Fall Morning Hike

From October 09

This seems to happen to me every year... I forget how much I enjoy being in the woods. I get busy during the summer with vacation, yardwork and the like and literally forget to spend time "out". Its not like I dont know it.... the issue is more like I forget just how much I enjoy it. Anyhow, Fall of the year is an excellent time to go for a hike. The temperature is moderate, the bugs are almost non existent. Good company and a picnic lunch are a recipe for a great time. Enjoy this months post Dave PS - CLICK ON THE PICTURE ABOVE TO SEE 80 MORE.. ;-) The pace of life gets really fast during the end of the summer season. Chores around the house take precedence over having fun with friends and family. Sometimes you have to just break away, steal some time and head for the woods. That’s exactly what my girlfriend, Katherine and I did. Just 55 miles southwest of Fredericksburg in Criglersville is the White Oak Canyon trail. This is a 10mile (round trip) trail that sits beside the Rose River – the trail promised waterfalls and at least 5 miles of relaxing and vigorous exercise. We started off at the trail head. The first cold night of October left a chill in the air on the trail. This first part was an easy trek. Wide trail led to two “formal” bridges over the river which being fair was more like a swollen creek. As we crossed the second bridge we looked down to find that someone had stacked stones. In this practice, stones of various sizes are literally stacked. The edges of each river stone are meticulously placed, finding the matching surfaces that will allow the lower stone to act as a foundation for the next precariously balances stone. Adding new stones without interfering with the previous ones requires incredible focus. The practice has become a popular form of meditation and in some ways art. The sunshine shone through the colorful canopy of fall leaves, illuminating the path. With the river and its soothing sound running alongside, we strode up the trail. The incline was becoming more severe as we made more distance. We reached the “lower falls”. Although beautiful these falls were not quite ordinary. Instead of water pouring over a precipice and plunging to a distant pool below, this was a fast flow of water down what appeared to be a water slide. No joke, the falls gave the appearance that if you started at the top you could ride the water down the smooth sided crevices in the incredibly huge rock faces down to a deep pool at the end. It was obvious by the significant carved out path of the water that it had been at this job for hundreds of years. After spending a short appreciation time we continued and the trail took a turn upward. By this point, we were doing less talking and more deep breathing. The trail had changed from a wide open soft path to a more closed in, root laden path with many rocks that had erupted from the earth into the path. Each step was from root to stone and then over again. I was no longer able to allow my gaze to wander; instead my attention was required to navigate my way upward finding each blue blaze to ensure I was heading the right way. A stop to touch of the water told you this was no longer the cool flow that would refresh on a hot summer day; this was the cold water that had adapted the temperature of rocks which cool quickly with the fall equinox. We made our way to the “upper falls”. The vantage point was significantly different from the lower falls. We had a precipitous perch from which we could see the water flow below us. The same slide-like grooves had been cut into the stone. After a quick lunch we made our way back from the direction that we had come. Although another hiker had thrilled us with the tale of a bear sighting, the only other excitement was when Katherine fell in the ankle deep river doing what she called ‘stealthy walking’. I heard her fall and as I turned around to help, I saw she was in a state of perpetual falling. Each of her individual attempts to get up allowed another river stone to fall loose under her making it appear that she was wallowing in the river. We laughed as I helped her up and other than a bruised pride bone she is fine.