Blog

Mornings In The Woods: Walking Alone

April 8, 2016 by Leah Leave a Comment

Today I saw a turkey running full speed up a grassy hill, head waving haphazardly back and forth like he was being chased. It was a hysterical moment in my morning and I found myself laughing loudly between NPR segments. I’m convinced he was just happy it’s spring. As I write this, pink petals are flying past my window and the weeping cherry is dressed in its finest form. The pale pink color reminds me of my wedding dress. The other day I walked in the woods on a trail covered with wildflowers, deep purples of wild delphinium, tiny star flowers, whites, pinks, bluebells, wispy wild geraniums, and so many others I haven’t learned to identify yet. The leaves haven’t sprung from the trees, but nature is showing how ready she is for warmer days.

On the mornings when I can drag myself out of bed in time, I head down to one of my favorite local trails. Two and a half miles of hills that meander through a pretty wood. Sometimes the temp hovers in the 30s, this morning it was 44 degrees, and in the next weeks will perhaps shyly approach a steady mid-fifties. I’ve finally learned the twists and turns of this trail, when there will be a road crossing, when the last gasp-inducing incline is reached and the ground levels out to begin a steady downhill. There is one area of the trail where a pileated woodpecker lives. I hear him often and have even gotten to see him in flight, a shock of red accompanied by black wings and a distinctive white stripe. One morning I startled three deer who hopped away, white tails waving behind them. Nature! There is such peace and at the same time such frenetic activity happening all around. I can’t get enough of it.

One of the first things people ask me when I tell them I hike alone is, “Don’t you ever get scared?” I do get scared when a squirrel jumps into a pile of leaves right next to me, but if what’s being asked is actually, “Aren’t you afraid someone’s going to rape and kill you while you’re alone in the woods?” my answer is no. I’ve never felt threatened in the woods, I’m aware of my surroundings, and everyone I’ve ever run into has been a fellow hiker or trail runner whose main reason for being in the woods has absolutely nothing to do with me. In fact, I often see other women hiking/running by themselves on the mornings I go. I’ve been to a few REI thru-hiking classes taught by women, and it’s always some creepy old dude who looks like he barely made it to the entrance of the store from his car who asks the young 20-something female if she ever felt unsafe in the woods. The answer has always been no because that creepy dude asking the lame question couldn’t handle the trails that badass young woman has hiked.

Are there unfortunate circumstances that happen to hikers in the woods? Yes, of course, and you can go online and find them and truly freak yourself out (yup, I have done this, it’s a stupid thing to do). But in all honesty, my main concerns when I’m hiking involve staying safe around wildlife and not getting lost. Rob and I have seen bears and moose on our hikes, so when in the Smokies, we now carry bear spray for safety even though this may be a totally unnecessary precaution. I also keep a sharp eye out for snakes because we have copperheads and rattlesnakes in TN and that shit scares me more than some middle aged dude in the woods with a pair of trekking poles. Staying on trail is also a big deal to me because there’s this one trail we’ve hiked a couple of times where the blazes are far apart and there’s no worse feeling than being in the middle of trees that all look the same wondering where the heck to go next. Staying safe is a priority for any hiker, but being scared to go out into nature for fear of being attacked is not how I want to live.

There are several podcasts I’ve been listening to lately about the outdoors, but my ultimate favorites are Sounds of the Trail and the Dirtbag Diaries. Sounds starts up again in May and will be following several hikers as they hike the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail. Last year, this podcast inspired me so much because it was amazing to hear the journey of a woman my age on the AT, but also the hikers she spoke with were on these incredible emotional, mental, and physical rides, and were getting such rich revelations from the whole experience. The Diaries is another awesome podcast that is more about the outdoors in general than specific trails or just hiking. The stories reflect peoples’ experiences with nature, how it’s affected their lives, and the adventures they’ve had.

Also, this is the season when winter gear goes on sale!!! I’ve seen $349 down coats going for 60-75% off retail price, Steep and Cheap is having great sales, and Backcountry Gear recently had a 30% off of Big Agnes sale and I finally got my backpacking tent footprint for $20 less. Basically, never pay full price for anything because you can always find deals online. My only exception to this rule has been purchases from REI, like our backpacks, camping stove, and things we wanted to have time to test out and make sure they were keepers. REI allows you to return gear for up to a year from when it was purchased and if you are a member, you get 10% back on full priced items.

