Today's adventure is brought to you by. . .

The trail we did (and the one for the future hike) is the Billy Goat Trail, section A (the Bear Island section). The total trail is about 4 miles and will be an even mix of flat toe path and rough rocky scrabble. The hike will end with a view of the Great Falls themselves, a 70 foot drop of cascading water crushing through majestic rock spires. After this winter's snow and rain, it should be exceptionally impressive - it certainly was this time. Afterwards, anyone who is hungry can go to the Old Brogue in Great Falls, Va for good food and drink.

For the next time, we will be meeting at the trailhead by the Old Anglers Inn off McArthur Blvd (walk until you can see the foot bridge over the canal, see picture above). Parking can fill up fast, so don't be late! No special equipment or previous hiking experience is necessary, just a good pair of shoes and a water bottle. This is a great hike to start off the hiking season!  For reference, when we do the group hike, this (above) is where everyone should meet.  Good maps can be found here.

Note to the left of the picture above, if you look close you can see Brian as he enters his great orange cocoon.  Let's hope he emerges as a beautiful butterfly!

Look out for pratfalls!

And we needed all the raingear we could muster... that beautiful spring we had been digging all of the previous week was suddenly ringing false against snow, this lost and improbable snowfall that wasn't sticking to anything but still making things icy and as wet, wetter than rain... it must have been just barely cold enough for snow; things weren't unbearable, but they also were outside what we had a right to expect.  I've started to make many more demands on the weather than I'm comfortable with, but it's been a long winter.

Wet rocks = fun climbing!

Due to the weather, the plan was to walk on the Toe Path to see the Great Falls, then return on the same route.  As you can see above, we are well aware of the dangers of hiking in bad weather.  Of course, Brian being Brian and me being me, this was not really an option.  Rain or snow or slippery ice, we were doing the whole shebang dammit. 

We made it over the pedestrian, wide angle path to the falls with nary a worry... I mean, bikes take this trail, honest to god bikes!  But standing at the falls, admiring their volume etc. (more on that later), we realized taking the same return trip would bore us out of our skulls.  So we had to take the Billy Goat way back... we'd get to see more river, climb some rocks, and we'd be taking one of those stupid risks that make life worth living. 

And I don't want to make too much of this; the trail wasn't that dangerous in retrospect... yes, we would have been more prepared normally; yes, we could have fallen; but all the guaze we could have carried wouldn't have saved us after a bad tumble, and the climb wasn't all that bad regardless.  Still, there was a beautiful spontaneity at work here; brazenly embarking on the very trip that Matt had cancelled hours ago.  We're taking the fight to Providence these days, I think it suits us.

As you can see, we decided to wear brightly colored rain gear.  That is because part of hike takes place over big rocks by sheer cliffs over raging waters.  This hike was done in the rain, ice and snow - a bad combination.  We figured the bright colors would help others find our bodies.  So we aren't completely without common sense.  Just joking!

Billy Goat is a short, but complex trail filled with varied terrain and lots of ups and downs.  Along its relatively short 2+ miles, you have woods, rock scrabble, water, beach and marsh. This inspires many moods in me including:

As I've been saying all throughout this, conditions on this day are much different then what I'm used to.  Billy Goat is normally vigorous, but not hard.  With the rain and ice, it became much more difficult and we had to take it at a much slower pace.  Especially since neither of us had mouthpieces and we are too pretty to be loosing teeth. 

One of the advantages to hiking in this weather is that we only saw a single other group of hikers.  There are hikes and trips near DC where you see wildlife, but due to the popularity, this normally isn't one of them.  This day we saw plenty. 

Much of the trial that was normally dry was flooded

One thing I did not do this time, nor will I if I have a large group, is to explore the many side excursions I normally take.  There are many and I could easily turn this into a 12 mile hike if I wanted.  The routes to some are closed now due to the much higher water level (although still accessible by kayak).  Along some of these side routes you will see tons of deer or get good rock scrabbles.  A bonus, but not necessary for a good time.
 

I think it's been a while for either of us since we were out and about on the trails... last year we had decided that we had to camp Valley Forge this winter, but as the days got colder we realized that such a trip wouldn't be all that enjoyable... I think we were avoiding the subject of nature entirely so that the other wouldn't have an opportunity to suggest recreating that promised colonial death march.  But now we were out again, and as the Billy Goat trail started, just seeing those blazes (a lovely sky blue) on the rocks and trees brought this vigor, this sense of recapture.  Also, the spontaneous planning of this event meant we were totally unencumbered as we scrambled around the Maryland rocks (well, I had to work at not tripping over my poncho).  Hiking was bringing out this eidetic sense of "pack"; we could appreciate what we didn't have to have on our backs, which is better than any finite motivator.

I was constantly impressed by the design of the Billy Goat trail.  These blazes will weave a hiker alternately along and away from the edge of the river, but it is consistently built with the idea of eking out spectacular views at every available opportunity.  Add to this the temporal experiences of the day, tidal pools among mountain rock, these river canyon vistas with an overlaying field of snowfall... one begins to regret all the time spent anywhere else.

And then, of course, there are the falls themselves.  Enough of the trail!  Pictures can not describe the experience of seeing these majestic falls, especially after the snow and rain we were getting.  It is an experience that you feel with your whole body and feel on your face. 
 

Matt said this a million times that day (and I've been asked not to fill my text with his remarks, but that's that), but the water levels at the time of this trip were astronomical, deeper than he, as a seasoned observer, had ever seen..  We've gotten record precipitation this winter, and the day of our observation was no slouch itself.  We were constantly seeing submerged landmasses that would normally be exposed... some that would normally be accessible from shore.  The Falls were a tremendous expanse, broken by just one island... last summer there were several, but now we're seeing rare form.  I've heard (and this comes from the Channel Four Human Interest staff to my parents to me, so accuracy is hardly an issue) that Great Falls has more water passing over it right now than Niagra does... there's probably some untouched tourism market there.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed our little trip.  I hope you join us next time we head out this way!