A Turtle Saved Is a Turtle... Somethinged

I saved this little guy from becoming an ineffective speed bump on Sligo Creek Parkway this morning. He seemed pretty pissed none the less. 

Nice Beaver!

Why thank you, I just had it stuffed...

Some beavers moved into Sligo Creek. It will be cool to bare witness to their engineering prowess right on my daily route.

Eating Locally On Vacation

A while back I posted about a mushroom event I attended after I lucked upon a patch of Chicken of the Woods mushrooms. It seems my luck is still running strong, I happened upon these beauties while on vacation in Rhode Island last month. 

It had been raining for a few days and the mushrooms were popping. This dead tree was standing in a neighbor's yard where my wife and I were renting a house. I saw them from the road and started thinking about a recipe. We had visited a friend's farm nearby the day before and left with some fresh picked okra, string beans, and tomatoes. 

I threw everything in a pot and made another pot chicken of the woods curry that thanks to the fresh veggies rivaled the initial last batch. 

The farm where we got the veggies was 20 minutes away and the main ingredient was picked a few hundred yards away. With the exception of the spices and a little butter, this may have been the most "local" meal I've eaten, and damn was it good.

This weekend is a perfect time to hit up a farmer's market or two. ;)

Happy Friday.

Butterflies At Brookside Gardens

Took the little one to Brookside Gardens to see the butterflies among other things. The butterfly exhibit is small but worth the visit alone.

5 Questions, Answered

Accepting a challenge from The Natural Capitol, I'm answering 5 questions that are being passed around among bloggers. It's like those annoying memes your old high school biology partner keeps sending you on facebook, but somehow not the least bit annoying (at least for me).

1. You seem to have an intense curiosity of the natural world, how did that curiosity come about?

As a kid I was always going on nature hikes and drives with my dad. If he saw me laying around with nothing to do he would throw some snacks in the car and we would go on a nature drive. This meant getting lost in the Shenandoahs for the day or heading out to White’s Ferry and exploring the Potomac and the C&O. Also, the house I grew up in backed up to the Difficult Run Trail which gave me easy access to plenty of forest, from Lake Fairfax Park to Great Falls Park.

2. What would you change about your home, your neighborhood, your corner of the world? What one thing would you change to make it a better place?

I would stop my neighbors from over fertilizing their lawns. All the harmful crap they use just to keep their lawns the right shade of green ends up in Sligo Creek and frankly it’s got enough problems.

More selfishly I would cut down the tree in my next door neighbor’s front yard which shades the only spot I have to grow veggies.

3. Describe your most profound encounter in the natural world.

I was on one of those zip line tours in Monte Verde in Costa Rica. The highest zip line was 400 feet above the tree tops that went 750 yards connecting two mountain tops. The clouds had come in and all I could see was the next15 feet of cable as I flew along. In the middle of the valley the clouds broke and I could see the jungle 400 feet below me and the valley stretching out on either side. About 50 feet to my left a Swallow Tailed Kite emerged from the clouds heading in the opposite direction. I glanced over at him as he glanced over at me and for an instant our eyes met and we watched each other go by. It was an incredible feeling being able to share a moment with this bird while on its turf. At least now I know what my spirit animal is.

Secondary to that I would say raising wild birds as a child. My family would take in baby birds that fell from their nests and were abandoned. It’s surprisingly easy to care for and raise a baby bird. Over all, we did this for 2 Sparrows and a Baltimore Oriole.

4. If you could have a conversation with any person in history who would it be, and why that person?
I would want to talk to Charles Darwin. I would like to get his point of view on the resurgence of the argument against natural selection 150 years later. On the same subject I would ask for some tips on how to deal with frighteningly stupid people.

5. What advice would you give to anyone wanting to better experience the natural world?

Similar to Elizabeth’s answer I would say slow down and “be here now.” While hiking my dad would randomly make us stop and observe our surroundings in silence to make sure we weren’t missing anything. This always brought us into the moment. I try to do this a few times during every mountain bike ride. It also gives me an excuse to stretch more and catch my breath.

