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rivkaI've signed up for a four-mile hike at SUUSI which is described in the catalog as "invigorating" and "strenuous." At the time that I sent in my registration, I was so very much not physically prepared for anything of the kind... but I wanted to be, and I figured that being registered for a group hike on a particular date would be good motivation to regain some hiking skills.
What with one thing, and another, and a whole lot of others, I haven't prepared much beyond walking to work a couple of times a week, which is about a mile and a half over mostly-level sidewalks, or pushing Alex's stroller about 3/4 of a mile (I think) to nursery school. When we visited my parents over Memorial Day weekend, I did a three-mile trail walk with my father and his dog; again, over mostly flat ground. That one had me fairly tired by the end of it. With three weeks left until SUUSI, I decided that this weekend I had to get some strenuous hill hiking in.
Patapsco valley State Park is my closest hiking option - a twenty-minute drive from my house downtown. None of its trails are very long, but they interconnect in such a way that you can piece together a satisfying loop. I decided to combine the hiking-only portion of the Buzzard's Rock trail with the Sawmill Branch trail, which makes about a two-mile loop - very steep, but very scenic. This used to be one of my favorite hikes. I used to access it from a remote parking lot off a rural residential area, which always felt a little creepy - this time, I realized that I could get there from a more well-traveled part of the park if I added an extra 0.4 miles each way on a paved trail.
That way, I also got to start and end my trip by crossing a swinging suspension bridge high above the Patapsco River.
The suspension bridge takes you across to a level, paved, extremely well-traveled riverside trail. Lots of cyclists and runners, lots of people with fishing gear, lots of families with small children.
About a third of a mile from the bridge, there's a beautiful old arched stone tunnel which carries a creek known as the Sawmill Branch under some railroad tracks. I left the paved path, walked through the chilly, echoing tunnel, and came out in a different world: steeper, rockier, and wilder.
I stopped for a moment to let a couple of hikers study my trail map, and it's a good thing that I did. Just before I started up the steep, narrow trail, a dozen guys on mountain bikes came down it. (Several of them offered to let me start up, as if I'd really want to be in the middle of their group.) I pointed out with some irritation that it's supposed to be a hiking-only trail; they expressed wide-eyed and unconvincing shock. Fortunately, they were the only cyclists I saw on the rest of the trail. Once I started up the hill, I only met four or five other hikers, most of them with dogs.
Most of my trail pictures didn't turn out, more's the pity. The trail winds along the Sawmill Branch, sometimes on a ridge above the water and sometimes directly alongside. At one point I actually lost the trail, and climbed halfway up the ridge before the track I was on petered out and I had to admit that I wasn't going to come across another blazed tree. But everything was beautiful, and so I didn't really mind.
At the far end of the Sawmill Branch trail, there was a brown park service sign printed with white icons designating who may use the trail: a hiker, a person on horseback... and a stick-figure cyclist drawn in with what appeared to be Wite-Out. Yeah, I'm sure that the mountain bikers I saw were completely taken in by that clever forgery. (I wish I'd thought to get a picture of the sign.) It's not just that I hate to share trails with mountain bikes, although I do - the Sawmill Branch trail in particular has a serious erosion problem in several places, and bikes are a major trail-erosion problem. It irritated me to hear the cyclists I passed bragging to each other about how "technical" the trail was, because "technical" seems to line up pretty well with "eroded." But I digress.
The Sawmill Branch trail ends at the Buzzard's Rock trail, which starts off following a ridge high above the railroad track and then descends very, very suddenly. My photos really don't convey the abruptness with which the bottom just drops out of the trail; there were several points at which I wound up pretty much sitting down and lowering myself gradually with both hands and feet. The first picture here is at the top of the scramble, looking straight down. The second is from the bottom, looking up. You can see the same yellow-blazed tree in both pictures.
Up until that point, I was very pleased with my progress. I had no hip pain and no wheezing (a good thing, because I only realized an hour and a half into the hike that it probably would've been a good idea to bring my inhaler). I was able to keep a steady pace over steep, rough terrain for a good hour and fifteen minutes, without needing to stop and rest. But by the time I reached that last steep downhill, I was aware that my leg muscles were stiffening up. I kind of lost my nerve and took the descent in a more halting and less dignified fashion than I would've liked. I think next time I'll switch the order of the trails, so that I hit the scramble uphill, at the outset, when I'm still feeling quite strong.
