Catching up

Posted on August 15, 2014 by John M

The past couple of weeks I have still been busy hiking, but sadly negligent in writing posts about it. So I’ll have to back up and play catch-up again…

Carderock

On Saturday, August 2nd, I thought a visit to Carderock was in order, since we hadn’t been there since March, when it was a frozen winter wonderland. I had planned to do Billy Goat Trails B and C again, but  due to recent rains I wasn’t sure about how muddy the trails would be. Billy Goat Trail B isn’t too difficult, but a lot of slippery rocks could ruin your day! So we ended up hiking only Billy Goat Trail C and then down the towpath to Lock 10 and back, for a total of 5 miles of smiles, a little less than the 6 miles you usually get out of doing B and C together. Nevertheless, it turned out to be a pleasant hike, and I hadn’t visited Lockhouse 10 before. As it turns out, Lockhouse 10 is a pretty neat little hideaway. Originally built in 1830, it was remodeled by the National Park Service to resemble the lockhouse as it might have appeared in the 1930s. The lockhouse has two bedrooms and period appliances in the kitchen and bathroom but, as a practical convenience, there is central heat and air conditioning. The price is $150 a night, and I don’t think there are many places you could find accommodations for a family of five inside the beltway for that price! You can read more about Lockhouse 10 and make reservations at the C&O Canal Trust website.

Old Town

The following Sunday, August 3rd, I was still a little uncertain about the weather, given a 60% chance of rain in the forecast, so a tried and true fallback position was a walk around Old Town Alexandria. There’s a lot of interesting things to see around town, of course, but this time we climbed up Shuter’s Hill for a view of Alexandria from the base of the George  Washington Masonic National Memorial, something we did back in February. (One of these days I have to arrange a tour of the place, even though not much walking would be involved.) There’s a historical marker there showing a panoramic photograph of the view in 1864 that provides an amazing study in contrast. Where once you could see the Potomac River and Cameron Run quite easily, today it is mostly obscured by buildings, especially to the southeast.

South Run

Last Saturday, August 9th, I had planned a hike at Leesylvania State Park until a sharp-eyed hiker alerted me that there was a conflicting charity walk starting an hour before our visit. Good thing — while there was probably enough room for both groups, rather than dealing with any possible confusion I cancelled that hike and immediately scheduled a substitute hike at nearby South Run. The South Run Recreation Center is a nice facility, from which you can hike southeast around Lake Mercer (our choice) or northwest around Burke Lake. Maybe the only drawback is the lack of any restaurants in the near vicinity, so no matter which direction you choose, you’ll lose those who need to go home going the opposite direction.

Supermoon

Last Sunday was the Supermoon, and a walk to see it didn’t disappoint! I noticed a couple of hiking groups had scheduled evening walks around the monuments on the National Mall in Washington DC, which seemed less than ideal: if you want to go stargazing, amid the lights of a large city is not the best place to do it. Old Town Alexandria still has a lot of ambient light, but at least along the waterfront you would see the moon rising to the east above the woods of Oxon Hill Farm. Not only that, but the close proximity of the supermoon causes an exaggerated high tide, so the waterfront is the place to go to check it out! So it was off to Old Town again, for a 5-mile hike going from the King Street Metro Station to the waterfront for moonrise, up and down the waterfront, and then back along the well-lit sidewalks of King Street. Just right!

I’m caught up for now, but that won’t last long — we’re headed to the Palisades tomorrow!

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Meetup Becomes A Messaging App

Posted on August 14, 2014 by John M

There are so many non sequiturs it’s hard to know where to begin.

“After first joining a Meetup group, you may not immediately feel comfortable exchanging your contact information with fellow members.”

Maybe so, but you didn’t have to. Meetup always included the capability to block the other party in an email exchange from seeing your email address. And exchanging your phone number was totally up to you.

“Other times, you may need to reach a group member with a quick question, but hadn’t bothered to get their contact information just yet.”

With the old system, you could easily send the other members an email with your email screened, even if you hadn’t bothered to get their contact information just yet.

“In the past, Meetup members … had no choice but to leave comments on group message boards with [their] cell phone number[s] in order to share [their] contact information with the group when you weren’t face-to-face with them.”

Really? Members had no choice but to share their cell phone numbers with everyone? Well, if you feel compelled to publish your email on message boards, a new message app won’t help with that.

