What's a little rain?
In just over 3 weeks, Troop 1916 will send 2 crews to Northern Tier. And this past weekend we had our final trip together before flying to Minnesota.
Trips like this are tremendously important for promoting teamwork and handling adversity. As a troop, we're trying to find the right number of 'extra' outings to prepare for high adventure trips. And we're certainly learning more with each year.
We did a longer version of the Mill Mountain hike from HikingUpward.com. Our route included an out-and-back to Half Moon Lookout. The total mileage for the 2 days was a healthy 20.1 miles.
We assembled at Redeemer at 7PM Friday (to avoid the bulk of Friday traffic). After a stop in Haymarket to pickup Charlie (and say 'hi' to Will!), we had our full contingent.
The drive from Haymarket to Woodstock on Friday included some impressive downpours. But the rest of Friday night and most of Saturday were completely rain free.
Upon arrival at the trailhead Friday (about 9:30 PM), we loaded packs and did the 10 minute walk to our first camp. Tents were pitched, bear bags hung, and we were lights-out a little after 11.
Saturday morning went smoothly--hot meals (and hot coffee!), and on the trail by 8:30am. Our pace was quick--likely aided by cloud cover and cooler-than-usual temps. We had 9 miles finished before lunch at Half Moon Lookout (which was unfortunately socked-in). After another 4 miles, we made camp at the Sandstone Spring about 3:30pm (on the ridge between Virginia and West Virginia).
We had a nice fire at camp, ate meals, and opted for bed as the rain arrived at 7:45pm.
And the rain just kept coming. We didn't know it at the time, but Woodstock received almost 3" of rain Saturday night through Sunday midday.
Sunday morning was a classic challenge--how to go from being dry in tents to eating hot breakfasts then to hiking (and generating warmth) as quickly as possible in adverse conditions.
The hammock dwellers had a nice setup--they left their rain flies up when taking their hammocks down. Then they cooked and ate under shelters. Charlie also deserves credit for bringing and deploying a tarp above his tent door. I'll certainly remember these tricks for next time.
The trail on Sunday was transformed into a rushing stream. We opted-out of the final push up Big Schloss--the risk seemed unnecessarily high to go up and down such a steep trail with so much water flowing. And we knew we'd have very limited visibility from the top.
Even so, Sunday's jaunt clocked-in at 7 miles.
We could certainly consider doing this hike as a single-day-20-miler next year. Because it's 2 hours from McLean, we'd probably want to camp at the trailhead the night before the hike. If there was sufficient interest, we could also have a 15 mile route (skipping Half Moon Lookout).
Check out some pix from this trip over here.
-Mike Forrer