Archives for category: Hiking

A tail of two camping trips

July 22, 2026 //
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Summer thus far.

It seems as if adventures often begin with an unexpected disaster. In May prior to heading to Baltimore I accidentally broke a large standing growing box in the back yard and had to do an emergency transplant into the ground. Then in June prior to heading out on a camping trip with The Boss and the dog my large Aloe fell off its stand and I planted it in a new pot.

It’s doing fine.

Nonetheless, we had no excuse to dodge the camping trip. For years I vowed I would never camp. I never felt that setting up camp, cooking over campfire, cleaning dishes next to camp fire, and all of the work that was involved ever counted as true relaxation. It doesn’t really – it’s work and it tires you out. However, I came to realize that it’s the same as enjoying time in the kitchen or time at home, but with a bit more creativity involved in planning it while away. So, now we camp.

We decided to try out the concept of camping with our dog – just the two of us.

So we loaded up Meraz into the car for her longest ride since she retired from racing 5 1/2 years ago along with all of our gear and headed out to Shenandoah National Park.

Meraz was not nearly as excited by the scenic overlooks on Skyline Drive as we were and we’ve been out there dozens of times.

By. Late afternoon we were set up at Big Meadows Campground. So, let’s see. How did we pack…. We did bring a bit extra, we always do. We brought our larger tent, a six person model. We brought the dog’s large ploof bed assuming she would be happy resting on it inside or out and would otherwise stand around whining; this was accurate. I brought a camp stove and a camp grill and used both – the stove to boil water for coffee and to make rice and the grill to toast bagels. Three crates of cooking gear and food; a cooler full of food including salmon for dinner the first night and shrimp for the second night. Salad for lunch (with grilled salmon). Two sleeping bags, zipped together, plus pads. Spoiler alert – we’re planning to upgrade to thicker pads.

Meraz enjoyed the experience.

Better than we did. No pictures inside though.

One of the reasons I head to the mountains to go hiking but when I’m not alone to some degree I’m reliant on what the others want to do. In this case, though, I’m happy to say I got a decent amount of hiking in. Around Big Meadows there’s a fair amount of trails and a decent amount to see and the Appalachain Trail passes by the campground as well. We took Meraz for more walks than she does at home – normally she walks maybe a mile and a half a day but by my count she did about four miles our first day when we set up camp and then eight miles the next day.

While The Boss was doing a fairly long run on Saturday Morning Meraz and I walked two miles out to the actual Big Meadow where we had a view of the valley and cell signal to check messages.

Then we took her hiking in the woods to look at her own kind – deer. When she sees them in the neighborhood at home she acts as if we’re being invaded and growls and wants to chase them off but in the forest that isn’t her own turf she just looks.

We spent the afternoon relaxing, napping, and reading at the campground. And then I made paella over a campfire.

I’ve always wanted to do this. I’ve done it over a grill but not over a campfire.

And there was a lovely sunset from the lodge.

Two weeks later I headed out for a solo camping trip at Loft Mountain. I planned this relatively speaking on the spur of the moment. I had a three day weekend for Juneteenth with Juneteenth being on a Friday. As it was a long weekend I wanted to spend a whole day hiking. However, the weather had other plans. We had a forecast for three days of high temperatures – too hot for hiking in the afternoon, even at altitude – so I decided to get a spot at Loft Mountain, take the afternoon off work, drive out during the heat of the day and spend the night.

Since I was solo I took the “small car,” arriving around 3:30 in the afternoon to a very buggy campsite. I set up my tent as quickly as possible while dousing myself with Off and headed out on a hike.

My destination was Doyles River Falls about 2 1/2 miles walk from the campground and probably 1500 feet descent. As you can see it was relatively dry. I’m not certain if the lower falls had more water as I stopped at the upper falls. I did not carry water as I was hoping to go down and back relatively quickly but that may have been a bad mood because I felt very woozy and dehydrated on return (remember, it was fairly hot – upper 80s at the top of the mountain when I was setting up camp).