Maybe the Meetup mobile app felt underdeveloped to some; I don’t know, but degrading existing communications to implement a Meetup-unique proprietary messaging system is unlikely to enable “those who share a common interest to connect with each other in the offline world.”

This seems to be just another of a growing herd of proprietary messaging apps. In the wake of the backlash over Facebook Messenger’s permissions, which give Facebook the capability to directly call phone numbers, take pictures and videos, record audio, etc., I’m surprised Meetup has chosen to follow the herd. A more elegant solution might be to retain the existing email functionality, since it is still being used for organizers to make announcements to all group members, and use the messaging app as a supplement for those who need it, rather than forcing it on everyone.

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Another new spot

Posted on July 30, 2014 by John M

This past weekend we tried the same hiking recipe as the weekend before: a new hiking route on Saturday, this time around Old Town Fairfax, Virginia; followed by an old favorite on Sunday, Difficult Run, starting from Colvin Run Mill and heading downstream.

The starting point for Saturday’s hike was the Stacy C. Sherwood Center, a nice community center just north of Old Town Fairfax along Old Lee Highway. The route  consisted of two legs: first, a 1.7 mile loop (traced in red on the map below) along sidewalks through Old Town, taking in a few of the historic buildings along the way; and second, a 3.5 mile out-and-back hike through Daniel’s Run Park. The loop through Old Town was surely not as detailed as one of the 90-minute guided tours offered by Historic Fairfax City, but on the other hand, there wasn’t a $5 per-person fee, either! Since our goal was to keep moving, rather than stopping at each site for a lengthy discussion, I handed out a little map with descriptions of the sites taken from the Historical Marker Database. (A pdf version is available here.) This also had the fringe benefit of helping me to keep my mouth shut. (What was that quote from Abraham Lincoln again? “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”) 😀

Bell-Daniels HikeStriking out east along the Daniel’s Run Trail (traced in blue on the map above), we passed a pleasant little pond with a fountain and a blue heron keeping an eye on things before we disappeared into the deep woods. The cool quiet and tall trees are so peaceful that, except for the occasional signpost indicating a path leading to one of the surrounding streets, you would almost think you left the city behind!

Sunday’s hike was a lot more “countrified” — after leaving Colvin Run Mill and entering the Difficult Run Trail, it was 5.5 miles of shaded dirt and mud trails, moderate to easy difficulty level, and broken only by one road and four stream shady crossings. I hadn’t been there in two years, but nothing has changed, and the stream crossings are sturdy enough that Difficult Run has to be really high in order to prevent a crossing.

All told, the two hikes yielded 10.7 miles of smiles. I really like coming up with fresh routes to hike rather than the same old cookie-cutter hikes that everyone knows by name. That’s not to say the familiar ones are bad; it’s just like retelling a favorite story — you already know how it ends. The only rub is finding the time to reconnoiter them in advance, since the map and the real thing can be considerably different!

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Exercise is excercise isn’t it?!

Posted on July 20, 2014 by John M

Joanne's avatarMum... how much longer?

It all comes down to motivation doesn’t it and what works for you! 🙂

Walks in the forest - great exercise!

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Dawn at Cub Run and a rattling good time

Posted on July 20, 2014 by John M

This past weekend we did something old and something new*; a Sunday hike at Bull Run Mountain, which we’ve visited many times before, and a Saturday hike along Cub Run, near Chantilly VA.

Cub Run is a tributary of Bull Run, and starts from just south of Dulles Airport and meanders south about 10 miles to where it flows into Bull Run southwest of Centreville, VA. There’s quite a network of trails along Cub Run, but I had not hiked any of them, so for the first outing I chose to take advantage of the Cub Run RECenter as a jumping-off point for a roughly 5-mile hike north and south of the center. A map recon was good enough to announce the hike, but since I hadn’t visited before, I hiked the route by myself at dawn a couple of days before the group event. What a rewarding visit! Click on the photo below to view a Flickr slideshow in a new window.

Dawn at Cub RunDawn is always when all the animals are out and on their best behavior, so to speak, and if you’re by yourself, it’s much easier to go unnoticed. Quite a few deer were out, including a cautious doe and her unconcerned fawn, and a heron flew over just as I was finishing up, with its characteristic crooked-neck flight posture. (Surely that’s uncomfortable!) The actual hike on Saturday was pleasant, but since it was much later at 10 am and with lots of folks, it was a much different experience.