At any rate: beautiful hike, and a big sense of accomplishment. Still no hip pain. I might do the same again next weekend, and then try to do a 4- or 5-mile rough-terrain hike just before SUUSI.
What with one thing, and another, and a whole lot of others, I haven't prepared much beyond walking to work a couple of times a week, which is about a mile and a half over mostly-level sidewalks, or pushing Alex's stroller about 3/4 of a mile (I think) to nursery school. When we visited my parents over Memorial Day weekend, I did a three-mile trail walk with my father and his dog; again, over mostly flat ground. That one had me fairly tired by the end of it. With three weeks left until SUUSI, I decided that this weekend I had to get some strenuous hill hiking in.
Patapsco valley State Park is my closest hiking option - a twenty-minute drive from my house downtown. None of its trails are very long, but they interconnect in such a way that you can piece together a satisfying loop. I decided to combine the hiking-only portion of the Buzzard's Rock trail with the Sawmill Branch trail, which makes about a two-mile loop - very steep, but very scenic. This used to be one of my favorite hikes. I used to access it from a remote parking lot off a rural residential area, which always felt a little creepy - this time, I realized that I could get there from a more well-traveled part of the park if I added an extra 0.4 miles each way on a paved trail.
That way, I also got to start and end my trip by crossing a swinging suspension bridge high above the Patapsco River.
The suspension bridge takes you across to a level, paved, extremely well-traveled riverside trail. Lots of cyclists and runners, lots of people with fishing gear, lots of families with small children.
About a third of a mile from the bridge, there's a beautiful old arched stone tunnel which carries a creek known as the Sawmill Branch under some railroad tracks. I left the paved path, walked through the chilly, echoing tunnel, and came out in a different world: steeper, rockier, and wilder.
I stopped for a moment to let a couple of hikers study my trail map, and it's a good thing that I did. Just before I started up the steep, narrow trail, a dozen guys on mountain bikes came down it. (Several of them offered to let me start up, as if I'd really want to be in the middle of their group.) I pointed out with some irritation that it's supposed to be a hiking-only trail; they expressed wide-eyed and unconvincing shock. Fortunately, they were the only cyclists I saw on the rest of the trail. Once I started up the hill, I only met four or five other hikers, most of them with dogs.
Most of my trail pictures didn't turn out, more's the pity. The trail winds along the Sawmill Branch, sometimes on a ridge above the water and sometimes directly alongside. At one point I actually lost the trail, and climbed halfway up the ridge before the track I was on petered out and I had to admit that I wasn't going to come across another blazed tree. But everything was beautiful, and so I didn't really mind.
At the far end of the Sawmill Branch trail, there was a brown park service sign printed with white icons designating who may use the trail: a hiker, a person on horseback... and a stick-figure cyclist drawn in with what appeared to be Wite-Out. Yeah, I'm sure that the mountain bikers I saw were completely taken in by that clever forgery. (I wish I'd thought to get a picture of the sign.) It's not just that I hate to share trails with mountain bikes, although I do - the Sawmill Branch trail in particular has a serious erosion problem in several places, and bikes are a major trail-erosion problem. It irritated me to hear the cyclists I passed bragging to each other about how "technical" the trail was, because "technical" seems to line up pretty well with "eroded." But I digress.
The Sawmill Branch trail ends at the Buzzard's Rock trail, which starts off following a ridge high above the railroad track and then descends very, very suddenly. My photos really don't convey the abruptness with which the bottom just drops out of the trail; there were several points at which I wound up pretty much sitting down and lowering myself gradually with both hands and feet. The first picture here is at the top of the scramble, looking straight down. The second is from the bottom, looking up. You can see the same yellow-blazed tree in both pictures.
Up until that point, I was very pleased with my progress. I had no hip pain and no wheezing (a good thing, because I only realized an hour and a half into the hike that it probably would've been a good idea to bring my inhaler). I was able to keep a steady pace over steep, rough terrain for a good hour and fifteen minutes, without needing to stop and rest. But by the time I reached that last steep downhill, I was aware that my leg muscles were stiffening up. I kind of lost my nerve and took the descent in a more halting and less dignified fashion than I would've liked. I think next time I'll switch the order of the trails, so that I hit the scramble uphill, at the outset, when I'm still feeling quite strong.
At any rate: beautiful hike, and a big sense of accomplishment. Still no hip pain. I might do the same again next weekend, and then try to do a 4- or 5-mile rough-terrain hike just before SUUSI.
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Date: 2007-06-25 04:05 am (UTC)no subject
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