Flood Wall Walk-About

Recently, a combination of winter weather, half-marathon training, and life has interfered with doing much hiking. So I decided to take opportunities when I can, even if they are not grand mountain hikes. My knees still hurt from Saturday's six mile hilly run, and I decided to walk today instead of run. I came in early to work so I could take a long lunch, and made it into a bit of training (fast walking) and a bit of hiking (seeing some cool things in the urban environment). I walked 4.7 miles along Richmond's canals and floodwall, making a loop along and across the James River. Here are some photos and descriptions of sights along the way.

From my office, I walked about a half mile to Brown's Island, a small island on the James. Here is a view of the former Tredegar Iron Works, now the Civil War visitor center.

On Brown's Island is this nice statue, a monument to the African Americans who helped run commerce on the rivers and canals of Antebellum Virginia.

Looking north and upriver from Brown's Island is Belle Island, former site of a prisoner of war camp in the Civil War and post-war industrial developments. Now it is a nice hiking spot and natural area. I did a prior hike here and also used it for a marathon training route last year.

A little foot bridge extends into the river, and has quotes from people about the fall of Richmond in April, 1865. This one from President Lincoln is poignant, as he was assassinated less than two weeks later.

I left Brown's Island and walked along the canal, reaching this point on the Canal Walk, with a green cross as a monument to Christopher Newport, discoverer of the future site of Richmond, in the background.

Part of the flood wall starts here. Note the big watertight door that can be dogged shut in a flood to protect the downtown.

This is part of a race in a lock connecting a couple of the old canals. There is amazing stone work in this section.

Before the Civil War, slave Henry "Box" Brown had a white friend nail him into a box and ship him by rail to Philadelphia and freedom. This site along the canal is a monument to him and his courage to undertake this. The "box" is the exact size: 3 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet.

Part of Richmond's canal walk as I looked back towards the 14th street bridge. I returned from the "Box" Brown monument to cross the river on that bridge.

Old railway cars along the canal.

From the 14th Street Bridge, one can see the great blue heron rookery in the distance - see the nests up in the trees behind the old abandoned bridge? I crossed the James on the 14th Street Bridge, also called the Mayo Bridge.

Once I crossed the James, I prepared to climb up on the floodwall for the walk upriver. First, I saw this nice monument to diversity, acceptance, and inclusion at the base of the floodwall.

Here is a view of the amazing rapids from the top of the floodwall. You can see why Chris Newport stopped at this point. His boats could go no further. These rapids are why Richmond exists here. In the distance is the Manchester Bridge, on which I walked back to the other side of Richmond towards the end of my hike.

Here is the path along the top of the floodwall, looking north at the Manchester Bridge.

View from the top of the floodwall looking back south (downriver) from where I had been a short time ago.

View back to downtown Richmond, where I will return via the Manchester Bridge in the right of this photo.

As I crossed the bridge, I had a nice view of the floodwall upon which I had so recently tred. Soon it would be back to the office, but with the memories and physical benefits of my nearly five mile leg stretcher.

Laps Around Echo Lake

I saw my first crocuses today, at the Ginter Botanical Garden, and I saw some forsythia in bloom as well. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera during that walk on a pretty early spring day. But I love crocuses and always have. Since I have been a child, I associate them with the end of winter. And this is one year I am ready for the end of winter.

After yesterday’s five mile run for Team in Training practice, I decided to run again today. I need to get into a regular workout habit instead of my two days one week, four the next, one the week after that, and so forth. So I took advantage of warmer weather in the late afternoon to get in a run that was also kind of a hike. It beats getting up at 4:30 AM to do it!

Echo Lake Park is a small park about two miles from my house. People come to walk, fish, use the playground with their kids, have a cookout, and feed the geese. There is a trail of about three quarters of a mile that circumnavigates the lake. It is a pretty little trail, and I often can see wildlife, although today, a kingfisher and the always present Canada geese was the sum total.

