Hooray!

Ahhhh! I've done it! I completed my summer chemistry course. On Monday afternoon I will find out my grade, but it sure feels good to have finished that class. It was soo intense.
Chopper was inspired by my commitment and has decided to pursue the nobel prize in chemistry...(as you can see above).

Bobblehead

On June 19th we went to the Orioles game. They were giving out Nick Markakis bobbleheads. I put mine on top of the TV and John took his to work. Since he is making a sliding catch, it looks like he is falling over, so I put a tennis ball under his elbow and it doesn't look like he's falling over anymore.
On Sundays, we try to make it to our local farmer's market. Since the weather is getting warmer they have lots and lots of veggies and fruits now. They even sell live crabs there! Its only about 4 blocks from our house, so its very nice to be able to go there and get our veggies - less time spent at the grocery store.
I have also been growing some herbs on our deck. This picture was taken after a massive harvest of basil, so its not impressive as it looked before. Its so nice to have fresh herbs - we have gotten pretty creative with adding herbs to our food.

Back to Hiking!

Last week John and I took the weekend off and didn't go on a hike. We probably should have because I think it was the last nice weekend before the summer weather came. This weekend the heat index is 110 degrees and it is reallly humid out. So what do we decide to do? Go hiking!

We went in the morning before it got extremely hot, but it was very humid and foggy. When the sun finally came out, you certainly could tell. I told John that it felt like walking inside someone's mouth! Ew.

The scenery was really gorgeous, so green and ferns were everywhere. The rododendrons were also blooming and the forest smelled so great. There were some beaver dams in the river and in some spots the trail was pretty narrow - it felt like a green tunnel.

Here are John and Chopper in the greenery. (That black blob that John is holding is Chops)

Once again on this hike we met a snake. The three times that we have seen snakes they have all been different. This one was the most cranky of the three.

Elevation and Lincoln

This Memorial Day weekend John and I were planning on going out to Western Maryland, but at the last minute I re-looked at our hotel reservations and saw that pets weren't allowed, so we decided to stay home and make a couple of day hikes.

On Saturday we went to Harpers Ferry, WV and decided to climb the formidible Maryland Heights. We have been to Harpers Ferry a couple of times before and we always meant to hike up to the top, but by the time we got to the split between the lookout and the top, we always went for the lookout. Not this time! We were determined to climb these heights. At the split, the trail practically goes straight up.

Looking at this picture - well, it looks pretty steep, but no where near as steep as it felt! We hiked 1,920 feet of elevation - it was a beautiful day and pretty cool for these parts considering it is the end of May. At about the half-way point up this trail there is a little information board that said President Lincoln came to check out the troops here and he got to the point where the trail went straight up and he turned around and went back down! I don't blame him one bit, it took us 3 tries in 3 years to make it! On top of the hike are ruins of a camp that the Union soldiers made - there are still stone foundations and breastworks. Here are John and Chops on the foundations of the Old Stone Fort.

On Sunday we decided to push ourselves and go for another hike. This time we stuck a little closer to home and went to White Hall, Maryland to hike on the North Central Railroad Trail. This used to be a railroad line that ran from Northern Maryland to Baltimore. It would deliver milk and other goods into town. When President Lincoln died, this rail line carried his body north so it could be transported back to Illinois.

Chopper sat out this hike because he was still tired from the Harpers Ferry hike. In the morning when I was getting my shoes on, he sniffed my shoes, jumped on the couch and gave me a sidelong glance as if to say, "I ain't going anywhere today!"

This trail was a really nice walk along flat ground, which we both appreciated after the Harpers Ferry hike. I look a little tired here because we made this a 9.2 mile hike - our furthest trek yet!

On Memorial Day we decided to take it easy and we went to Ft. McHenry here in Baltimore to hang out, read and watch boats go by. This was a great weekend!

C and O Tow Path and Paw Paw Tunnel

This week we traveled far and wide to make it to our destination of the Paw Paw Tunnel on the C and O Tow Path in Paw Paw, West Virginia. I don't think we realized how far we were going (130 miles) until we were about half way there.


