We had a wonderful 16 mile adventure today. The clockwise loop took a whopping 5.5 hours: par for the course. Bushwhacking in wintry conditions is never speedy.
Lily, Uwharrie and I started from the Catawba Falls trailhead outside Old Fort at 11:45AM. We enjoyed a nice warm-up to the falls with exception of the frigid ford of the river.
For the next leg of the adventure, we entered into a pristine winter wonderland as we followed a faint trail and/or the Chestnut Branch up and over the eastern continental divide. We had a couple more icy fords to endure. This was the most beautiful winter scenery I've encountered. The sun came out and the ice began to drop from the trees.
We found ourselves in an ice-encrusted laurel hell for a quarter mile that took forever to get through. At this point, we were committed to finishing the loop. We eventually found our way out through Camp Ridgecrest. We were exhausted, but the worst was behind us.
The trail over Kitsuma was a bit of an obstacle course, but much better than what we'd been through. As I darted ahead to retrieve the car, I became worried about my right toe, which felt dead for some time.
Mike's fangoria had me switching to a backup pair of wool socks ASAP.
Toe intact, I made it back to the car and zipped over to the other side of town to pick up Lily and Uwharrie. Very proud of Lily's endurance! Good times.
We had a wonderful 16 mile adventure today. The clockwise loop took a whopping 5.5 hours: par for the course. Bushwhacking in wintry conditions is never speedy.
Lily, Uwharrie and I started from the Catawba Falls trailhead outside Old Fort at 11:45AM. We enjoyed a nice warm-up to the falls with exception of the frigid ford of the river.
For the next leg of the adventure, we entered into a pristine winter wonderland as we followed a faint trail and/or the Chestnut Branch up and over the eastern continental divide. We had a couple more icy fords to endure. This was the most beautiful winter scenery I've encountered. The sun came out and the ice began to drop from the trees.
We found ourselves in an ice-encrusted laurel hell for a quarter mile that took forever to get through. At this point, we were committed to finishing the loop. We eventually found our way out through Camp Ridgecrest. We were exhausted, but the worst was behind us.
The trail over Kitsuma was a bit of an obstacle course, but much better than what we'd been through. As I darted ahead to retrieve the car, I became worried about my right toe, which felt dead for some time. Mike's fangoria had me switching to a backup pair of wool socks ASAP.
Toe intact, I made it back to the car and zipped over to the other side of town to pick up Lily and Uwharrie. Very proud of Lily's endurance! Good times.
2 comments:
Lilly, strong work!! Matt, happy birthday, and glad to see you out there in winter wonderland. We had some light snow, but nothing like what you experienced at Uwharrie today.
happy birthday friend.
with love,
from your aquarian sister.
c. pennell
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