- Joined
- Sep 22, 2003
- Messages
- 13,182
Just got back from a 3 night 4 day backpacking/mountaineering trip.
The players were Ratamahatta, Ms Hollowdweller and myself.
I'd never hiked with Ratamahatta before, and of course you always wonder whether a new person is up to the challenge. Being a fellow Appalachian I had my suspicions he'd meet the challenge but ended up not only did we all work together as a team on a long difficult trip but wound up he wasn't like a new person at all. Fit with both our schedule and the way we enjoy the wilderness both.
Anyway the objective was to do a hike in the Roaring Plains Wilderness taking probably 75% trails that are unofficial. Following cairns, bits of flagging, crawling over boulders and up and down talus slopes pushing thru laurel thickets full of boulders.
Getting off the trail and finding it again. Hunting for water in a dry area, Wind that is so strong it can knock you over.
Our crew met the challenge
In Harper's Magazine in 1852 Porte Crayon wrote:
"In Randolph County, Virginia, is a tract of country containing from seven to nine hundred square miles, entirely uninhabited, and so savage and inaccessible that it has rarely been penetrated even by the most adventurous. The settlers on its borders speak of it with a sort of dread, and regard it as an ill-omened region, filled with bears, panthers, impassable laurel-brakes, and dangerous precipices. Stories are told of hunters having ventured too far, becoming entangled, and perishing in its intricate labyrinths. The desire of daring the unknown dangers of this mysterious region, stimulated a party of gentlemen . . . to undertake it in June, 1851. They did actually penetrate the country as far as the Falls of the Blackwater, and returned with marvelous accounts of its savage grandeur, and the quantities of game and fish to be found there."
Pics to follow
The players were Ratamahatta, Ms Hollowdweller and myself.
I'd never hiked with Ratamahatta before, and of course you always wonder whether a new person is up to the challenge. Being a fellow Appalachian I had my suspicions he'd meet the challenge but ended up not only did we all work together as a team on a long difficult trip but wound up he wasn't like a new person at all. Fit with both our schedule and the way we enjoy the wilderness both.
Anyway the objective was to do a hike in the Roaring Plains Wilderness taking probably 75% trails that are unofficial. Following cairns, bits of flagging, crawling over boulders and up and down talus slopes pushing thru laurel thickets full of boulders.
Getting off the trail and finding it again. Hunting for water in a dry area, Wind that is so strong it can knock you over.
Our crew met the challenge
In Harper's Magazine in 1852 Porte Crayon wrote:
"In Randolph County, Virginia, is a tract of country containing from seven to nine hundred square miles, entirely uninhabited, and so savage and inaccessible that it has rarely been penetrated even by the most adventurous. The settlers on its borders speak of it with a sort of dread, and regard it as an ill-omened region, filled with bears, panthers, impassable laurel-brakes, and dangerous precipices. Stories are told of hunters having ventured too far, becoming entangled, and perishing in its intricate labyrinths. The desire of daring the unknown dangers of this mysterious region, stimulated a party of gentlemen . . . to undertake it in June, 1851. They did actually penetrate the country as far as the Falls of the Blackwater, and returned with marvelous accounts of its savage grandeur, and the quantities of game and fish to be found there."
Pics to follow
