Road Trips and Hike Reports

The weather forecast wasn't great for today.  But the rain started later in the day the farther East we looked. So I looked at trails that were East of us.  This area, about 85 miles SE of our house, was someplace we'd never been. When we arrived it was a very steep initial climb from the road up to the top of the ravine the road was in.  There was one other hefty climb in the first mile or 2 then a lot of ridge walking with less severe ups and downs.  In addition to being brutally steep at first going up the side of a hill, it then went sideways along a steep slope but lacked any sort of flat shelf for the trail so every step was uneven and challenging plus very rooty.  Thankfully, after the big initial climb which made up the stem of this balloon hike, conditions improved on the loop itself.  There was a good variety of environment from super deep crunchy fall leafy hardwood areas to pine needle covered pine tree areas.  There was also a fair amount of distance along a few cr

Just another chance to get a qualifying hike in after work.  Once time falls back an hour this will be nearly impossible for months.  Scenery and conditions were very good as was the tranquility on this Halloween afternoon.