Building A Better Father: Aggressively Granola

I've always been into nature. I've always been outdoorsy. Until now I've been passive in my granolaness. Sure I've done my share of cool outdoor adventure stuff but It's always been just for fun. Now that I am a father it takes on a more serious meaning. I want and need to instill a love for nature in my daughter and am taking calculated measures to do so.

I am becoming obsessed with increasing my knowledge of the outdoors, from gardening to backpacking. I know a lot of the birds that are indigenous to our area; I know most of their calls. Now I want to know theit migration patterns so I can tell my girl where they're going and when. I've created an indoor worm composting bin for our kitchen scraps. Lately I've been studying what plants and mushrooms are safe for eating, where they grow and when so she'll know that not all food has to come from the store. I recently joined MAW (The Mycological Association of Washington) to hasten my mushroom education. Last week I went on my first guided mushroom foray and loved it. I found a handful of morels which I threw in an egg scramble, very tasty.

Doing this research and gaining these new experiences have become my main goal. Hopefully some of what I am learning will turn into future lessons for my daughter with the off chance that one of them might take root and turn into genuine interest, passion, and ultimately gratitude toward nature.

My dad was and is the same way, we would hike a lot, go on the occasional camping trip and generally have fun in outdoors. While hiking, he would make my brother, sister and me stop yaking and stand still in silence for 5 minutes just to see what else was in the woods with us.  This would bring us back into the moment. Sometimes it was a deer sometimes a pileated woodpecker, sometimes just air flowing through leaves; stopping and appreciating almost always resulted in something cool that we would have never seen or heard if we had kept on our way.

Maybe he felt the same call to duty as I do.

The more passions I have and the more experienced I become, the better off my little girl will be.

Washington DC Tweed Ride Route

The DC tweed ride route has been announced over at Dandies and Quaintrelles

View Larger Map

Looks like a jolly good tour!
Don't forget to register.

C&O Tow Path Part Four: Hancock to Silver Spring

I had a good nights sleep in the bunk house and was glad not to have to take down the tent in the morning. While cooking breakfast the thought of making it all the way home had returned. It was 135 miles from home and the previous day had been my longest day at 88 miles. Could I add 47 additional miles to my longest day? I hurried to pack up and at least give the the idea the option of success. My average daily ride was around 85 miles which would put me back in Brunswick. I would push a good pace and see how things were going when I got there.

I had been working on more ways to stay on the bike. After food, the next reason to stop was to rest and stretch. I found that if I stood up on the pedals, pushing one hip as was forward as I could while dropping my heal in the same side as far down as I could, I could stretch my back, thigh, and calf on that side in one motion. I would speed up, stretch one side while coasting then repeat on the other side.

That just left rest as the only reason to stop biking. Given the amount of pain caused by having to start back up again taking a rest would rarely win the argument.

On the way back around the detour I passed a small group of houses that had this sign to great on comers.

"Warning To those who steal from us as we sleep OR ARE WE? Are we watching for you yes! This Neighborhood Don’t Call 911! But you might!"

I think this neighborhood needs a 6th grade English teacher more than an increase in security.

Shortly after passing some turkeys I arrived in Brunswick, roughly 85 miles from Hancock by 1pm. I was staying on the bike and I was flying. Keeping an average of 15.5 mph I rarely stopped for anything. One slight advantage of this section of that the downhill slope of the trail is marginally higher. But the drop is so slight that you never feel like you are going downhill.

I was feeling tired but great. There were times when I was really sucking wind and thought I might have to rest for a while. At these moments I would eat sour patch kids, pull out the ipod and remove my helmet. I am a freak about wearing my helmet but this was a very rare occurrence where I rode without one. The novelty of the wind in my hair, the sugar rush and the kick ass playlist would usually make me forget about the pain.

After passing Harper's Ferry I was confident that I would be sleeping in my bed that night and have an extra day to chill before returning to work. Before this trip, the farthest I had ever ridden was 97 miles while doing the C&O a few years back and here I was pushing for 135.