I did six laps for a total of about 4.25 to 4.5 miles. I would walk the first quarter mile of each lap and then run the rest. It took me 49 minutes, including stopping for a few photos. I enjoyed being out in shorts and a purple Team in Training tee after yesterday’s cold start to the run. The Monument Avenue 10K is only 20 days away, and I am not in shape for it. I can run that distance, but not in the time I had wanted. So I need to just enjoy the experience of it and not worry about the time. It is not like I would be winning the race.

I know at some point before the Seattle Half Marathon, a five or six mile run will seem easy, but I am not at that point right now. My legs were tired at the end of the run, and I took extra care to stretch out.

The lake is a popular attraction at this park:

I once saw a huge beaver along the shoreline of this stream which feeds Echo Lake, but not today:

The footpath is 3/4 mile long and loops around the lake. It is crushed gravel and easy on the feet, and has some small climbs and dips:

The goose is on the alert as his mate grazed nearby:

Winter Tram to False Cape

From November 1 through March 31, there are only two ways to get to False Cape State Park - walking along the beach from Back Bay Wildlife Refuge or on a tram which runs every couple of weeks in the winter. Yesterday was one of those days, and we signed up for the trip at $8 each. It is the only way to see the interior of the refuge in the winter and the big concentrations of tundra swans and other waterfowl. It is such an interesting area. As a raptor expert who was one of the guides explained at a stop, within 1/3 of a mile there are seven distinct habitats, each with its own life forms and ecology: the ocean, the beach, the dunes, freshwater marsh and impoundments, grasslands, maritime forest, and Back Bay.


It would have been fun to have the chance to get out more, but the tour guide was an enthusiastic and knowlegeable state park employee. She is leading a three day "Wild Woman Weekend" at this park in a few weeks which I think would be a great thing for any woman who likes the outdoors. Women only, no testosterone allowed. False Cape has to be one of the most remote state parks in the east. It had been 18 months since my last hike to it, 5 miles each way.


The day was cold - upper thirties with some wind - and we got thoroughly chilled after 2 hours in the open air tram. We stopped a few times for wildlife observation. We saw hundreds of tundra swans as they gather energy for their long trip to northern Alaska and Canada. We saw many ducks, some geese, and some great blue herons. But a juvenile bald eagle was trip highlight. Here are a few photos from the day:

Views of the marsh in BBNWR. We watched the large tundra swans coming in for landings here, looking so much like 747's in their approaches.

Impoundment from the dike, with the dune line in the distance

Maritime forest along the road in False Cape State Park

This is the closest we could get to the beautiful tundra swans

GPS Meets Satellite Communication

To continue my story about SPOT, wouldn’t it be cool if you could not only send an “I’m OK” message, but also a custom message to your friends and family? For example, “Slow progress today, I will be an extra day before I reach the car. Don’t worry.”

A few month ago, a friend who works at DeLorme in Yarmouth, Maine told me that his company was working on such a feature as part of integrating their Earthmate GPS with SPOT to provide that type of service. It was not yet released to the public, so I didn’t tell a soul (or my blog). But now it is public knowledge. Here is a link with a lot more details.

The really cool thing is that I have been asked to be a Beta tester for this, so I will be starting that soon. It will involve a couple of months of testing. It won’t be the best hiking weather but hopefully I can get in a few hikes in rugged areas. I am looking forward to trying this out starting in a month or so. It is pretty amazing stuff, isn’t it? It makes the old map and compass, although still indispensable, look pretty tame!

X Marks the SPOT

Obviously, I like to hike. Often times, I go by myself, sometimes with other people. It might be an easy couple mile stroll where I have plenty of company, or a rugged walk through remote country where I feel like I am the only person on earth that day. I’ve never been in a situation where I badly needed help, but I know that could easily happen at some point. A storm comes in and you get disoriented and miss a key trail junction. You trip over something on the trail and take a bad fall. Or less serious but still disabling, you sprain your ankle badly. That in particular is very easy to do – how many times have you turned an ankle just a bit while hiking? And I rarely hike in areas where cell phones work. So last year, I bought a SPOT satellite GPS messenger.