That night I lit a fire purely for ambiance.

So, here is how I will describe the two campgrounds.

Big Meadows seems to get more vacationers whereas Loft Mountain, per the ranger, gets more regulars – people from relatively close by who come to the mountain frequently. Big Meadows has more to see but Loft Mountain certainly has plenty of trails. At Big Meadows the showers and firewood are certainly in the campground but at Loft Mountain it was perhaps a mile walk to the showers (spoiler alert – I drove as I was hot and tired). Big Meadows you can buy firewood up until 8pm; at Loft Mountain you must buy it by 6pm. I actually shared half my bundle with neighbors as it was too hot to use all of it and they were hunting around in the forest looking for dry wood because they had no firewood.

Overall, I enjoyed resting in Loft Mountain better and I think I appreciate it better as an adult but I am not so certain I would take my kids there. I have reservations for the dog, my kids, and I at Big Meadows in 2 1/2 weeks.

Anyway, I slept a few hours at Loft Mountain but not much. It was easier than getting up at 5am and driving out to the mountains, but not by much. I would probably do it again.

I had originally planned to hike over these ridges by Skyline Drive but they had a lot of exposed trail. After my overheating experience I decided to do a different hike instead.

I chose to hike the Big Run Loop starting before 7am on June 20. The weather was great relatively speaking – about 74 humid degrees when I started out and perhaps about 82 when I finished a few hours later.

There were a lot of spectacular narrow trails on this loop. The reward was the solitude and the distance. Most of the trail is neither on the AT or on a genuine tributary so I saw nobody until I returned to the ridge.

Eventually you find your way back up to the ridge and follow the AT for a bit crossing Skyline Drive and passing an overlook.

As it was still early I decided to drive ten miles down the road and do another short hike.

This is where I hiked. As you can see this was not on June 20th of this year. I took this photo at the end of September two years ago during a break in a rainstorm when the whole ridge was covered by clouds and fog. This photo was taken at Blackrock Summit. Hiking to Blackrock is a short walk with a round trip of less than two miles. The day I was there in 2024 was quite peaceful with nobody else around but obviously there was nothing to see but rocks.

This time the view was spectacular.

This is in my opinion one of the best views in Shenandoah and I was happy I did it. If I had driven from home that morning I likely would not have had time or energy in the heat.

I made friends with a couple of bucks finishing out my hike.

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Categories Camping, Day trips, Hiking, Road Trips, Shenandoah

Early June at Massanutten

July 4, 2026 //
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I have a couple of good friends here in Arlington who have a timeshare out at Massanutten Resort. They’re great – but not because they have a timeshare at Massanutten. I met them about a decade ago through my friend Joe because Joe met them once every week or two for a game night. I learned about his game nights at one point and said, “You should invite me.” After some hemming and hawing, eventually I became an invitee – and a regular. So, to this day I play games with Pat and Jim.

Carcassonne is probably our most frequently played game because it only takes about 40 minutes and it doesn’t require an even number of players and we often play it adjacent to a longer game. But anyway. This isn’t about games. This is about Massanutten, and visiting the Shenandoah Valley.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned but will do so frequently now – I am a hiker. I am a hiker because I enjoy being outdoors. I grew up on a farm so it is merely natural. Whenever I can I escape the city to head west to the mountains to hike. There are other outdoor activities I don’t care much about, like hunting (I am not a hunter), fishing (I don’t have the patience to deal with fishing lines and fish hooks or cleaning fish), four wheeling and motor sports. I’m okay at camping, preferably not with a backpack, but I enjoy a walk in the woods.

So I go hiking.

I live in Arlington, Virginia, half a dozen miles from the U.S. Capitol. End result, it is not good for hiking here. For what it’s worth, I do know people who dispute this. “You can hike on the Potomac Heritage Trail” or “I like to hike in Rock Creek Park” is what I hear. To me, no, even if you find the rugged spots if you’re hiking virtually in someone’s back yard hearing the hum of the freeway and hearing planes landing at National Airport you are not hiking.