When I hit Seneca Creek the canal took on the more well groomed look as I approached Great Falls and the more popular parks. I was on fire, I still had 30 or so miles to go but 30 miles never seemed so small a feat.

The down side to reentering the metropolitan area is that people become less and less outgoingly friendly. Up to this point, pleasantries of some kind were traded with almost every single person I encountered on the path. But the closer and closer I got to the city the more people looked like the had a stick up their asses. That's not to say they weren't nice people, it's just that they were in a different place than I was. I was on could ten and they were just trying to burn as many calories as they could before they had to pick up the kids or whatever chore was next up. People is people... people.

Then end of the trail was a few miles further in Georgetown but I was getting off before that. I thought about doing the extra miles to get to Mile 0, but I had been there before. For this trip, mile 0 was my front porch. So when I saw the bridge taking the Capital Crescent Trail over the canal I realized that I would soon be saying goodbye to the river, the canal, and the tow path. I had been on the C&O for four amazing days and had come to rely on it's simplicity. Whatever was going on in my head my eyes were always pointed over at the canal, down at the river, or straight down the path.

So I took a last look at the canal and joined the flood of commuters pushing their way north towards Silver Spring on the smooth paved trail. I found it both surreal and amusing being passed by so many people on road bikes while I trudged along on my fully loaded LHT that seemed to take up the whole lane. Everyone so deep in thought after a long day at work, pushing and pushing to get home and on to the next thing. I imagined myself as a large blood clot slowly tumbling along a major artery as smaller blood cells bounced and dodged around me racing their way through DC's circulatory system.

I made it home unceremoniously. I did my trip and had my adventure with one well earned day to spare. 135 miles that day, 395 in total. I made some calls, took a long shower, and drifted off to sleep, victoriously, in my own bed.

C&O Tow Path Part Three: Cumberland to Hancock

After spending a satisfying hour in Cumberland, I headed back toward DC. My goal for the day was to get to Hancock MD, which would be about a 90 miles. Since I was doing the trip solo, millage was something I had plenty of time to reflect on. My mind would wander but every mile marker and town was a reminder of my position, how far I had come, and how far I had to go. Don't get me wrong, I was having a great time and not stressing at all. I took pride in every mile and was constantly looking forward to the next one.

After the hard push to Cumberland I was taking it a little slower on the return. When I got back to Paw Paw I stepped it back up. Only stopping now and again for a picture. I realized the key to longer miles was to allow myself to keep moving. If I stopped for longer than a minute or two, the pain of having to start again was amazing at times.

In Cumberland I bought a second stem bag that was a little larger. The one I had was only large enough for a camera and cliff bar. This new one was large enough to carry a variety for foods that would keep me from having to stop and get items off the back of the bike. Peanut M&Ms, cashews, cliff bars, and jerky could easily fit in the new bag. One addition that made a huge difference was Sour Patch Kids. I must give thanks to Jill Homer from Up In Alaska for mentioning them. The intensely sour sugar rush would always lift my spirits when I started to drag, both emotionally and physically. I took smaller stem bag and reversed it, attaching it seat post. This way I still had easy access to the camera.

Atop one of the many aqueducts in ruin. The concept of running a canal over a stone bridge over a river is still a little hard to imagine especially in the 1820s. I guess I should thank the Romans.

Some time mid day I almost ran over this descent sized copper head. I'm guessing it was a copper head only because it's head was copper. I had to get a stick and push him off the trail. I had just passed a couple on a tandem recumbent and didn't want the two of them to cross paths.

This little guy hitched a ride for about 25 miles.

Around mile 140 I stopped in at Bill's Place to refill the water bottles. Bill's is a famous institution of the tow path. It has been around for ever and so has Bill. He was telling me that he had cub scouts come in during a camping trip and 35 years later they would return as den leaders heading trips of their own.

Taken with the ShakeyCam

I was just heading in for water and was eager to keep moving. At this point Hancock was only 15 miles away and I had covered 75 miles by 3pm. I was feeling great and was thinking of pushing it further. A thought kept sneaking in that I might be able to make it all the way home by the next night, being 150 miles away at that point made it an easy notion to dismiss.

