A new day, a new adverture. Our climb up the Appalachain Trail to the Weverton Cliff.
 |
| From The Weverton Cliff |
 |
| The Appalachain Trail |
We were on the way home from a show in DC and decided to take a little side trip to Harper's Ferry, WV. It was a cool, mostly cloudy day, perfect for a short hike on the Appalachian Trail before going to the old, historic town. We found the entrance to the trail a couple miles east of town and headed up. From the looks of the map, I knew it would be a challenging little climb and it did not disapoint. I knew nothing about the Weverton Cliff before we started, but I assumed that a steep climb like this should offer some incredible views.
 |
| Which way do we go??? |
We wound our way up the trail, climbing over 700' in elevation, and when we reached to top, we were given the choice to continue on the trail or head to the cliff. Anyone who knows me can easily guess which path we took. It wasn't more than 100 yards to the Weverton Cliff which gave us an amazing panoramic view of the valley where the Shenandoah and the Potomac Rivers become one.
 |
| Up river toward Harpers Ferry |
 |
| The vista down the Potomac |
In one direction, the mighty Shenandoah flows past the historic town while in the other direction, you can see for many miles as the Potomac heads toward our nations capital. Despite the cloudiness, the vistas that day were nearly perfect. I am all about snapping pictures, but on this day, the camera was with me and the memory card was with my daughter in Pittsburgh. Of course, my IPhone did an adequate job, if I don't say so myself.
There were more people than I expected to be out hiking on a Tuesday afternoon. On the way up, we past a kid who was running the trail. Given the incline and the ruggedness, it was an impressive sight. At the cliff, we were joined by several other groups enjoying the afternoon. The trip down went by pretty fast and was much easier on my body.
Once again, we turned a boring trip into a hiking adventure as we continued xploring my world with our climb to up the Appalachial Trail to the Weverton Cliff.
This week's adventure took us to the Catoctin Mountains in Frederick County, Maryland. The autumn colors were near peak in their beauty as we wound up Rt 77 from Smithsburg to our destination. Things got interesting real fast as we were greeted by numerous rescue squads and fire trucks along the road as we entered the park. When we finally got the the parking area, there were more emergency vehicles clogging the place up. We never found out what happened, but after reaching the Cunningham Falls, we concluded that one or more of the hundreds of people climbing the rocks must have fallen. The presence of the emergency vehicles did not seem to deter the climbers in the least.
We finally found a place to park and when we got to the trail, we were faced with a choice. The short, easier, flatter trail to the right or the more difficult, steeper, longer trail to the left. A kid smoking in front of us went right so, of course, we went left, straight up the rocky path. The tougher path was much less traveled but when we got to the falls, we found the crowd. Minus all the people, it was a beautiful sight, the fall colors, the bright blue sky and the cascading waterfall. We hung around for a few minutes, snapping some pictures then headed off to find a less crowded part of the park. We took the easier, quicker path back to the parking lot and headed to the other side to try out Old Misery Trail and make the climb to Cat Rock.
It was listed as strenuous in the brochure but that didn't scare us off, and again, we headed straight up the incline. The first 1/2 mile was the harderst, steepest, rockiest part of the hike and once we got on top, it was smooth sailing. There were numerous spots with scenic views and places to sit for a spell and rest my weary knees and hips, and of course, snap a couple pics! Old Misery Trail lived up to it's name on this day, especially for this 53 year old man.
When we finally reached the end of our journey, we were greeted with the amazing rock formation known as Cat Rock. We climbed up Cat Rock and the vistas were fantastic. The perfectly sunny day was giving way to the incoming clouds and the cool wind was biting on the ears, but the view from Cat Rocks was worth it. Again, we spent about 15 minutes resting, enjoying the peacefulness and snapping pictures before we started our descent. About 45 minutes later, we were back on level ground, then in our vehicle and headed off to find a good place to eat. It was a great afternoon in the Catoctin Mountains and after having endured the rescue squads and Old Misery Trail, we headed on home. 