Sometimes I cheat and head to Lake Acotink Park. Okay, that’s almost-hiking. Huntley Meadows Park? Too flat and level. Not hiking, even if there are a ton of bird watchers.

A proper hike requires you to bring water and snacks and climb a mountain or head down into a valley to chase waterfalls.

Anyway, one of the reasons, other than friendship, I head to Massanutten when my friends are there is to go hiking.

But this post is not about hiking. I didn’t go hiking when I visited Pat and Jim this time around.

This time I headed out from work the day after I returned from Baltimore and stopped at the local Walmart. Let’s just say that my tech-oriented mind had not slowed down yet and the locals in Luray, Virginia, kept bumping into me with their shopping carts.

I did eventually slow down when I arrived at this cluster of timeshare duplexes. My friends always play a game when they arrive. There is a trick to getting the best spot. You always want views of the mountains, but usually you have a choice between sunset and sunrise. This time they lucked out. They were able to get both.

When they visit Massanutten usually they stay for two or three weeks. They don’t go in the middle of summer as it’s too hot and they go there to be outside. They never go in the middle of winter either for the same reason. Their goal is to go when they can golf and go see live music, and it seems as if every other winery and brewery in that part of the Shenandoah Valley has live music.

Elkton Brewing Co. is probably my favorite place to go for beer out there. It’s really low key and laid back – very small town – unlike a lot of places where they built to handle 200 or 300 or 400 people. When weather is nice they set up a band on the porch; when weather is not nice they set up a band inside. And Woodfiredco has a pizza truck in their lot for Friday nights like this.

The thing about Elkton is there’s a busy freight rail line running through town so about every sixth song has a CSX locomotive running through it. This particular Friday night was no exception.

Nonetheless the band soldiered on, acoustic guitar with tenor singer playing along in a style I like to call “winery music.” They did a stunning rendition of Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie.”

And then an hour later we were at Base Camp, a thousand feet higher and a thousand feet cooler listening to a band called Gypsy Town playing a much better rendition of Valerie. You can find both on my instagram – robnorwood is my handle there.

I actually enjoy the vibe better at Elkton Brewery, even with the trains going past. The beer is better too. Base Camp has a much more extensive menu (Elkton Brewery only has the pizza truck) but the funny thing is you can never find something you like at Base Camp and when it’s busy the service is excruciatingly painful.

But there are always deer in the evening. And sometimes raccoons.

So, the thing about heading out to Massanutten for the weekend is my friends keep a pretty serious schedule when they are out of town. I try to not exhaust myself on the weekend; if I go for a morning hike or a run or something, then an afternoon at a winery or two for live music followed by an evening at Elkton or Cave Creek, it gets to be a bit much. And this time I had been out of town for a few days before so I paced myself. Saturday morning I went for a walk and then we had a leisurely breakfast playing games before heading to Lavender Farm.

I know Lavender Farm has an official name but this is how we know it. They have llamas, or alpacas I cannot tell, and a small petting zoo, and they also grow a lot of lavender. Some of it they put in wine.

One time I had a wine tasting here, but never again. They have a handful of good white wines (in Virginia you can never go wrong with Viognier) and one good red wine (Cabernet Franc I think, same rule applies). And they have some decent beer.

But we came here to see Shane Click.

This isn’t Shane. This is me. Shane gives out these sexy glasses at his gig and encourages people to wear them. When you tip him he pauses in his singing to say, “Thanks you sexy beast!”

Shane knows what songs to play regardless of whether you request something but it’s more fun if you make a request. For me he played, “God is Great, Beer is Good, Rob is Crazy.”

Eventually the show ended and as I had been away for parts of five days at that point I drove the two hours home to Arlington for the night.

Another successful visit to the Shenandoah Valley.

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Categories Day trips from Virginia, Hiking, Uncategorized

May 26 – in the Finger Lakes

June 15, 2026 //
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On Tuesday May 26 we woke up in our room at the Inns of Aurora. This would likely be the penultimate day of our rest and relaxation this time around – the one day where we “sat around and did nothing.” We did, however, do something.