All this to say, it’s exciting to see spring taking hold and it gives me a new hope for the rest of this year. Upcoming adventures include trips to Vermont, the Smoky Mountains, Yosemite, Rocky Mountain National Park, the east end of Long Island, Asheville, NC, and hopefully more that hasn’t yet been booked. I leave you with this lovely John Muir quote:

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he [she] seeks.

GSMNP: Winter Hikes In Misty Mountains

March 15, 2016 by Leah Leave a Comment

As the weather warms up and I’m starting to sweat on my daily walks, I keep thinking back to a month ago when Rob and I headed to the Smokies again for some more winter hiking. Hiking in the winter has some serious advantages. There are less people, the views are unobscured by leaves on the trees, it’s a less sweaty endeavor, and there is a greater sense of peace because it feels like nature is truly asleep. Due to bad weather in the forecast, we weren’t sure how much we’d actually be able to get into the woods, so the first day there was a mix of sun and clouds with a high of 61 degrees and we headed straight for Chimney Tops.

We brought a pair of trekking poles and some yaktrax for our shoes because I knew there could be ice on the trails at this time of year. Sure enough, we weren’t halfway up that trail before we were encountering a snow covered, slippery mess. We watched one man walk up 6 steps and slide right back down again.

Chimney Tops isn’t rated as a difficult trail due to it’s short length of 3.8 miles RT, but the last mile gains over 900 feet in elevation, so between struggling up icy steps and sloshing through pudding-like mud, we felt like we were going to die by the time we reached the rocks at the top. One guy we met said he’d made fun of people with “hiking sticks” on the way up, but that we could probably set up a lemonade stand by the side of the trail and sell them at a premium. Once again, trekking poles saved the day. The wind was blowing hard, but Rob decided to climb to the summit.

This was the view looking back down from where we climbed up (it’s a lot farther than it looks). At one point, I asked Rob to take a picture of me climbing up these rocks because who doesn’t want to post some picture of themselves climbing up a mountain like a freaking superhero? This was maybe the worst thing I’ve ever asked him to do. It looked like nothing more than a giant ass climbing clumsily up a pile of rocks. So much for trying to look adventurous!

If the wind hadn’t been blowing so strongly, I would have attempted the rest of the climb, but instead I sat there peacefully, holding on to everything in my possession with a death grip so it wouldn’t blow away, while feeling like I’d just landed on top of the world. I can never, ever get enough of this.

The next day held the almost certain threat of rain, so after an early breakfast we packed up, put on our rain shells, and headed up to the Alum Cave trail to see how far we could get. We walked beside a river through a rhododendron covered forest before coming to Arch Rock. We crossed the stream and headed up the steps which curved around the inside of the rock to the trail on the opposite side. The walls of the rock were covered in ice and the water from the river sounded like thunder.

As we climbed in elevation on the trail it became apparent that we were hiking up into a cloud, a literal fluffy cloud, like you see from a plane window and always wonder if it could actually be possible to pull a Mary Poppins and just hang out there for a while. I’ve never been in this kind of fog in the woods. It felt like the trees were holding secrets as we noisily tromped through.

Every time we came to some sort of overlook, we simply had to imagine the view. Everything was obscured by clouds and mist, a true Smoky Mountain experience.

When we got to the cave, we climbed up the sand and stood under the dry overhang, looking out at the trees. Everything was enchanted by fog. Some would say the trip wasn’t worth it, but one thing that always amazes me about that woods is that they change as much as the ocean. Every day there is something new to see and experience, whether it be wildlife, views, waterfalls, mist, rain, or brilliant sunshine. I wouldn’t have traded this day for anything.

We headed back down the trail, making serious use of our trekking poles. Mine kept me from falling several times and I’m pretty sure we both would have been in bad shape without them. We made it back to the car with a good amount of time left in the day, so we took Newfound Gap Road straight across the park to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center which also houses a pioneer museum replete with old buildings, gardens, and an orchard, plus Mingus Mill just down the road. I’m always blown away by the life the early settlers carved out for themselves in the rugged landscape within these mountains.

Every once in a while, a volunteer at a visitor center will give a bit of hiking advice that’s worth taking, so when we were told that the 7 mile round trip hike to Grotto Falls was a sure bet, we decided to head there the next morning. The Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is closed in the winter, but the Rainbow Falls trailhead is still accessible, so we started there and took the Trillium Gap trail all the way to Grotto Falls. This was really the perfect time of year to do this particular hike because the wooded trail goes right along the motor trail and I don’t think the experience would have been as enjoyable with bumper to bumper cars meandering past the entire time. We didn’t pass a soul on the first 3.5 miles to the falls and we had one of the most popular waterfalls in the entire park to ourselves as rain started to come down.