When I entered the bar the first thing I noticed was that the ceiling was covered in money. One of the traditions at Bill's is for hikers and bikers to sign dollar bills and fix them to the ceiling. I headed for the back to grab 3 bottles of water when I saw 2 guys at the bar with matching T-shirts that read "Pittsburgh to DC". I struck up a conversation with them immediately. Asking about the trail conditions of the Allegheny Passage, a connection from Cumberland to Pittsburgh.

After a few minutes the two, Bob and Joe, began harassing me about my lack of a beer. I told them millage goal and they quickly pointed out what I already knew. "Hancock is only 15 miles away, it's 3pm, we're at Bill's, you should have a beer." This was logic that I couldn't escape, especially from a couple of retired brethren of the bike out on a tour. Bill brought me a Sam Adams and I pulled up a stool. After the first sip 2 thoughts came into my head. I should really slow down a bit, and always listen to your elders.

After a beer I decided to take it easy and roll with Bob and Joe. They guided me to a stretch of paved rail/trial that parallels the tow path for several miles that gave us a break from the gravel. After a few days of riding alone, I was really enjoying the slow pace and the conversation. At one point someone had set out a bunch of fresh picked yellow tomatoes which I took full advantage of.

We reached Hancock at 5pm and parted ways. Bob and Joe were inn hopping and I was headed for the bunk house at the C&O Bicycle. Me and the LHT were the only guests of the bunk house that night and it suited me just fine. After a hot shower I walked around town and ended up at a diner before returning to the bunk house for some much needed sleep.

Click here for part four.

(The last one.)

C&O Tow Path Part Two: Slackwater to Cumberland

Day two put me in the Big Slackwater of the Potomac. A section where the river widens and slows due to Dam #4, and resembles more of a lake than a river. Some sections of the slackwater are over 60 feet deep. This was a section of the canal where boats would navigate through the deep waters of the river for 13 miles before entering the canal again. It's a popular area with many houses and docs on the Virginia side.

This also meant I had to ride the 5 mile detour as the tow path that hugged the cliffs along the river washed away. The ride on the road was a nice diversion and a welcome break from the constant vibrations of the tow path.

There is an initial climb from the canal which pretty tough but it quickly leveled out into rolling hills and beautiful farm land.

After reconnecting with the canal the rest of the day sped by in a beautiful blur of cliffs, canal, railroad and river. Toward 5pm I reached the Paw Paw Tunnel which is not only 3/4's of a mile of engineering masterpiece but the reason the railroad beat the canal to Cumberland. There is some fascinating history surrounding the tunnel.

At 81 miles I thought I might push it a little further, it was only 5:00. However, after grabbing a pizza in town I was ready to take it easy so I headed back to the Paw Paw campground. I talked to a bunch of nice folks at the park which after two days alone was a welcome diversion. The campground is in a meadow a half a mile passed the tunnel. There isn't much to the town so I walked around the park after setting up camp, then hit the sack.

taken with the 'blur cam'

In the morning I was greeted by a herd of deer that had stopped in the meadow for breakfast. I looked at the map and planned the day while breakfast boiled. I had only 30 miles left before Cumberland and thought that if I pushed it I could make it back to Hancock before the end of the day. Hancock meant I could sleep at the C&O Bicycle bunk house and forgo the tent entirely. At around 85 miles, this seemed like a decent goal so off I went.

The morning was beautiful and unlike most of the trail there was a lot of clearings full of sunlight.

Around a bend I happened upon a group of turkeys which oddly enough had a rabbit in their ranks (not in the photo).

Having a short distance to travel before Cumberland turned out to be quite the motivator. I cranked it out averaging a little over 15 mph and arrived in Cumberland by 9:30 am.

Cumberland is a very cool town with tons of little cafes and shops. The people where very inviting and I felt like a local in no time.

I had a breakfast sandwich at Cafe Mark and browsed the supplies at Cumberland Trail Connection. The cool thing about Cafe Mark is that there was an electrical outlet right out front where I parked the bike so I could charge the phone before heading back towards DC. (bottom right)

Click here for part three.