Sunday’s hike at Bull Run Mountain was pretty straightforward, and a 74-degree overcast day made for a pleasant hike. An alert hiker notified me the day before that the Bull Run Mountain Conservancy recently changed its usage guidelines to ban dogs. No reason was given, but from what I’ve seen recently, I imagine there were just too many complaints involving hikers allowing dogs to run off their leash. (During our recent hike to Fort Stevens, one of our hikers was knocked down by large dogs running unleashed. Fortunately she wasn’t hurt, but the incident could have gotten out of hand and been much worse.)

Bull Run Mountain summit, looking westAnyway, Bull Run Mountain has one of the best payoff to sweat ratios around, since a relatively easy 2.5-mile climb yields a rewarding view west from the rocky cliffs, with the Appalachian Mountains in the distance. While enjoying the view, we glanced down and noticed someone else enjoying the midday sun on the cliffs: a big timber rattlesnake! It was obviously aware of our presence but unconcerned, since it was still sunning itself when we left.

Timber rattlesnakeIn addition to the changed usage guidelines at the conservancy, there’s another notable charge in the area: the Haymarket Village Center has been completed at the nearby intersection of I-66 and US-15. Purists might lament any construction whatsoever in the area, but I suppose the residents of Haymarket are just as entitled to groceries as everyone else, and it doesn’t really take up that much space. A fringe benefit is that there are now a few nearby places you can make a pit stop before and after hiking, if you aren’t overly fond of portable toilets, as well as a few more restaurants for lunch.

* No, no; not any of this kind of old and new stuff. Hiking, not getting hitched.

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Sesquicentennial and a sultry garden

Posted on July 16, 2014 by John M

Last weekend I went on a couple of hikes that were about as far apart in both subject matter and venue as you can get! On Saturday we went on a 6-mile hike in Washington D.C., on the sesquicentennial anniversary of the Confederate attack on Fort Stevens, and on Sunday we made an early morning visit to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, also in Washington D.C., to check out the flowering aquatic plants.

Hike MapOn July 12th, 1864, a Confederate force commanded by General Jubal Early attacked Fort Stevens, on the north boundary of Washington, after marching around the Union Army of the Potomac through the  Shenandoah Valley, crossing the Potomac River and through Frederick, Maryland, and defeating a force commanded by Union General Lew Wallace during the Battle of Monocacy on July 9th. It was the only time Washington was attacked during the Civil War. Because President Lincoln observed the battle from the parapets of Fort Stevens, it was also the only time a sitting U.S. president came under enemy fire.

Our hike followed a route somewhat like Early’s march in miniature: we started from Brightwood Recreation Area, we hiked west and north through Rock Creek Park (our own “Shenandoah Valley,” so to speak) and popped out of the woods a mile north of Fort Stevens on Holly Street Northwest. From there we roughly followed Early’s route of advance south towards Fort Stevens, along Georgia Avenue NW. Just north of the fort we stopped at Battleground National Cemetery Park, where a ranger came out and greeted us, handed out sesquicentennial booklets, and gave us a short pitch about the cemetery. It was as though we’d arranged for it in advance!

We continued south to Fort Stevens, where there was a crowd, flags, tents, reenactors dressed in period clothing and — just as we got into position to watch — a Union artillery section fired their 6-pounder brass Napoleon cannon in a salute! After that we continued the final mile back to Brightwood Recreation Area to end the hike. For some reason everything in the hike went off perfectly, even the unplanned bonuses! That certainly doesn’t happen very often…

The next day started very early, 8:00 am at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. Every mid-July is when the lotus, water lily, and orchids bloom at the gardens, so it’s an event I don’t like to miss. The gardens are boxed in by marshy ponds and the Anacostia River, so there’s just not enough room for much of a hike. However, the River Trail is screened from the hubub of the visitors in the gardens, so if you’re quiet you can spot any number of critters. 🙂

It’s not often that everything works out even better than planned, but one thing’s for sure: when it happens, make sure to take credit for it!

Oh yes, what was the “sultry” part? Well, both the temperature and humidity were in the high 80s at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, so it was like an outdoor Turkish bath!

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Whole cloth

Posted on July 10, 2014 by John M

Last weekend turned out to be a busy weekend for hiking. Early in the week I planned a hike in Reston on Saturday, but left Sunday open because the weather forecast predicted a good chance of thunderstorms. It wasn’t until Saturday that the forecast was revised to a sunny day, leading me to come up with a couple of hikes for Sunday out of whole cloth.

