SNP/Harpers Ferry 2010

Kyler and I departed last Friday for the Shenandoah National Park to the strains of AC/DC, Ozzy and Rob Zombie. Not necessarily my choice for the trip south, but Kyler was happy with the soundtrack.

The drive down was uneventful, and we made good time. We got to front Royal around 10:45 and met Andy B. for lunch. After lunch, we departed for the Old Rag Mountain parking lot to begin our hike up Nicholson Hollow.

This was Kyler's third backpacking trip, and he is definitely getting stronger. Playing soccer has been a great conditioner for him. We made good time up the trail. We only stopped once along one of the larger waterfalls on the Nicholson Hollow Trail. I got out the Tenkara rod, rigged up and caught my first brookie on the hughes with the new rod.

We arrived in camp around 2:00 and set about getting things in order. We rigged up my 16' Noah's Tarp from Kelty, which gave us a nice place to hang out. This tarp would be a little too big for a longer backpacking trip, but it was no problem hauling it in to the Hughes River, and it provides a great place to hangout, especially if rain threatens.

After camp was set-up, Kyler went down to the creek to play, and Andy and I sat around shooting the breeze. Andy then went fishing, and went down to watch Kyler build his great dam across the creek.

After supper, I got the Tenkara out again and landed about a half dozen more brook trout. We then played Uno until around dusk. We then went on a salamander hunt led by Andy B. We captured and observed five different species. After out herpetology foray, Kyler was whooped, and he went to bed.

The next day, we had breakfast, and then Kyler and I filled a daypack and headed out for an adventure. We went upstream, and fished a little, built cairns, caught and observed bugs, climbed rocks and explored a cave. basically, we just enjoyed a morning in the woods with no agenda. We met Andy on the way down the trail, and headed back to camp for lunch.

After lunch, we went downstream, and fished our way back towards camp. We then had supper, played our new favorite camp game, Uno, on the veranda, and again, Kyler was out by dark.

On Sunday, we got up had breakfast, broke camp, and hiked out, we were in the parking lot around 11:00 a.m. I decided that rather than go home on Rt. 81, we would take Rt. 340 and stop at Harper's Ferry for lunch. Wow, what a great find. If you never have been there i recommend it. We had lunch at the Secret Six Pub then explored the town, climbed to Jefferson Rock on the AT, visited the AT Conservancy, headed back into town for ice cream, then strolled along the river. We were just going to have lunch, but ended up spending the entire afternoon there.

All in all, it was a great trip. We both had fun, and it was sure great spending time with Kyler.