Sat&Sun May 4&5, 2012

Saturday & Sunday May 4, 2012



I provided one-on-one training for Harry N.  a new member of PATC Trail Patrol.

There was a very large example of Chicken Of The Woods along the Ridge Trail.

A yellow Lady Slipper Cypripedium parviflorum

The Mountain Laurel  Kalmia latifolia were blooming.

A Pink Lady Slipper  Cypripedium acaule

Sunday was one of those days when the mist often looked liked wafting smoke and parts of Old Rag kept appearing and disappearing behind the veil of the floating mist. 

Sat&Sun August 6&7, 2011

Saturday and Sunday August 6 and 7, 2011

Overcast and Rain Saturday

Weakley Hollow Sunday

I did a late day reverse circuit on Saturday and a late day short hike to where Brokenback crosses Weakley Hollow where I spent a couple hours at the gurgling stream side reading books on my Kindle and periodically speaking to hikers that went by. 

The springs at Old Rag Shelter and Bartenders Spring are still flowing (but barely).    Old Rag received a light soaking rain Saturday night.    Just enough to form a few small puddles and get the top soil wet but not enough to add much flow to the streams.

Surreal Mist

I made it to the summit on Saturday just in time to see that a pretty good rainstorm was headed my way from the west.  I scurried down the rock scramble on the Ridge Trail arriving at the first false summit just as the rain was starting in earnest and it got too dark to see without a headlamp.   The hike down the Ridge Trail switchbacks was surreal because besides the rain there was a heavy mist of millions of tiny floating water droplets diffusing the light from my headlamp such that I could not see the ground very well.   It was like looking through gauze.   My visual depth perception was way off so I had to concentrate and overrule my visual ques and depend on the touch of my feet against rock, root, or ground.     The mist was so blurring my vision that some roots could just as  easily have been a snake on the trail so I often had to test with my hiking stick before stepping near the root.   It was fascinating trying to develop a walking technique that allowed for both safety and speed.

While Brokenback Run was still flowing it was as low as I have ever seen it.

RACCOON III

I saw my little raccoon friend near the slab that looks over Byrds Nest Shelter.   It was walking downhill parrallel to and five feet off the trail.   When she got to within about ten feet of me I gently asked what are you up to at which point in time she stopped and stared at me.    I then shoo'ld her off into the woods.

MIST CREATES DIFFERENT TIME AND SPACE

SATURDAY MARCH 14, 2009

One of those cold wet early spring weekends. There were a fair number of visitors on the mountain considering the weather. Met Matt from PATC Trail Patrol on his was out. He and a friend from Colorado had just finished the hike. Starting in the later part of early afternoon, I mostly saw hikers that were coming out. I meet a nice group of four backpackers wearing heavy packs and dealing with the challenges of a wet rock scramble. I tagged along with them until Byrds Nest which was near where they planned to stay for the evening. While slippery in parts the mud was not too bad. As dark fell some of the raindrops were freezing on the tree branches but as of 9PM there was no ice forming on the ground. There were still patches of thin snow cover in the woods. So thin it was polka dotted by holes from rain drops. Good day to test your gear and your ability to deal with wet conditions.

MIST NAVIGATION CAUTION
Most of the time the mist is similar to what you see in these pictures and you can see one hundred feet or more down the trail. That said, on a very rare occasion I have seen it where you could barely see five feet in front of your feet. While woodland trails are continuous and easy to follow even in thick fog the rock scramble may not be.

Even when the mist is not thick, your lights will be greatly limited in the distances they throw light or can be seen at night.

HYPOTHERMIA WARMING

In all of my times in the wild I have found rainy weather near freezing the most challenging for survival from hypothermia. Cold wet days have fewer people on the mountain and therefore more need for self reliance. Remember that if an injury makes you non-ambulatory you will not have the furnace of physical exertion to keep you warm and it would not be unusual for it to take 12-15 hours from when someone goes for help for you to be evacuated.

MISTY WORLD

Misty days are a unique experience. Everything is muffled, close and a little bit surreal. Time is blurred and slower. The mist softens thoughts of goals. It no longer is important to push for the summit views because there will not be any. I find it easier to slow down and absorb the details of places I would never have focused on during a clear day. Mist brings quiet, soft, soulful, restful, nostalgic, reflective thoughts and both respite from and recharging for the more frenetic activities of clear dry days.

John Muir wrote

I was as wet as if I had been swimming after crossing raging torrents and fighting my way through the Alaskan jungle. But everything was deliciously fresh, and I found new and old plant friends, and glacier lessons that made everything bright and light.

Signs Of Spring

Down in the lowlands signs of Spring are showing. An early alarm that spring approaches for the mountain as well. It should not be too long before we start to see dark purple skunk cabbage blossoms followed by green skunk cabbage leaves up near bartenders spring. Skunk cabbage is a unique plant in that it generates its own heat (thermogensis) and therefore is one of the first plants to sprout and flower on the forest floor in the Spring.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Skunk_Cabbage

Of course now that I am watching Spring will take longer than my anticipations' expectations.

Misty Solistice December 20, 2008

The day was very misty. No ice until late in the day. Then the mist turned tree branches and pine needles into Christmas ornaments. Unlike last weekend the trail had almost no ice. Only about 60 hikers on the mountain today. Saw several groups backcountry camping several hundred feet off the trail along the fire roads. While in the parking lot I was able to provide a lot of useful information to a couple of parties who had driven from a distance, were new to the area, and were planning on backcountry camping.

Not only no views but as the darkness arrived the mist/fog thickened so that you could only see about 3 feet in front of your shoes. In the thick fog the rock scramble trail would be very easy to lose if you were not familiar with it. The rock scramble is also easier to find your way on going up than coming down. Just keep in mind that the actual trail was routed so that when it has difficult moves you are exposed to less than a six foot falls and where you are exposed to long falls the moves are not that difficult. I am not saying that you may not find yourself on fairly easy hand and footholds with longer drops, just that you should feel very secure about your holds when there are longer drops. Also if you see a double blue blaze this is an indicator that the trail makes a fairly sharp turn as in the middle of the small cave. There is at least one false trail; often taken even in good weather, just before Skyline/PATC wall, that requires you to backtrack around a football field to get back to where you left the actual trail. If you find yourself on a difficult move and there is a long fall you are off the trail. If you are not sure turn back and look for the actual trail. If worst comes to worst turn back.

In the thick foggy darkness I met one couple coming back up the Weakley Fire Road who wanted to know where the parking lot was. The mist was so heavy they could not tell that when the road hit a stream that it continued on the other side. They had found the footbridge but then got baffled at the fordable stream (with no bridge) just after the third footbridge. Even being able to see fifteen feet would have made this situation unfathomable but when you can literally only see a couple of feet it is much more understandable.

Another unique and great day on the mountain.