Photos A Walk in Nature

I’m headed out for a much-needed vacation this morning. My itinerary is not fixed in stone due to an iffy weather report, but I hope to ride my bike from Brunswick to Fort Frederick and back, over the course of 4 days.
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There are plenty of places to camp and fish along the way, and I plan to ride into Shepherdstown at some point. I want to give myself time to explore and goof off, and if I don’t make it as far as Fort Frederick I won’t be disappointed.
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These are my knife choices for the trip:
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The Mikov is to give away, in case I encounter some poor soul in need of a can opener, as happened last time.

I also have this in my bag:
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I hope to find occasion to use it, but if not, it’s no big deal either.
 
Love it TOM - excellent itinerary and collection of utensils. Pretty astonishing to see the number of camping opportunities. Have a great time!

For the SKUNK CABBAGE wanna knows, here you go, a one page INFO LINK. Skunk Cabbage is a very interesting plant. The next phase is that the leaves will get spotted with holes and start to wither, then die and decompose, not as leaf debris but mostly water.

I haven't tasted the Hobble Bush berries - reputed to be prune like. We just found the bush along the trail last summer. Need to pay attention or we walk right by. I will try to be alert through this season so I can remember to harvest some berries and try them out. More as it happens.
 
RayseM said:
For the SKUNK CABBAGE wanna knows,
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That’s me Sir 🙋‍♂️😀
Gracias Ray 😎
Just Tom. said:
I’m headed out for a much-needed vacation this morning
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Have a great time Tom 👍😊
Hoping you catch some nice catfish too !
Sounds like a wonderful trip 👍
I read that Shepherdstown is historically remembered for James Rumsey's invention of the steamboat in 1787 🤓

Bring us some pictures too 😎
 
osoverride said:
I found some pheasant back today while hiking. They were young and so they will make for a nice addition to my steak dinner tonight.
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Cool pic :thumbsup:
Hungry for some steak now :)

Rsmith_77 said:
Tonight you eat the fungi
Tomorrow the cordyceps fungi eats you
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You are a real "funguy" :D

We stumbled upon some big puffballs about 3 years ago while on a walk with the family.
I really wanted to harvest a few however no amount of pleading and reasoning could convince my daughters to allow me to bring them home.
They were really afraid I was going to poison myself so I let the mushrooms be ... but not before having one pose with my lambsfoot 😎
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CelloDan said:
Have a great time Tom 👍😊
Hoping you catch some nice catfish too !
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Well I did indeed have a great trip, and I did catch a nice catfish, too! Bad weather the second day prompted a change in my itinerary, so I cut it from three nights to two, since I wound up being so close to my car towards the end of the third day.

(I tried to post an album here, but it didn’t work - hang on while I edit…)

Ok, see if this works. You should be able to click through to see the pictures:
https://imgur.com/a/a3kSm1q

Here is the full account for anyone who wants to tolerate my ramblings:
I made it to my planned campsite just 5 miles downstream from Williamsport the first day, but it was a solid 7 hours on my overloaded old bike, at first over fine loose crushed stone, then over dirt. Eventually three other guys showed up at the campsite, so we made a fire and talked until late in the evening.

It rained pretty hard first night and much of the second day. If I stuck to my itinerary, I would have had a similar distance to cover the 3rd day as the first, and the towpath conditions were bad. Instead of going all the way to Fort Frederick then, I just rode into Williamsport to get water and snacks, and then headed back downstream to just a few miles upstream of Shepherdstown. The going was slow, but I actually enjoyed being out in the rain.

I got to my campsite mid-afternoon and had the place to myself. After setting up and collecting some firewood, I cast a line into the river while I made dinner. Right exactly as my rice was done, I got a hit on my line and caught a big catfish. Since I already had plenty of food, and was frankly too tired and lazy to clean and cook it, I threw it back and put tuna on my rice instead.

That night I had a relaxing little fire, went to bed early, and slept like a log.

The next day the weather was perfect. I rode across the bridge into Shepherdstown in the morning, then slowly worked my way back down to Harper’s Ferry. I got a hamburger for lunch, and ice cream. At that point I was only six miles from my car, and I had such a perfect day I decided to wrap things up on a high note rather than camp the last night.