Grotto Falls is the only waterfall in the park that you can walk behind. In fact, the trail actually goes behind the falls, so if you are getting to Mount LeConte this way, you’ll have to duck beneath Grotto Falls.

As we made our way back to the trailhead it started to rain on us and we hiked through a steady downpour, eventually ending up totally soaked in spite of rain shells and water repellent pants. Thankfully the day was warm and the heat from our exertion kept us from getting cold. As soon as we got back to our room, we changed into warm, dry things and headed right back out to drive through Cades Cove and see it in the mist.

Cades Cove is an 11 mile loop that goes through a preserved pioneer community in the mountains. It’s one of the most popular places in the park to see Black Bears (or so the NPS website says), so every time we’ve gone it’s been a bumper to bumper, ire-inducing affair where you want to kill every gas guzzling SUV driver who goes 5 mph (LITERALLY) through the woods, stopping to view every moving blade of grass and every falling leaf. The area is beautiful, but my blood pressure and stress level cause obscene amounts of swearing and hatred toward my fellow man. This time, however, was a different affair entirely. The optimum time to experience Cades Cove is on a rainy Sunday afternoon in winter. We were able to maintain a steady speed throughout the drive and it was enjoyable and peaceful in every way. We saw lots of turkeys and deer, reveling in the peace of the park at this time of year.

Even though the weather was miserable at points, it didn’t diminish the beauty of the mountains or the fun we had in seeing things in a different light. Gatlinburg was as disgusting as it always is. A grossly high percentage of stores in this little hell hole on the edge of paradise display confederate flag products in their windows: t-shirts, underwear, bikinis, beach towels, purses, you name it, it comes in some form of racist merchandise. In fact, if you like your racism with a pat of butter and a dollop of cream on top, you can even shop at the Paula Deen store in town. If you wonder where all the people voting for Trump go to vacation and play, it’s in Gatlinburg. I have a love/hate relationship with this town. I love the NOC outfitter store and I am really coming to adore Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Gatlinburg is the gateway to that incredible place, so the people who started this town most likely never envisioned it becoming the tourist trap that it is today. Unless we want to stay more than 30 minutes away in a more secluded spot, Gatlinburg is our easy access point to the trails we want to hike. I’m going back at least two more times this year and I absolutely can’t wait to see rhododendrons blooming and try some new hikes.

Until next time when the leaves are on the trees…

Valentine’s Day Still Makes Me Want To Barf

February 9, 2016 by Leah Leave a Comment

I hate Valentine’s Day. Some people might think I just need to get over it because I’m married and live with a man, but that hasn’t diminished my abhorrence for the “holiday.” I vividly remember too many February 14ths when I was depressed, lonely, crying into a semi-melted trough of Ben & Jerry’s because I was single and didn’t feel like I would ever be good enough to be loved.

Each year I mail notes to some of my girlfriends because I know that one of them is inevitably going to feel like shit on Valentine’s Day because some man, or non-existent man, didn’t fulfill some unrealistic ideal of what romance is supposed to be. I want these women in my life to know I love them and am thinking of them on a day that seems to put a blinding spotlight on those who crave companionship, like a big scarlet letter advertising loneliness. I’m pretty sure that if it weren’t for the women in my life, I might as well just drop dead right here on the floor because there isn’t one of them who hasn’t kept me afloat on a day when I desperately needed it and most of them have no idea they’ve ever done this for me. If anyone wants to see examples of true love, they need to look no further than their female friends.

FullSizeRender-1

So I send a note, even to the independent ones and the married ones who seem like they have it so together, because deep down no matter how intact we seem, there is always a broken piece that still needs to be loved. For all my kicking and screaming when it comes to not wanting to depend on a man for anything, I still want my husband to do something romantic, to buy me something that tangibly demonstrates his love for me. It’s the stupidest thing I could ever ask him to do because he demonstrates his love for me everyday by many intangible things that would go unnoticed by someone not familiar enough to recognize them. This year I’ll be out of town on Valentine’s Day, spending the day with two cousins I adore, and the pressure to set up some weirdly unromantic dinner in a crowded restaurant is officially off. My husband and I won’t have to do some awkward dance on Sunday morning when we open some vomit inducing card and pretend to be excited about a gift that was incited by nothing more than tradition, consumerism, and greed. We’ll probably do that on Friday night before I leave…because as much as I’d like to say we’re above all that, we still cave under pressure.