Since they work off satellites, like a GPS, they work almost everywhere with a clear view of the sky, unlike cell phones - which must be near a signal. SPOTs have three functions, although you must sign up for the annual service for any of the functions to work. The first is a “911” function for a serious life-threatening problem, such as a bad fall or other incapacitation. In that case, a call center gets the message and notifies authorities.

The other two functions rely on your network of family or friends. The first of these is a help message, which sends an email or text message to the list you specify telling them that you need help. Maybe you are completely lost and in the woods for the night, but it is survivable. Or your car has totally broken down in a remote area. In any event, someone getting your email must relay the information to authorities.

The final function is the “all is OK” function, just to let your family and friends know that all is well. The help and OK messages send the text message that you set up on your account, along with a link to your exact location. Here is an example from my last hike that I did just as a test:

ArtRitter
Latitude:36.66102
Longitude:-75.91031
GPS location Date/Time:01/16/2010 20:54:15 GMT

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=36.66102,-75.91031&ll=36.66102,-75.91031&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Message:Art checking in with a SPOT Check. All is OK.

I enjoy coming back from a hike and going to the links I sent to see exactly where I was, and toggling between the map, topo, and satellite views.

You cannot vary the message without being at your computer, logging into your account, and changing it. But imagine if you could change the message in the field. “It’s so beautiful here I am going to hike another day.” “I’m fine but hiking was rough today, and I made slow progress. So I will be late.” That would be pretty cool, eh?

Tomorrow, I will write about a new development with DeLorme that will do just that, and my fortunate involvement in that as a Beta tester. It should be pretty amazing!

Back Hiking at Back Bay

After my short workout with the two Team in Training Teams in the morning, I got down to Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge for a short 4 mile hike that afternoon. We have had weeks of what passes for cold in Virginia, but the last two days were mild, and it felt great to be out and about in the outdoors for a little while. At one point, I gazed out over the marshes and spoke out loud how much I love being outdoors.

The dike trails remain closed for more than two more months, so the hiking opportunities are limited. Unlike my last hike here, I didn't see much wildlife: just a rabbit and a quick view as I turned around from looking to my right of an aquatic mammal diving. I waited for five minutes to see if it would surface, but if it did, then it did so some distance away. My guess is that it was a nutria, although a muskrat could also have been possible, or even an otter - very unlikely, however. I could hear the amazing calls of hundreds or even thousands of tundra swans out in the marshes, but couldn't see them. Here are a few photos from my hike:

The first trail that I hiked on was this short nature trail:

This freshwater pond reflects the winter sky:

Twisted tree

View of the winter marsh

Unlike my dawn beach hike and my beachcombing hike of a few months ago, I didn't hike long on the beach. But I had to at least get a quick look:

New Year's Day at Back Bay

On the first of this year, I was at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge for a short hike, maybe 3 or 3.5 miles. It is good to start 2010 with a hike, I hope the first of many. I also got in a 4 mile walk at the start of the day. One of my goals for 2010 is to work out more, another is to hike more, and so at least on the first day of the year, I was able to do this. This first photo shows the winter marsh on this gray day.

It was a quiet walk on a cool winter's day. I started about 4:15 and finished a little more than an hour later as it was getting dark. I saw some wildlife, including a total of six deer in three different locations. The light was not good enough and/or the distance was too great to get photos, but I was able to watch all of them for a while before either I or they moved on. I also saw some tundra swans, and was able to watch them with the help of binoculars. On the way out, when it was almost dark, a group of five swans flew by pretty close. They are so pretty!

This next picture was taken from a wildlife observation building on the edge of the marsh. I always stop and check it out when I hike here. Usually I see nothing, but this time there were two deer, about a dozen tundra swans, and about the same number of Canada geese well in the distance. My field glasses brought them all in close for me.

