townsend (GATH) and shuttled back to the base of Weverton with another fine day outdoors in the books.

Hiking Patapsco River/Daniels Dam Heights with Finn the Wonder Dog

 

The Baltimore/DC area has been in a beeyootiful weather bubble for the past week - temps rising into the 70s and literally not a cloud in sight. Sunday am I had custody of Lauren's dog Finn, so Carl and I decided to do a dog-friendly hike - the trail system in the hills above the Patapsco area north of Ellicott City where the Daniels Dam once fed a  bustling mill community but is now nearly deserted - just a church and a wood chip/mulch processing plant left.

We only did about 3.5 miles, trying out a few new trails to see if there were more loops that could be created. This area has a mix of trails that are used by mountain bike riders, hikers and horseback riders - none are blazed and more appear all the time. Finn the Wonder Dog probably did closer to 20 miles - he couldn't quite understand why all we did was walk in one direction at a time and why we never stopped to roll around in dead stuff...

When Carl and I survey new trail directions we tend to look at trails heading steeply down hill with "if we go all the way down there and it dead ends, we will have to slog all the way back up." Finn looks at the same potential route and seems to think "Cool - I can run all the way downhill to the river, and then get to run all the way back up!!" This kind of thinking is why dogs haven't moved very far up the food chain. Though, you rarely see a dog following a human with a plastic bag to pick up the undigested parts of the human's breakfast...

Lots of nice ups and downs in this one, nice views of the river. It can also be extended to go all the way over to Patapsco State Park with a loop back on the railroad tracks but not quite as dog-friendly.

Footpaths on the Flood Plain

On a chilly, overcast day Carl and I revisited an old favorite - the Oella Mill Race trail that begins in Ellicott City, MD which is an old mill town. Back iin the day, Trolley #9 was built to get mill workers to the mill works on the flood-prone Patapsco River from the housing that was a few hundred feet higher up the surrounding hills to the north. A decade or so ago that short trolley line was turned into a nice paved trail.

The first mile or so of this hike is on that old trolley line, which followed the path of Cooper Branch as it makes it way down to the Patapsco through a very scenic valley. An old rickety metal bridge carries auto traffic overhead crossing this narrow stream valley.

We then walked west on local roads to get the Oella Mill Race trail that runs from Oella Mill upstream along the Potomac to where a dam was built to divert water from the Patapsco down to the mill. A few years ago the dam was removed and as part of the restoration several hiker/biker friendly projects were completed.

The crumbling Rt. 40 bridge over the Patapsco was replaced with a graceful, modern arched bridge, which also left room on both sides of the river for trails. This used to be the turning back point for this hike, which limited you to a 4 mile hike.

Route 40 crisscosses several streams, requiring several culverts to let streams find their way to the Patapsco and the restoration effort built a nice stone crossing of Miller Run where it meets the Patapsco. If  you are adventurous, you could actually walk (or even ride a bike) through the culvert but it looks kinda creepy (not to mention wet) up close - we stayed on the trail.

From here we continued upstream and in about half a mile turned east on the new Pickall trail that the mountain bikers built. This trail heads upstream along the Cedar Branch, then climbs uphill to the top of the Patapsco heights above Rt. 40. It then heads down hill, passing the ruins of old farmhouses and what were probably small mill operations.

The trail then connects with the Miller Run valley, crosses Miller Run where the upstream end of that culvert is and then heads downhill back to the R4. 40 bridge. From there we we retraced our path back to Oella Mill, then walked on Oella Mill Road paralleling the River back to Ellicot City. The new trails extended this into a very nice 6 mile hike with a bit of up and down.

 

Continuing the flood-plain theme, the next weekend we headed out to the C&O Canal Towpath at mile 48 (of 184) at Point of Rocks, MD on the Potomac River. This is another refurbished area, with a big pole marking the flood levels over the years. Hard to see in this picture, but the highest bar on the pole is the level reached during Hurrican Agnes in 1972 - about 15 feet above the parking area. This level was almost reached again in 1996 and the flooding caused an entire street of houses to be condemned.

