Posted on 05/15/2020 in misc • Tagged with Coronavirus, Virginia, Hiking
Like everybody else, the pandemic is "top of mind" 24 x 7 for me. I'm writing to help myself not internalize all of it. You can find other posts in the series at https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/tag/coronavirus.html
My day off started with 3 hours of work. Government …
Posted on 05/02/2020 in misc • Tagged with Coronavirus, Virginia, Hiking, Personal
Like everybody else, the pandemic is "top of mind" 24 x 7 for me. I'm writing to help myself not internalize all of it. You can find other posts in the series at https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/tag/coronavirus.html
It was 72 and sunny here today. My strategy for …
Chesapeake Requiem is a portrait of the insular community that has lived on Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay for 200+ years. If you live in the eastern third of the US and have ever enjoyed a soft-shell crab you can thank the Watermen of Tangier for that crab.
Written …
With a forecast of 59 F and blue skies on Saturday there was no way I was sitting around the house all day. It was a crisp 35 F when I started on the trail at 10:15 AM.
Overlook to the east about a mile into the hike. There …
10 things I could have tweeted this weekend, if I had had Internet or 4G service in the Galax VA area.
1- The T-Mobile website lies about coverage in the Galax area. There is none - no voice, no data, nothing.
2- I just scrolled through 500 channels on DirectTV and …
Posted on 07/05/2019 in misc • Tagged with History, Richmond, Virginia
What better day to visit the country’s newest civil war museum than July 4th?
The tldr; version is that this is a very well done museum. The focus is on telling the story of the civil war through the suffering of the people involved. And by people I mean …
Posted on 12/29/2018 in misc • Tagged with Richmond, Virginia, Hiking, History
The Richmond Liberty Trail is Richmond's attempt to be like Boston with its Freedom Trail. I don't think Richmond is putting as much effort into their trail as Boston, and it shows.
The history along the six mile walk is certainly compelling, but we are locals and were hiking with …
Posted on 09/01/2018 in misc • Tagged with Travel, History, Richmond, Virginia
My son and I visited Petersburg National Battlefield yesterday. Visiting a civil war battlefield with a civil war expert makes the experience much better. I highly recommend it. Petersburg was basically Lee's last stand that turned into a 9 month siege in which Grant bet (correctly) that he could outlast …
My wife is not (or has not been) a hiker. However, a couple of weeks ago she expressed interest in going on a hike. So I consulted Duck Duck Go looking for a suitable beginner hike with a decent payoff at the end.
I'd say that view is a decent …
We had an overnight to the beach planned for this weekend, but Mother Nature had other ideas so at the last minute I canceled on the beach and booked a room at Wintergreen resort in the Virginia mountains. Wintergreen is primarily a ski resort, however we had fun tubing down …
I was thinking last month that Roanoke may be the last major city we had not visited in Virginia. Roanoke has a major St. Patrick's Day party downtown.
Problem solved. Roanoke has been removed from the list of places in VA that we had not visited.I guess we can …
Posted on 01/20/2018 in misc • Tagged with Virginia, Richmond
The Confederate Memorial
So far 2018 has been bitterly cold in Richmond. Today was a glorious 63 degrees F and sunny. I was a good boy this AM and went to the gym, then watched Purdue just destroy Iowa at their arena. That's 3 straight Big 10 blowouts, 2 on …
I spent Labor Day laboring on the trail. I'm kidding of course. A bad day on the trail still beats a good day at work. Nothing at Hiking Upward was grabbing my fancy, so I created my own hike. I started at the Beahm's Gap overlook just north of the …
A late August weekend that feels more like early October drew me to the mountains today. I did the Jones Run - Doyles River hike, which leads past two waterfalls.
The hike starts at the Browns Gap parking area in Shenandoah National Park. I started south on the Appalachian Trail, and …
This is a nice 7 mile out and back on the AT, with really nice views to the west at several points along the way, and the spectacular 270 degree view at Mary’s Rock as your reward at the turnaround point.
I did this this hike on Saturday July …
Posted on 06/11/2017 in misc • Tagged with Hiking, Travel, Camping, Virginia
I talked my wife into camping with me this weekend. This is a big deal because the last time she agreed to camp was 1999. That trip was a bit of a fiasco as we weathered the worse thunderstorm I've ever camped in, and we had a 5 year old …
Posted on 04/09/2017 in misc • Tagged with Travel, Hiking, Virginia
It was another glorious weekend, so another opportunity to get out and do something outdoors. I have new hiking shoes courtesy of Santa, so today seemed seemed like a good today to give them a test run with a relatively easy 5.3 mile hike starting and ending at the …
Posted on 11/21/2016 in misc • Tagged with History, Virginia, Travel
Our original plan for Saturday was to drive up to Gettysburg and do a 9 mile battlefield hike. Then my son remembered that 11/19 was Remembrance Day (anniversary of the Gettysburg Address), and neither one of us was looking to deal with a crowd. So we stayed close to …
Posted on 04/11/2015 in misc • Tagged with Hiking, Travel, Virginia
60 and sunny in Shenandoah National Park? I'm there. Given all the recent rain I figured today would be a good day to visit waterfalls. I was correct. This was the trail I did.
I was on the trail by 9 AM. It was a little chilly at first, but …