Book Review: Planet Backpacker

Do you ever dream of taking a big chunk of time, say six to twelve months, and seeing a bit of the world? Does it seem like an impossible dream? Well, a guy named Robert Downes from Traverse City, Michigan had that dream all his life, and in 2007, he made it a reality. As he traveled through Ireland, England, Western and Eastern Europe, Egypt, India, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia, he posted blog accounts of his trip from about 100 internet cafes. His trip took over four months, and he had many adventures along the way. He traveled by bike, plane, train, boat, camel, and elephant. He camped out some, but mostly stayed at hostels and hotels. He also did some of the rougher parts of the journey with a tour group, but not the swanky groups that most people think of when they travel. After his journey, he used all his internet postings to write a book: “Planet Backpacker.”

This is not backpacking in the sense of hiking the Appalachian Trail, but in the sense that he had to carry everything with him in a pack, including his guitar. My friend Bev gave me this book for my birthday last July, and I finally got to read it a couple of months ago. I really enjoyed his story, and it made me think of the wanderlust in most of us. Unlike most of us however, Mr. Downes did something about it, sacrificing income, comfort, and family ties for nearly half a year to have a grand adventure.

He saw some of the sadder and seamier sides of our species along the way: young girls in Asia living as sexual slaves, people existing in poverty that few of us can even imagine, scam artists, and people living with the after effects of terrible past wars. But for the most part, he met many interesting and friendly people from many different cultures and religious beliefs. Most of them were amazed to meet an American, because it turns out that despite being from the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, Americans (and also Canadians) are not prone to travel to foreign lands unless there is a resort or tour involved. Apparently, this is not true of Europeans, Australians, Kiwis, or Israelis.

I enjoyed reading this book. This man made his dream happen, paid the price in some discomfort and loneliness, and had an adventure that he will always remember. At the end of the book, he tells the rest of us how to do it and gives lots of advice, hints, and specific do’s and don’ts. If you like to travel, whether or not you ever think of doing a trip like this, I think you will want to read this book.

Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

During the trip to Washington, D.C., we stopped by the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It is one of the most beautiful religious sites I have ever seen. The mosaic art work is amazing. There is a huge main church and along the sides, numerous small chapels, each with their own themes. The day I was there was the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, and it was touching to see all of the people of Central and South American descent coming to the special mass, all dressed up and carrying flowers. There was even a mariachi band for the mass!


I took a few photos:


The Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Mosaic of Mother and Child

Moasic in the Shrine to Our Lady of Guadeloupe of people coming to see Our Lady

People praying at the Shrine to Our Lady of Guadeloupe. Look at all of the flowers that people brought!

Fairyland at the Botantical Garden

Last weekend(12/12), we were in Washington and went to the National Botanical Gardens, which is just amazing - especially at Christmas. They do these incredible displays where the buildings are all made from plant materials - no wood, metal, or plastic. Some are famous Washington buildings, others are whimsical scenes from nursery rhymes or they have a fairy land theme. I wish I could take my granddaughter to this! Pictures are worth 1,000 words, and so here you go. I'll keep the words short and defer to the photos.

US Supreme Court Building

A train running along the tracks in Fairyland

There was an old lady who lived in a shoe

The homes of the three little pigs, with the wolf approaching

Look at the creativity and artistry in these two settings

A fairy flying in front of a waterfall

Part of the charm of this exhibit is the beautiful trains that run along. Everyone there is just enthralled

A gypsy camp, complete with wagon (right), fire (center) and cottage (left)

The oh so creative caterpillar train, complete with antenna

Old man cactus in the desert exhibit

A beautiful orchid

The rain forest room

The Smithsonian Castle

The Garden's beautiful Christmas tree

The White House

Replica of neighborhood around Capitol Hill

Washington Monument, Reflecting Pool, and, in the distance, the Lincoln Memorial

The US Capitol

The real US Capitol, from just outside the Botanical Garden's entrance