We did another 6 miler, heading 3 miles down stream on the Towpath towards Nolan's Ferry, and then retracing our steps back to Point of Rocks. Many of the trees have been"colonized" by vines, most commonly the invasive English Ivy. But along this stretch, several were covered with a vine that was showing bright orange berries at this time of year. Despite all these years of walking through the woods, I have no idea what that is - but a Google search suggests American Bittersweet, which is a North American native, much like Elvis was and the Beatles were invasive English...

From Back Surgery to Back to Hiking, Biking and Boating

I often tease my wife that 20 year-old John would have hung himself if he knew that 57 year-old John would be at the hardware store on a Saturday night, or having disscussions about the bowel movements of pets.

Well, 20 year-old John also thought a ruptured disc was what happened when you left the Beatle's White Album on  your bed and then sat on it, and that sciatica was something that only people like Dennis the Menace's cranky neighbor Mr. Wilson got. 

20 year-old John probably would have at least jumped out the 3rd floor Russell A dorm window at UCONN if he knew that one day he would be hiking on the Catoctin trail and start to feel hot knives stabbing down his leg to his feet, ultimately leading to a surgeon punching a small hole in his spine and Rotor Rootering out exploded disc bits from his spinal canal, leading to a recovery that involved avoiding BLT (Bending/Lifting/Twisting) for 6 weeks.

Luckily, walking doesn't involve much BLT, so  I was able to get back to walking right away and hiking pretty quickly. Carl and I did a 6 mile out and back on the Appalachian Trail from I70 to the Washiington Monument (not that one, the other one):

That is actually the connector "path"along an abandoned stretch of the old Rt. 40 that runs from the trailhead parking area to where the AT crosses I70 on a pedestrian bridge. It is probably the least scenic AT picture ever.

The next week, Carl and I did the Sugarloaf Mountain 6 mile loop early on Sunday:

That big pile o' rocks was once a gigantic cairn at the Northen Sugarloaf summit, but it has crumbled over the years. Now people are making tiny little cairns out of the tumbled stones - the "Cairn Circle of Life."

Turns out kayaking does involve a lot of BLT, so paddling will probably wait for next year - but boating with a motor that does all the heavy lifting is OK. On a beautiful day on the Chesapeake Bay, we took Jim and Jacquie up the Bay to Miles Creek for a very nice lunch at a local institution, Cantler's.

On the way back we saw the first cow nosed ray of the year, with its two fins skimming through the water, but didn't capture a picture.

 

Meandering Michaux, Trail Ticks, Voluminous Views

Carole was driving up to see her mom, so I tagged along for the drive up to PA and we met Carl in Fairview, PA. Carl and I then did a loop hike in the Michaux State Forest near Waynesboro, PA. We started at the Old Forge picnic grounds and hiked the Appalachian Trail up to Chimney Rocks. An awesome view of the valley and Waynesboro Reservoir - would have been awesomer before Hurricane Sandy stripped what was left of the fall foliage. This is a very nice, very uphill hike to about 1940 feet, through pines and around streams for much of the way.

From Chimney Rocks you can head north on the AT and go by the fire tower Carl and I had hiked to, and operated from, previously. However, we made a loop back to the start by taking a blue blazed trail to a fire road that parallels the AT back down hill with some quite steep switchbacks. A few miles downhill and you come to this bridge that crosses the stream to get to the Hermitage cabin, which apparently is used as a staging area for rock climbing folks.

It is a very purty section, but it tricked us into thinking we should cross the bridge to follow the blue trail. However, that led us (after some bushwhacking) into a dead end, so we retraced our steps and went back over the bridge and found the faded blue trail blazes for the rocky trail through more pines and along the burbling creek back to the AT and back to Carl's Jeep at the start.

One souvenier from the hike, probably from the bushwhacking part: the next day I discovered a very large tick happily burrowing into my very large belly. I had to call Carole in for some emergency tick pulling, which always gives her joy.

