Choose your own adventure
The Chief Benge Scout
Trail has been calling my name for the better part of a decade. It's a
21ish-mile hike (if you tack on the optional addendums at each end) that
begins on the top of a nearby knob and runs down nearly to the valley
floor. A fascinating high-elevation ecosystem combined with the fact
that you can easily divide the trip in half added to the appeal. So why
haven't I hiked it yet?
In the first place, the
logistics have daunted me a bit in the past. While the trail is very
close to our farm as the crow flies, it's at least a 40-minute drive up
winding forest-service roads to get to any of the trailheads. And then I
started figuring in the extra time it would take to leave a car at one
trailhead while being dropped off at another, and the adventure suddenly
seemed like less fun.
Enter my long-suffering husband, who volunteered to not only drop me off, but to pick me up too. How could I refuse?
Oh, yeah, there is
the fact that I haven't gone on such a long hike in many years. Sure, I
used to log about eight miles a day while carrying a 50-pound pack as a
matter of course...when I was 22. But could I still go the distance? Tune in for tomorrow's post to find out.
(In the meantime, if you're local enough to want actual information about the Chief Benge Scout Trail, here's an excellent map and description of the west half.)
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Are y'all taking any special precautions regarding hurricane Joaquin? It seems the latest update is it's expected to track back out to the Atlantic, but there's still going to be heavy rains in Western NC and Southwestern VA, with possibilities for flooding, mudslides, etc.
In general, do you guys have preparedness plans for your homestead for inclement weather, or do you decide what needs to be taken care of based on whatever your current projects are and the state of your property and livestock at the time inclement weather is projected?
Deb --- I've never done any running at all. I'm impressed by your stamina!
Rae --- The good thing about living next door to a floodplain is that floods are old hat to us now. If it looks like it's going to flood, we make sure not to leave the farm so we won't get stuck away from home. But otherwise, there's not really anything to plan. Bad weather just means we spend more time indoors.