IMG_7904aSaturday morning we went for a 5.5-mile hike around Lakes Audubon and Thoreau in Reston. There are hiking paths throughout Reston, all paved with asphalt, and fairly flat with a few hills here and there. Given the fact that Reston is a planned community with restrictive bylaws, it’s ironic that Lake Thoreau is named for Henry David Thoreau, the American author and philosopher noted as a development critic and tax evader, best known for his book Walden, about living a simple life in a natural setting, and his essay “Civil Disobedience,” in which he argued that government is more harmful than helpful, and citizens should not blindly acquiesce to government authority or pay taxes if they are perceived to be the source of injustice. In any case, it was a pleasant if fast-paced hike (over 3 miles per hour), followed by lunch at Cafesano, a cafeteria-style Italian/Mediterranean restaurant overlooking Lake Thoreau from a shopping mall east of the lake. A Google map of our hiking route is here.

By Saturday the forecast for Sunday was revised to sunny and a high temperature in the mid-70s, from the 50/50 chance of thunderstorms that was previously predicted. A beautiful day demands a hike to match, so I reached in my back pocket and scheduled a Sunday morning hike at Scott’s Run, along the south bank of the Potomac where I-495 crosses over the river to the west of Washington D.C. Scott’s Run Nature Preserve is only 384 acres, which rules out a long hike, but the waterfall and river cliff overlook, along the Potomac on the west and east sides of the preserve, respectively, made for a nice hike of almost 2.5 miles.

Belle Haven Country Club, located along the Potomac just south of Old Town Alexandria, puts on a great Independence Day fireworks display every year, and even if you aren’t a club member, you can enjoy a great view of the fireworks from along the Mount Vernon Trail, just north of the Belle Haven Park along the Potomac. The fireworks display was originally scheduled to take place on the evening of Thursday, July 3rd, but due to the thunderstorms it was postponed until Sunday evening. So it was only natural for us to hike south along the Mount Vernon Trail from Jones Point Park to Dyke Marsh, and conveniently stopping on our way back just as the fireworks display began at 9:30 pm. In addition to the fireworks, starting the hike at 8:00 pm meant we were hiking during Golden Hour, which provided some opportunities for nice photos. (Not that I took very good advantage of them.) The evening hike was 5 miles round trip, so those who did both Sunday hikes managed a respectable 7 miles of hiking, and all three together added up to almost 13 miles.

This coming weekend is looking like it will be the complete opposite of last weekend. Both Saturday’s and Sunday’s hikes were planned in advance, being tied to a sesquicentennial anniversary and the probable peak bloom time frame for aquatic flowers, respectively. In addition, this morning I added an moonlight hike in Old Town Alexandria, hopefully to catch the City of Alexandria’s birthday fireworks display. This time around, though, the weather forecast has been sunny and mild for both days, but now a chance of thunderstorms is creeping back into the picture for Sunday.

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Expressions

Posted on June 25, 2014 by John M

Given the muggy weather we’ve been having lately, with high humidity and a 40-50% chance of showers always in the forecast, it’s time to start visiting some of the shady trails that follow the many stream beds in Fairfax County. Last weekend turned out to be actually fairly cool, with intermittent rain, so a hike along Holmes Run on Saturday was just what the doctor ordered.

Starting from Jerome “Buddie” Ford Nature Center, I thought we would be able to hike north, since the North Chambliss Street Bridge was completed last October, but now the county has something else torn up along the trail. To compensate we just hiked a little further south, into Ben Brenman Park and around the pond at its center, yielding a hike of around five and a half miles.

Along the way I stopped to photograph a squirrel, who at first was in the classic squirrel pose, gnawing on an acorn, but while I was taking the second shot it suddenly froze and adopted a curious open-mouthed expression, as if it had been caught in the act of doing something it shouldn’t have been doing. Who knows?

On Sunday I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the National Zoo, to enable those who weren’t able to make the last trip on a Saturday to get a chance to go. Coincidentally, that also meant that I got to visit twice, but that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

This time around one of the tigers was out relaxing, surveying the bystanders with an aloof, disinterested expression. Next door the lion cubs were still quite the crowd pleasers. One in particular was hamming it up, staring straight at me until something or someone to my left caught its eye, and it must have been something interesting, because as it looked over there it took on almost a conversational expression, as if it were listening to whoever it was watching.

