Dave Goes Outside: Patapsco State Park and Harpers Ferry

So this past week I went home for the usual thanksgiving romp for delicious food, football and family. Those were labled in order of importance. But outside the one day spent dedicating myself to becoming fat I actually had a couple of solid hikes.

First off, a quick visit to Patapsco Valley State Park west of Baltimore, MD. Patapsco is probably the one place that I can directly pinpoint my love of hiking coming from. I spent probably 80% of my childhood hikes in this park with my dad and I loved every minute. I have no doubt this park made me the weirdo who goes out and does 16 miles and 4000 ft by himself today. It was a quick visit, parking by the old swinging bridge and walking up to Bleode Dam, soon to be demolished. We saw a big ass bird chilling on a rock. It was nice to be back and I felt like a kid again and wanted to explore the whole park.

We also took a brief stop in Kinder Farm park, a park near my house with a gross pond and bamboo patch.

A few days later my mom had to drive back to James Madison University to drop off the other offspring and she had a great idea: drop me and Keeley at Harpers Ferry on the way and let us spend a few hours putzing around. This was an excellent idea. I had been to Harpers Ferry once before as a wee lad and remembered pretty much none of it. I didn't care about historic little towns as a kid. You don't really appreciate history until you have been alive long enough to have some of your own.

We started at the John Brown fort, a historic individual who had to be bold and do something crazy to be remembered by history because otherwise how can you be remembered with a name as bland as John Brown? Lesson for you boys, if your name is bland, do something doomed to fail in the name of justice and everyone will remember you and your kickass beard. After taking some photos, we crossed the bridge to the Maryland side of the town and started climbing.

Loch me up

Almost the middle!

The Potomac flows majestically after swallowing the Shenandoah

The trail in Maryland climbs at a reasonable level to a junction that offers a big long loop to the north, or a short jaunt downhill to a rocky promontory over the town with stellar views. We went for the overlook since we had a time limit on the day. The overlook was crowded, but we managed to find a solitary spot on the second of two outcroppings, low down at the cliff edge, where we could be alone and admire the views.

The best photo taken all day

After heading back to town, we got lunch, and found out due to a stupid scheduling plan JMU wasn't going to let my sister into her dorm so we had some extra time to kill. We wandered down to the river and walked along it for a while, then went back and climbed the hill to Jefferson Rock, which was a rock that Thomas Jefferson thought was rad or something. The view is okay. It's no Maryland Heights. We walked up to the cemetery nearby then back down into town for a final pass through the old armory locations and I wandered down to the river again for photos. Mom picked us up and we went home. I felt very satisfied. I would have wanted to see the full Maryland Heights loop and the Virginia side Loudoun Heights trail, but alas, it was a good romp.