My ride:
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Proof I am not lying about the fish🤣:
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Apologies to any SAK fans, but I honestly could have made the whole trip comfortably with just my Okapi, and a spoon. Knife uses were making meals, cutting paracord to string up a tarp over my tent the first night and making some tent pegs for the same purpose, puncturing the tops of evaporated milk cans for my coffee and grits ( 😲 , I know…), stuff like that. I did make use of a 12” Okapi machete I brought for firewood duty, but I probably really didn’t need it.
 
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RayseM said:
Very well done Tom! Sounds less than stellar but worth the effort and satisfying too. Good for you to be a flexible adventurer.
Thanks for sharing. Great set of photos too! :thumbsup:
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Thanks! A bad day outdoors is still a thousand times better than an average day at work, so no regrets here…

Also, I edited my post above to add some more knife-related content :thumbsup:
 
CelloDan said:
Thanks for sharing Tom 😎

I enjoyed the narrative and all the photos
( the album worked )

Gracias for bringing us along mi amigo 👍!

When is the next trip planned for 😊
Perhaps we will see your new boat featured as well ? 😎
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Thanks, Dan!

I‘m not sure when my next camping trip will be - probably this fall. My next focus will be getting my boat in the water and getting that whole process figured out.

If all goes well I may try an overnight trip in it at some point. Maybe drop my bike off somewhere, go upstream to park and launch the boat, go downstream to where I left my bike, camping somewhere along the way, then ride back to the car.
 
Here are some more highlights from winter day hikes on the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail. So far, I've out-and-back hiked the first 45 miles. That leaves about 30 miles to finish the Georgia section. Then it's only 2,100 more to Maine. 😁


The view from Preacher's Rock shows the Appalachian foothills rising out of the Piedmont.



The shelter on Blood Mtn. looks a little spooky in this pic, but that's not the case in-person. I got nothing but good juju there, despite its fabled history of indian warfare.



As far as I can tell, there's no definitive explanation for the shoe tree at Neel Gap. It's at the 30-mile point of the AT and right after Blood Mtn. (the highest/toughest part of the trail in GA). Some say it's a convenient quiting spot for unsuccessful north-bound thru-hikers. Reportedly, some south-bounders that are finishing go back and leave their shoes, too.



Here's my ever-present Cocobolo Albers trail-buddy overlooking Hog Pen Gap, where I'll take up the trail next time.
 
CelloDan said:
RayseM RayseM is in Maine.
You guys could meet halfway if hiking the whole thing seems to much for one person and then share pics along the entire length with us. 😀
Great pics 😎
Cheering you on to complete Georgia 👍
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Thanks so much, Dan! I appreciate the encouragement. At my current rate, it's literally taking me a month of Sundays to do just the Georgia section. 🤣
You never know, though. Maybe I just need the proper motivation to make it to Maine. Like, say, RayseM RayseM waiting there to give me his stellar puukko collection. 👍
 
I'd be willing to meet you on Katahdin. Not likely to be carrying more than 1 puukko though. ;)

Otherwise for some reason the AP doesn't interest me at all. Have had some good friends who were Thru-Hikers - happy to have watched their videos. 'Nuff for me. :thumbsup: Katahdin is worth the effort though.
 
DKIN said:
Outstanding, when/if I ever get close, I'll check in with you. :thumbsup:
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Having said that I realized that you just can't go camping in Baxter St. Park without a plan anymore. Reservations - if you can get them - need to be early winter scheduled - for the most part. I live far enough away that this is a 3 day minimum trip for me which includes camping. So DKIN DKIN if you are thinking next spring or summer - there's a chance. This summer /fall -no way. It would be fun.
 
RayseM said:
So DKIN DKIN if you are thinking next spring or summer - there's a chance.
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Thanks for the heads up about reservations, Ray. I'm not seriously considering a thru-hike, or even piecing together section hikes at this point. I'm only planning to do Georgia and then I'll see where things lead. Absolutely, I would eventually like to do Katahdin, though. When that day comes, I'll be here talking it up for months ahead of time.
 
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