I started the day with a hike through the woods and fields above Aurora while mostly conversing with my father on the telephone. As it had rained several days prior it was pretty muddy, but it was a beautiful, still late-spring morning along Cayuga Lake.

The walk took me past a few of the Inn’s many properties including an old renovated farmhouse and the spa. After my walk we were scheduled to go on a coffee and croissants cruise on the lake but the boat captain called in sick. Not sure, but it’s possible he was just out too late the night before. Anyway, this activity was postponed until the next day.

The Inn recently changed their breakfast service. Instead of having breakfast available in the main restaurant they now have breakfast as counter-serve, coffee shop style, in the general store. And yes, they now have a general store that serves as basically a takeout place as well as a small gift shop. In addition they serve coffee, tea, juice, and breakfast snacks (artisanal breakfast bars) in each building within The Inn. Not sure if this is a decent substitute for those who want a hearty breakfast but likely it is what they have done to reliably provide breakfast in a place and time where it may be hard to entice restaurant workers for a sporadic meal service.

After breakfast we returned to the spa to enjoy their outdoor thermal suite. This was truly a blessing – the day was beautiful for lounging outdoors. We intermittently dipped into three different hot pools (99 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit) and I intermittently dipped into one cold pool (about 54 degrees Fahrenheit). It took me more than 90 minutes of plunging, sitting and reading, and relaxing to fully immerse myself in the cold. It was invigorating.

The hydro pools at the spa are not the best value. They come complimentary with spa services, but as we had our spa service the day before they charged us for a 90 minute pass instead.

This “forced downtime” actually forced us to have some downtime. We spent much of the afternoon reading on the porch. I was able to finish a few chapters of The Three Body Problem for the first time in a couple of months. And then for more “forced downtime” we took a ride to Long Point Winery.

There were three British cars at Long Point including mine (not shown above). This Austin Healy is pretty amazing and very well kept.

Long Point actually purchases most of their grapes from what I can tell, and most of their grapes are purchased from out of state. Usually I’m horrified by this – and in this case to a degree I am still horrified a little. However, they do a decent job especially with the Cabernet Franc they grow – it has a great finish and decants well. Their Zinfandel (California grapes) is also well made and a lot deeper expression than many California Zins. For this reason I decided they’re actually a mediocre vineyard with some amazing winemakers – and in a beautiful setting as well.

After the winery adventure, The Boss piloted The Beast to the Village of Skaneateles where we would meet my uncle and significant other for dinner.

Skaneateles sits on the north end of Skaneateles Lake which is maintained in a pristine fashion to serve as the water supply for the City of Syracuse. The only reason I have really spent any time in Skaneateles is because my mother, and thus my uncle, grew up there. My uncle moved there before he can remember (I believe he was less than a year old) with my mother’s family when my grandfather’s company moved from New Jersey. Now, Skaneateles is a combination between upscale bedroom community for Syracuse and resort community surrounded by farmland.

We had dinner at a pizza and Italian place in the village before heading back to the municipal parking lot.

Where we parked had a view of this house. My uncle said, “You know that’s the house where we grew up, right?” Yes, this is what my mother refers to as the State Street House.

As the light faded, The Boss piloted us safely back to Aurora, two lakes over, past farms and fields that remind me of growing up on a farm in that part of New York. And thus everything became complete.

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Categories Books, Buffalo and the Finger Lakes May 2026, Domestic Travel, Hiking, nostalgia, Road Trips, travel

Mason Neck State Park

April 19, 2026 //
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One of the great things about the area where we live is the proximity to the Potomac River and everything it brings. The Potomac of course is split here – the lower tidal Potomac begins at Little Falls situated between north Arlington and the Palisades neighborhood above Georgetown in DC whereas piedmont Potomac ends there, heading towards the sea. Mason Neck State Park along with associated national wildlife refuge and other protected areas is a great way to explore tidal Potomac. It’s also less than an hour (could be 30 minutes, could be 55 minutes) from my house.

