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Tuesday, July 24th through Friday,
July 27th 2001
GPS maps for three hikesLewis Falls
Lewis falls is a nice hike due mostly to its proximity to Big Meadows camp grounds. It's so close that you can hike straight from your campsite if you'd like. The waterfall itself is nice to see, and there is a decent vista en route, but mostly I felt uninspired by it. I suppose the photos I took would have come out better if I had a tripod and used a very slow shutter speed. As it is, you only get a split second of time and not a sense of the motion. The hike itself was steep, on a number of switchbacks, and it wasn't too crowded, although it was during the week. I hiked this with my brother Joe and Lori D'Angelo, as well as the other hikes in SNP. Lori decided to run ahead down to Lewis falls, but Joe and I took our time down the switchbacks. In front of the falls is a nice viewing area with a stone 'railing', ostensibly built by the CCC in the 30s. Further down, the hill is quite steep, but Joe and I took a little side trip to get some better photos and a shot of adrenaline. We stopped when faced with a sheer drop of about 60 feet. On the way back up, the hill seemed to grow a few hundred feet more than the 866 feet we climbed down, and it was quite tiring. Personally, I think that switchbacks just make hill climbing harder than if the trails would just go straight up. Lewis Falls was a nice hike, but I doubt it would be on my list when I return. Stony Man Mountain
Joe and I took this hike by ourselves, and it was definitely the best of the three we took. Stony Man Mountain gets its name from the illusion it creates from the side. It actually looks like a man with a beard resting his head against the mountain. The views from the top are spectacular, outdoing even the best vistas I've seen in Pennsylvania. If you've seen a picture of Skyline Drive from SNP, it's probably taken from atop Stony Man. With the highest elevation of the Appalachian Trail in the park, it's a bit of a climb to the top, although it's not nearly as steep as Lewis Falls, and you start your hike at about 3650 feet, so its not too strenuous. We took the circuit hike down the hill, via the Passomaquody Trail, which I highly recommend. This takes you around the mountain to the base of the cliffs you were on at the summit. Actually, I think it would be better to hike in the reverse direction (counterclockwise), starting out on the Passomaquody and then hiking to the top--your reward would be a spectacular view instead of your car. While we were there, a group of youngsters, some as young a 9 or 10, and none older than about 18 were either repelling or rock climbing down the cliffs, and you can see them and their safety ropes in the photos. We bumped into two pairs of very nice hikers, and we swapped stories with them. One couple was a husband and wife team from Michigan, and the other was a local retired sailor and his sister. While I usually hike to get away from people, it was nice chatting with these folks! Rocky Mount
Ouch! We took this trip to get some exercise, so I planned our last hike to be a challenge, and it was . . . for us at least. Again, Lori decided to run ahead again, and while I was a bit concerned, I figured she survived this far on her own, so who was I to argue. The hike starts out from Skyline Trail and follows the ridges to a saddle before climbing up the hill. The hike was quite nice on the way there, with the exception of what seemed to be thousands of spider webs. That's one thing I hate about summer hiking. I can deal with the heat, but bugs really get me--especially those damned webs! In any event, the hike up was challenging for us, but reaching the top was rewarding, with a very nice vista, including a good view of where we started from. A young couple passed us out on the way up, seemingly floating on air as they scampered to the top. The hill really reminded me of Pennsylvania hills, and all the rocks and trees looked familiar. Passing a number of scree and talus slopes, the trail to the top seems to go on and on. When we finally go to the top and re-collected Lori, we ate our lunch and got some great photos of the hollow below. Fearing that the circuit hike around the mountain would overtax us, and keeping an eye on the clock, we decided to simply backtrack to our car. What seemed like a nice trip on the way there turned into an endless trek back. Lori needed much motivation most of the way, on account of it being all uphill, and we had done quite a bit of climbing already. The last ridge seemed to go on forever, but on reaching the car we knew had had done our workout for the day with over 2200 feet of climbing. That may not sound like a lot to some folks, but for a couple of hulking big thirtysomethings, it's plenty! |
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