This coming weekend I have 14 miles of smiles lined up, for myself anyway, as well as anyone who signs up for all three hikes:

  • Mozambique, a nice 3-mile evening stroll in Del Ray that is actually just an excuse to have some of the Dairy Godmother’s custard of the same name.
  • Sugarloaf Mountain, a >5-mile revisit of the hike we did earlier this month. (This one’s a little strenuous, so it looks like we’ll have less than a dozen hikers.)
  • Thaiss Park: 6 miles along Accotink Creek on a shady and (hopefully) cool woodland trail.

I can hardly wait!

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Mixed bag

Posted on June 17, 2014 by John M

I haven’t posted in a while because the last four hikes have been a really mixed bag of tricks:

1.  A June 7th hike along the Mount Vernon Trail from Fort Hunt Park to River Farm and back was waylaid before it even started. As we were assembling at Fort Hunt, a park ranger walked up and kicked us out of the park, saying that all the picnic areas were reserved, and nobody but those who had reservations could park. I’ve never encountered this before, and it was complete nonsense: The Facilities paragraph on the park’s website specifically states that parking, public restrooms, water fountains, and trash cans in Areas A, B, and E are always available to the public. Not only that, but the park’s website lists “Take the Mount Vernon Trail” as one of the Things To Do, and the Mount Vernon Trail website states that “Parking is available at every site along the trail.” But you don’t argue with the park ranger (they have SWAT teams, you know), so we all got back into our cars and drove to the nearest alternative, Riverside Park. The park ranger arbitrarily throwing his weight around changed our planned 6.6-mile hike into a 9.4-mile hike, a lot more than many attendees had bargained for.

2.  The next day, June 8th, was a nice hike in Sky Meadows State Park, a repeat of a 6.5-mile hike I previously wrote about, and it went off without incident.

3.  The next weekend started off on a nice note: on Saturday, June 14th, about 50 hikers gathered at the west end of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Saturday for a hike through the zoo. You don’t normally think of a visit to the zoo as a hike, but the National Zoo is a long downhill slope from west to east, and you have to hike uphill back to your start point. Rather than elbow our way through the crowds, we exited the zoo into Rock Creek Park and took the Rock Creek Park Trail, Western Trail, Melvin Hazen Trail and Connecticut Avenue back to the starting point, a total distance of about 5.5 miles. A great time to visit the zoo: Bao Bao, the baby panda, was on exhibit, as were the lion cubs, so some great photos resulted! (Being a cat person, the big cats are always my favorite.)

It’s not certain how long the baby panda and the lion cubs will be on exhibit, but I expect the coming hot weather and crowds may cause them to be withdrawn. Because of this, I’ve already scheduled a repeat visit for June 22nd next weekend, so everyone has another opportunity to go.

4.  Finally, on Sunday, June 15th, we were supposed to hike the Billy Goat Trail Section A, one of the most popular and strenuous hikes on the East Coast. Twenty-six hikers attended, only to find that the park rangers had closed Section A with no prior notice, and there were no alerts on the park’s website. Once again, the seemingly arbitrary decision converted what was planned to be a short, strenuous 4-mile hike into a much longer hike, down the C&O Canal towpath to Billy Goat Trail Section B and back, about 6 miles round trip. We weren’t the only ones whose plans were changed: June 15th was Father’s Day, and the park was full of visitors, many of whom were similarly disappointed.

It’s hard to know what to make of the two instances of seemingly arbitrary decisions with no prior notice. At the Billy Goat Trail, there may very well have been safety concerns with having so many visitors on the same trail at once. But at Fort Hunt, prohibiting public parking when it is explicitly permitted was ridiculous. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but it reminds me of the behavior an anonymous whistle-blower reported last year, intended to make any National Park Service budget cuts as painful to visitors as possible. Fortunately, we have the friendliest, most positive bunch of hikers around, and everyone bounced back from the unexpected difficulties and still had a good time.

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Sugarloaf – a photo hike

Posted on May 31, 2014 by John M

Here is a series of photos presenting views seen along the trail during a hike at Sugarloaf Mountain, Maryland, on May 30, 2014.

Sugarloaf Mountain is a relatively low (1,282-foot) mountain located at 7901 Comus Road, Dickerson MD 20842. It is on private property and belongs to Stronghold, Inc. It is open to the public at no charge. See their website for restrictions.