I’ve been here several times over the course of the past two or three decades. There’s one spot that’s great for “beach walking,” although the beach runs out after a few minutes fairly quickly. This stretch actually faces the bay towards Occoquan; one assumes one is facing Maryland but one is actually facing back towards Virginia!

In a few spots there are duck blinds on the bay. I’m not certain if they allow hunting here – presumably yes, but likely more on the other side in the wildlife refuge. The above photo is about half a dozen years old.

When tide comes in it can be a bit tricky.

Also from years past. Towards the end of Mason Neck there is a large amount of wetland. Closer in it is more wooded. In the past when I have been here there have been osprey along the water in the more wooded space. This time, out towards the wetlands.

In the past I had many photos of osprey and bald eagles in the distance. This time, thanks to the wonders of Apple’s latest technology, they were closer up.

Anyway, Mason Neck is situated such that there are a handful of relatively lengthy trails – a mile out, and a mile back – towards the end of the peninsula complimented by a border set of lengthy or lengthier trails that go into the woodlands towards the more inland bay. Usually when I head to Mason Neck I spend maybe an hour or two wandering towards the end of the peninsula along the wetlands and then I head for more mileage inland. There are enough trails to cover and not get bored for 3 or 4 hours of wandering at a decent pace if you cover every single one and I think alone I have done this and covered six or eight miles. This time I was there and stayed out along the end of the peninsula – further from the highway from the main park – and covered eight miles without heading towards the more inland woods. And I was at the park from about 11am to 3:30pm, including an hour sitting and snacking on cheese, French bread, and charcuterie.

I saw a ton of turtles of various sizes including these as well as smaller examples down to about an inch or two in length.

Off in the distance there was a rather large Great Blue Heron.

I wandered out into an open meadow area from one of the observation blinds. As the wildlife refuge has accumulated land some of the farmland is being allowed to slowly fall back into a wetland state. This more open property has a greater variety of wildlife than the state park itself.

Including this black snake. I took a photo of another that was perhaps six feet long. This one was about four feet.

This massive wasp nest was hanging in a tree off across the field.

Oh, large snails.

Past photo of one of these from long ago.

This photo is also from long ago. Here is a stretch near the visitor center where there are platforms for osprey to rest such as the post in the water on the left here. The platform was still there but there were not as many osprey around – they were further behind me, perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes walk. Through the woods on the right there are trails that lead to the end of the bay here that take about thirty minutes out and thirty minutes back and this is where in the past I have seen bald eagles nesting.

This time I came down to this point late in my stay and eventually needed to go home, so instead I walked straight into the woods a hundred yards to a viewing platform where I met a couple who were sitting on a bench having a picnic. The man asked me if I saw what looked like a school of fish in the distance, maybe 1,000 feet or further out.

I haven’t managed to upload a video of what I saw, but here is a screen capture.

Taken at near-full zoom on my iPhone. It was a flock of cormorants!

I stayed to chat with the couple a bit. They were enjoying smoked salmon from Wegmans with dill on brown bread and offered me some. They do say don’t take food from people you’ve just met, but it was good and I survived.

A great way to get a lot of steps in on a Saturday.

Next time, ask me about my picnic packing trips for hiking.

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Categories Day trips, Day trips from Virginia, Hiking

Harper’s Ferry early season hiking

March 9, 2026 //
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On the first weekend of March I officially kicked off my spring hiking season. It was exceptionally warm, and whereas I spent February acting as a hermit, as I normally do in January, I felt it was time to start getting outdoors again and leave the city. The problem is everybody else thought it was a great day to get out as well and Harper’s Ferry is one of the closest “outdoor places” to the DC Metro area.

Usually when I head out of town for a day to go hiking I start thinking about it on Tuesday and Wednesday. I try and figure out how much energy I will have on the weekend and how early I want to get up. Saturday is a better day to rise early and head out of town than Sunday not because the morning is easier (it’s actually easier on Sunday), but more because the return drive is easier. And that was the case.