Boating, Biking, Hiking - plus Fine Dining and Movies - Make Memorable Memorial Day

Well, about the only thing we did to actually honor the actual spirit of Memorial Day was to put the flag up on the porch - but we did get in a lot of quality outdoor time, plus a lot of fine dining. In fact, actual cooking is just a faint memory to Carole right about now.

We started off the weekend Friday night taking a 4 mile walk along the northern end of the College Park bike trail, followed by dinner with Carl at Christopher's in Crofton - crab bruschetta with huge chunks of lump crab, great snapper, salmon and seafood pot pie. The next morning Carole and the Biker Chix (plus Jacqui) went kayaking on Triadelphia Reservoir while I did a 35 mile bike loop on the Rock Creek/ Bethesda Branch trails. I kept up a 18 mph average pace until I ran into a Memorial Day 5k race/fun run that clogged up the trail from the Air Rights complex through the Columbia Country Club with tons of annoying runners. The Biker Chix reunited Saturday, dragging their husbands along to a fine Memorial Day yard party that featured many Latvians with hordes of blond kids - it was like being transported to Salt Lake City for the evening.

Sunday morning the Biker Chix re-reunited and kidnapped Carl as their boy toy for a bike ride along the full College Park/Anacostia trail system. We went down to the end at Anacostia Park, went over the bridge to the Bladensburg Marina, then on the way back went around Lake Artemesia a few times. Under some trees near the Lake, the Biker Chix grabbed their water bottles, made Carl take off his helmet and then started staring at me and humming some kind of Druid chant, so I hopped on my bike and pedalled away at high speeds. Carl has not been seen since.

That night we went with Jim and Jacqui for a great tapas meal at Jaleo in Bethesda, where after a mere two pitchers of Sangria we learned very interesting things about the pre-married lives of those two. Then the four of us were first nighters and saw Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" - entertaining, much better than the last 20 or so Woody Allen movies, but I think you have to be an art history major to really appreciate the movie.

 

On Monday, Carole and I took the boat out for a jaunt across the Chesapeake Bay. We got to the marina at about 0930 and it was already 85 degrees and humid - August has come early in the mid-Atlantic. We gassed up and on the way out passed a Coast Guard patrol boat - which is when I realized I hadn't put the new registration sticker on the boat. We did some serious evasive maneuvers and then headed across the Bay to the Bloody Point Lighthouse on the southern end of Kent Island and went a bit further into the Eastern Bay area. It was so hazy you couldn't see very far, but we were only a few miles from the Wades Point Inn we had stayed at last year. The winds were low and the Bay was relatively calm.

On the return we decided to head up the South River and since Memorial Day in Nauticalese translates to "take out your yachts and cabin cruisers and celebrate the unofficial start of summer by throwing up 6 foot high wakes" the South River was way rougher than the Bay - seriously disturbing Carole's horizontal sunbathing/lounging. That boat above is one of the smaller ones that were out.

I also managed to get some radio-nerd action in over the holiday weekend, making a little over 500 contacts in the CQ WW WPX contest. Carole and I then closed out this international dining themed three day weekend with dinner at El Andariego with Jerry and Marie. All in all a great holiday weekend, but keep watching Carl's Facebook page to see if he ever recovers from the Biker Chix spell.

Hiking Hereford: Mountain Laurel Mostly Laying Low

The East Coast is doing a Seattle impression - we are in a week long rain every day pattern. However, after heavy rain and thunderstorms moved through Saturday night, Sunday morning dawned cloudy but dry. Since the Kentucky Derby had been held the week before, and next week will be the Maryland Preakness, we knew it was time to hunt the elusive blooming Mountain Laurel, who apparently are big horse racing fans.

The Gunpowder River trails in Hereford goes through lots of Mountain Laurel and as we started the hike a few were in bloom. We generally do a 5.8 mile loop on the Gunpowder South and Panther Branch Trails, and if you go in a clockwise direction you quickly pass a picturesque but small waterfall.

This area of the Gunpowder River is like Club Med for beavers and there are gnawed and falled trees all over the place. We passed a few individual white and pink mountain laurel that had popped into bloom.