The C and O Tow Path was built along the Potomac River to transport goods from Cumberland, Maryland to Washington, DC and vice versa. A canal was dug along the river and donkeys would be hooked up to barges and pull them along. The tunnel was started in 1836 and finished in 1850. It is about 0.6 miles long and very dark.




As you can see, there is a glimmer of fright in my eyes. You can always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but the floor was uneven and since we have had so much rain lately the roof was also dripping; very cave-like. We brought a flashlight, so we could see where the puddles were, but it was still a little disorienting.

Once you make it through the tunnel, you gotta get back, so there is a path over the top of the mountain back to the start of the loop. Right outside of the tunnel we saw a snake basking in the sun and there were also a few really tiny snakes that slithered off when we approached. I think this is the year of the snake we've seen about 4 so far this season. We trekked over the top of the mountain and came upon this beautiful view of the Potomac River winding between the borders of Maryland and West Virginia.

After we got through the tunnel and over the mountain we walked along the Tow Path for 2 miles and saw a woodchuck, birds and two deer. It was a really great walk - our fastest yet 7.1 miles in about 2.5 hours. This was due to the trail being mostly flat - except for climbing over the tunnel.

We also went to an open house for a place that we can learn to sail. It seems like a really fun place to learn how to sail and hopefully we'll give it a try and you'll see us on the water soon!

Appalachian Trail and Boulders.

Yeah! The Appalachain Trail! We are almost in the middle of the dang thing. All told, the Appalachian Trail runs just 44 miles through Maryland. Although, I do feel very fortunate to have it as close as it is. We went to a place called Pen Mar, MD - on the border of Pennsylvania and Maryland to hike up to High Rock along the South Mountain. Such inventive names around here. :)







Along the Appalachian Trail there are some very interesting geological features. In this particular rock you can see some quartzite that filled in fissures on the original rock during metamoriphism. To a geologist this is one cool rock. All throughout this hike I kept making John look at rocks.








Here are me and Chops sitting before a giant boulder. There were just a bunch of these giant rocks all along the trail.












This trail was pretty tough going. As you can see, we had to take several breaks along the way. On the last half mile we went up 440 feet - now that's an aerobic exercise!

















At the top of our journey we took in the beauty of Western Maryland - you can probably also see Pennsylvania and West Virginia, but I am not quite sure...
This is a very popular hang gliding site. There were no hang gliders the day we were there, but this is one a of the very few sites that allow hang gliders on the AT in Maryland. It is such a beautiful site to take in - although you can get pretty close to the edge and that is a little nerve wracking. :)

Baseball and Snakes!

This week we went to the baseball game on Tuesday versus the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. We just decided that afternoon to go and walked to the stadium after work. We got some pretty good seats and enjoyed a great game. The O's actually won this one. That made the game more fun to watch. The picture to the left is old Kevin Millar up to bat. He is the first baseman and the announcers of the games always say he has "low foot speed" - John and I always kid that means he's a little fat.





On Saturday we went for a seven mile hike at Liberty Reservoir. When we left the house the weather was overcast and a little chilly. John wore long pants and his spring jacket. I luckily had worn my convertable pants and a flannel. By the time we got to the reservoir it was sunny and warm. The jackets came off and I converted my pants into shorts! This was the first hike this season where we got a little overheated, its just going to get worse as the summer comes, so I supposed we'd better get used to it.




As we were walking along the path, John made a little yelp and I looked over and this snake was just hanging out in the sun. It was about 2 feet long, I tried to look up on the internet about what kind of a snake it was and I couldn't figure it out. If anyone knows, please leave a comment. For all the hiking we have done this is the first snake we have come across. I think its pretty cool.






Chopper did a very good job of hiking the whole seven miles with us. He kept up like a trooper to the very end. After the hike, though he was out like a light. As you can see, the cat was having sympathy exhaustion for us. Its very rare that Chopper is tired enough to leave the cat alone and lay so close together. :)

Chopper has already fully recovered and is as energetic as ever...I think he bounced back faster than John and I.