I started hiking about 11:40 am and finished around 2:00 pm. It was overcast and rainy earlier in the morning, but cleared as I was getting started and was partly cloudy with a temperature in the mid-70s throughout the hike.

The route taken was the Northwest (Blue) Trail, starting from West View parking area and traveling clockwise around the mountain to White Rocks, and continuing clockwise to McCormack Overlook. At that point I turned onto the Red Trail to ascend to the actual mountain top, and made my final descent back to West View parking area along the stone staircase along the Green Trail. Despite the slight divergence onto the Red and Green trails, the hike was still about 5 miles long and rocky and heavily wooded throughout.

You can download and print a copy of the trail map from the Stronghold website here to better follow the photos presented below. Narrative comments are below each photo.

Entrance

From 7901 Comus Road, turn right into the mountain entrance and follow signs for West View parking area.

Eastview

The first parking area you come to is East View. Turn left without entering the lot and continue uphill to West View.

West View

Turn slightly right to enter West View parking area.

Covered pavilion

As you drive through a small traffic circle you’ll see a covered pavilion, which is a convenient assembly area, with a couple of portable toilets alongside it. The parking area is further along and to the left out of view. Behind and to the left of the camera’s point of view is the entrance to the Blue Trail.

Entrance to the Blue Trail

The entrance to the Blue Trail is in the center to the left of the picnic table, going downhill.

Flowers on the trail

Just getting started; some mountain flowers along the trail.

Trail section

A typical section of trail, sprinkled with rocks and roots, between markers B9 and B10.

Mountain stream

The trail runs alongside this little stream from around marker B9 until you arrive at (and it crosses) Mount Ephraim Road.

Mount Ephraim Road

The Blue Trail  connects with Mount Ephraim Road just after marker B8, and you follow the road to the left around the curve in the center of this photo.

Re-enter the Blue Trail

Just after rounding the curve in Mount Ephraim Road shown in the previous photo, the Blue Trail turns off on the right of the road, heading north.

Entrance to White Rocks area

After passing marker B7 and a sharp left in the trail, you’ll arrive at the entrance to the White Rocks area. The west view is to the left, and the north view is directly ahead. Once you’ve enjoyed the views, return back here. The Blue Trail continues on sharply back to the right from the camera’s point of view in this photo.

White Rocks, west view

The view from White Rocks, looking west.

White Rocks, north view

The view from White Rocks, looking north.

Hilltop 1015

A rockpile on Hilltop 1015, halfway between markers B6 and B5.

Trail section

Headed uphill again; more rocky trail near marker B4.

Trail section

A particularly rocky trail section, going uphill between markers B3 and B2. The high ground of Hilltop 1071 is to the right.

Ferns along the trail

An inviting carpet of ferns on the forest floor, in the saddle between Hilltops 1071 and the main peak (1282).

McCormack Overlook

McCormack Overlook, on the northwest side of the main peak, at the intersection of the Blue and Red Trails. With the leaves on the trees, you have to stand on tiptoe for a view.

Red Trail

You want to see the main peak, right? Starting uphill on the Red Trail, near McCormack Overlook.

Red & Orange Trail junction

Just short of the top is the junction of the Red and Orange Trails. Continue straight ahead along the Red Trail to the top.

Survey marker

Here’s what you’re looking for! The survey marker at the top of Sugarloaf Mountain.

View from the topThere are a couple of rocky outcrops at the top offering views to the south and west. This is the one immediately in front of the survey marker.You can see the curve of Potomac River just right of center and below the skyline.

From here, turn back and to the left to pick up the Green Trail. In just a few feet it hooks sharply back to the southwest down a flight of stone steps with handrails. (The entrance to the stairs is marked with a couple of big arrow signs pointed down.) The Green Trail is very well marked and roughly paved with stones in some sections, and ends at West View parking area, immediately next to the covered pavilion shown in the fourth photo above.

In summary, this is a moderately difficult hike. There are no scrambles; i.e., places where you have to go on all fours to crawl up or over obstacles. The main challenges are the many elevation changes and the fact that the trail is strewn with rocks and roots. Boots or sturdy trail shoes are recommended, and you must constantly pay attention to your footing and pick up your feet to avoid stumbling.

Aside from the challenges, this is a very pleasant and rewarding hike; most of the route is in the shade, the views are spectacular, and this time of year, the bugs just aren’t happening. What’s not to like?!

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