However, only about 10% of the bushes were blooming - I guess the rest are waiting until Preakness weekend. About .75 miles into the clockwise loop, there is a canyon wall (well, "canyon" by Maryland standards) that is covered with Mountain Laurel but once again we were not there at the peak - very few had popped.

That was about it for the elusive blooming Mountain Laurel - the rest of the loop was uneventful. With all the rain we've been having, everything is lush and green - maybe this year the deer will have plenty to eat and will stay away from my landscaping...

Water, Water Everywhere on the Appalachian Trail

Carole was holding a bridal shower for her friend Christine's daughter Elizabeth at our house, so I told Carl we needed to do one of those far away hikes so I could maximize my time away from home. We decided to do a two car hike, doing a nine mile section of the Appalachian Trail from Quirack Mountain to Wolfsville - a section we hadn't done in several years. There is one water crossing, between Raven Rock Road and Wolfsville that I was concerned about due to all the recent rain, but after we dropped Carl's car off at the Wolfsville Road trail head, the stream levels didn't seem all that high.

We drove past the BRACed (closed down) Fort Ritchie, where nothing seems to ever change, over to Pen Mar then up the hill to High Rock or Mt. Quirack. The weather forecast had been for temperatures in the 70s with a chance of rain late in the evening, but the skies were darkening and it was only about 55 degrees when we got on the AT.

It almost immediately started to rain, but at first just very lightly.  Being the seasoned hikers we are, we of course had not planned for anything but a dry warm day - neither of us had coats on and I was just wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Quickly we began to see evidence of the heavy rains of the week before - the trail got muddy, then turned into a pond.

The Appalachian Swamp Trail

We kept going and the further south we got the harder it began to rain. We kept thinking it would slack off, but it never did. As we neared Raven Rocks, we faced a decision: man up, keep going and potentially hike another 6 miles in increasingly heavy, cold rain, or wimp out, turn around and just do a 5-6 mile out and back. Being manly men, we were secure in our manlihoodness and turned around and headed back, before our hairdos frizzed up too much.

The montain laurel haven't bloomed yet but whatever this pink bush was had bloomed in full force. We retraced our steps and continued our never-ending discussion on whether the children of non-citizens should (a) Not be allowed to get in-state tution at Maryland colleges (Carl) or (b) should be allowed (John), since all the Swedish immigrants (including many Olsons) who got off the boat in the 1920's did so. Ask Rickie.

High Rock used to be an active hang glider launch area, but now it appears to mainly be a graffiti target for bored Washington County teenagers who seem to buy fru-fru pastel-colored spray paint and leave behind deep thoughts, like "Party On!!." I guess all the teenage creativity energy goes onto Facebook these days.

We got back to my car, took a detour route (due to 550 still being closed due to flood damage) and went back to Carl's car at Wolfsville Road - where it was raining quite hard, justifying our wussiness in turning around.

 

Fleeing Foliage, Voluminous Views

"At least now I can see the stars" - incredibly positive person after a tornado ripped the roof away.

The fall foliage is gone in Maryland but that has opened up some gorgeous views. On a cool, crisp Sunday morning we did the Maryland Heights loop from Harpers Ferry. Basically, you hike two miles straight up, gaining about 1300 feet in elevation, hike a level mile and a half through the remains of the gun emplacements put up there in the 1700's and then hike two miles straight down.

The air was so clear that from the top we had a great view of Sugarloaf Mountain, a good 15 miles away. 

While we were tramping up and down Maryland Heights, every few minutes we heard the woo woo of train whistles and could often look down and see mile-long freight trains heading up and down the valley. When we got back to my truck, the Capitol Limited Amtrak train from Chicago to Washington DC was just pulling in to the station. A lot of parents were putting their college kids onto the train back to DC - for $11 a much cheaper way than driving them back to school!

The next week it was time to hike the Great Falls of the Potomac from the Virginia side. Yet another cold day with crystal clear blue skies. The five mile loops takes you along the Difficult Run canyon (canyon by East Coast standards, anyway) and then along the rim of the rock cliffs that line the Potomac at the Fall line. Looking downstream its hard to believe you are just a stone's throw from the Washington Monument.