I chose Harper’s Ferry because I did not want to make a full, long day of it. And because there are a handful of hiking opportunities where I do not have to plan ahead. The most popular hike from Harper’s Ferry is Maryland Heights – a hike I have never done as it’s steep and crowded but not long so it doesn’t seem as if it would be satisfying other than the view.

Amother popular hike is to walk across the trestle, shown above, as if you’re going to climb up the rocks to Maryland Heights and instead walk a mile or two down the C&O trail to the southeast and follow the Appalachian trail up a mountain to a similar viewpoint.

A third option is to walk up the mountain on the right – either walk straight out the Appalachian Trail to the south as far as your heart desires and then turn around and return, or to try and find Loudoun Heights and the overlook on the forested bluff on the right.

I tried to do this a few years back and failed. The map and phone show the trail to the overlook to be a mile up the mountain and then it shows a loop trail. As I was trying it before on a day where I was time-constrained (I think I had three hours to walk), I gave up before I reached a view, and as the trail kept heading downhill into dense trees I gave up.

So, for this particular adventure I did not rise early Saturday. I woke up at a reasonable hour, had a reasonable breakfast, did some reading and caught up on life a bit, and then sat down with the map to figure out where to hike. One thing I have now that I didn’t have the last time I was out there was the Avenza Maps app. It permits you to download topographical maps which then work offline making navigation easier even without the aid of a large printed map. Perusing the map I noticed a similar loop trail. So, while sitting at home drinking coffee around 11am I decided, hey, I’d better get going so I could have five hours to walk in daylight rather than three.

A little before 1pm I was parked in Harpers Ferry in the upper town walking down to the lower town. Lower town was a zoo; every suburbanite in the world came out here. Normally when i come down here I walk out over the trestle and back before continuing other adventures but this time I simply walked to the base of the bridge, stopped to watch a freight train go past, and then followed the AT up the ridge past a historic church and behind the Storer College campus. That in itself is a nice walk – rising several hundred feet from the valley floor and clinging to the side of a ridge overlooking the valley where the Shenandoah River cuts south isolating Harper’s Ferry from the wooded valley where the AT climbs the Loudoun Heights ridge.

If you ever walk this hike, from town it is perhaps a mile following the white blazes over the U.S. 340 bridge. Then as you leave the bridge there are steps down to pass under the bridge and then start switchbacking up the side of the Blue Ridge. More than a mile up the mountain you encounter one side of the former loop trail to the overlooks.

My first time past this sign I did not elect to go out the Loudoun Heights Trail. I kept going up the mountain to see if I could find the other side of the loop, following the park service’s map. Spoiler alert – it shows to be half a mile, measured and labeled, on the map, but I walked a mile and did not find it. I was acttually following behind someone else who appeared to do the same. He actually sought out the topmost point of the ridge by the looks of it and looked around and turned around to go back. I eventually turned back as well and followed the trail to Split Rock.

At the end I was nicely rewarded, nearly a mile and half down the mountain. The view shows Maryland Heights on the right and Harper’s Ferry at the end of the railroad trestle in the center. The Potomac goes off to the right forming the border between West Virginia and Maryland; the Shenandoah goes to the left headed southwest through the West Virginia panhandle to return to Virginia maybe 30 miles upstream.

At this point I had walked seven miles. Directly from the car it would have been about three miles.

The view of town from here is phenomenal. My car is parked beyond that bald spot on the top of the mountain.

This is the view from the other side at the top of the ridge in town. It was beautiful as the light was going down. Golden Hour had arrived and I caught some decent shots of the white birches in the valley contrasted with the gray on the hillsides.

Cutting back through town I walked across the former Storer College campus.

Storer was for many years an early HBCU but for the past several decades has been a training campus for the National Park Service instead.

So with life getting in the way I’ll miss some prime hiking opportunities but hopefully I can get some in this coming weekend – probably not anything significant though. Now I’m off enjoying the glamorous world of business travel.

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Categories Day trips, Day trips from Virginia, Hiking