Every year I think about Saint Valentine, a man who was martyred for refusing to deny his faith. There are many stories surrounding his life. According to Catholic Online, “…St. Valentine was imprisoned for marrying Christian couples and aiding Christians being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Both acts were considered serious crimes…other depictions of St. Valentine’s arrests tell that he secretly married couples so husbands wouldn’t have to go to war. Another variation of the legend of St. Valentine says he refused to sacrifice to pagan gods, was imprisoned and while imprisoned he healed the jailer’s blind daughter. On the day of his execution, he left the girl a note signed, ‘Your Valentine.'”

The nature of the man for whom this holiday was named has been lost on us. As opposed to honoring a person who gave his life for the love of his faith, who was imprisoned for marrying couples before they were separated by war, we cheapen the concepts of devotion and fidelity with gifts devoid of depth or meaning.

Love does not contain the perfection found in a freshly picked long stem rose. Love is sometimes an ugly business, parading around in sweatpants that have holes and stains, lying like a beached whale on the couch, watching an endless marathon of Golden Girls reruns. Love has moments of decadence like a finely handcrafted chocolate. But most of the time resembles something mushy pulled out of the freezer and thrown in the microwave with a sigh and a prayer. Sometimes love soars, intoxicating the lungs with blissful vitality. Other times it crawls along in the dirt, gasping for the next shaky breath. Sometimes love is present. Other times its absence feels like a gaping hole of need.

Whichever phase you find yourself in at this point in time, I hope you remember that you are loved as you are in this moment. You are perfectly you, exactly as you are meant to be, with or without someone else.

Virgin Falls: A Lovely Tennessee Winter Hike

February 8, 2016 by Leah Leave a Comment

The weekend after Snowpocalypse 2016, we had sunshiny days in the 60s, so Rob and I headed to Sparta, TN for a 9 mile round trip hike to Virgin Falls. This is one of the state’s most visited natural areas, so I wanted to go there before it got crowded. We had to drive two miles along one of the worst dirt roads I’ve ever been on to get to the trailhead parking lot. There were enormous potholes and massive amounts of mud along the sides, which gave our sedan some difficulty. A logging operation is happening on the property adjacent to the area, so the road is a nightmare. I would definitely consider trying to go in dry weather when there hasn’t been too much rain.

The trail signs indicated the hike to the falls was 4.5 miles each way, so we brought lunch and plenty of water with us. The scenery starts to get interesting about 1.25 miles in. You use a cable to help cross a stream, and then begin the gradual descent into the area where several waterfalls crash into the woods. One thing we knew about the hike going into it, you go down on the way in and up on the way out. First small waterfall we came to was a refreshing little spot called Big Branch Falls.

As you continue hiking down, the scenery becomes more vast and the terrain becomes more rocky. Everything was pretty muddy, so I was thankful the trekking poles saved my from falling a few times. The next waterfall is Big Laurel Falls, and I must admit this is my favorite of the three. Mossy green boulders dot the forest floor leading up to the waterfall.

At first impression the fall itself doesn’t seem so big until you get closer and realize there is a massive cave behind it that you can walk into. The air is musty and crisp all at the same time. The sun was shining brightly, illuminating the mist rising from the steady stream of water. Standing in the cave looking out, you felt like you’d entered another world.

There are also some really awesome campsites right near the falls! Most looked level with a common fire ring. We have to come back just to sleep with that as a backdrop, although in the busy season it may be impossible to score a campsite. The trail had some mile markers along the way which were posted to the trees, a great way to know where the heck we were. As we came to the fork in the road leading to Sheep Cave or Virgin Falls, we headed up to Sheep Cave to check it out. Meh…or should I say “Baa.” We heading on to Virgin Falls and as we approached the waterfall there was a significant drop in temperature. The cascade was roaring, absolutely huge. In fact, one hiker said he’d never seen it looking so “formidable” in al his years of hiking there, so we went on a good day.

There’s a side trail which leads around the side of the waterfall up to the top so you can see its source. We could feel the mist as we passed and see rainbows dancing through the trees.

The source of all that power? A tiny hole in the earth with unknown depths.

We ate some lunch, gave our knees a rest, and eventually headed back knowing that we’d have our work cut out for us. We took another break at Big Laurel Falls and then began a 2 mile ascent over boulders and muddy roots, leaving the river behind as the light of day slowly faded.

In total, we were back to our car in 5 1/2 hours. Since this was our first big hike of the year, we were totally exhausted and the back of my left knee was killing me. It would be really great to backpack in, camp, and then backpack out the next day, this way there’s a bit of rest in between the coming and the going. This is a difficult trail, but well worth the effort, and such a good way to spend a quiet winter weekend!

« Previous Page