My great Assateague kayak camping plans got cancelled due to rain, wind and cold which left me in town with nothing else to do but go to halloween parties. So Saturday night Shannon and I went to two halloween parties. One in Takoma Park and another in Adams Morgan. Shannon went as catwoman and I went as a pirate. I created a whole separate album for the evening and I even made my first MOVIE using iMovie on the MAC. For a first attempt I think it's pretty good. It takes a few minutes to load but it's pretty cool. So ... go to the Halloween Page and check it out!

-Susanita

The weekend of October 6-9 I participated in a sea kayak training weekend on Chincoteague Island, Va. The training was conducted by Steve Rohrs, Julio Perez, and Rick Wiebush of kayaktraining.com. It was a long weekend of training, touring and relaxing in a spacious beach house right on the water in Chincoteague. Prior to the training I had filled out my skills assessment form and requested more training on trip planning and navigation, two areas that I would like to improve in. Gina did an excellent trip report which Hank posted on his website. I couldn't have said it better. To see some photos from the weekend, click here.

-Susanita

On Saturday October 14th I joined a group of hikers from the Maryland Outdoor Club and the Catholic Alumni Club (CAC) for a four mile hike up Sugarloaf Mountain. Sugarloaf is owned and managed by the Stronghold Corp. in Dickerson, Md. The main attractions of the mountain are its close proximity to DC, the easy accessibility of the summit and the outstanding VIEWS. Geologically the mountain is known as a monadnock, a mountain that remains after the erosion of the surrounding land. At an elevation of 1282 feet Sugarloaf stands at an elevation of 800 feet above the surrounding farmland.


The hike was led by Bob Cianflone, who is also a kayaker and member of Chesapeake Paddlers Association where he is known for his very humorous and sometimes sarcastic comments to the CPA listserve. Bob really loves rules, regulations and most of all liability waivers.

After dispensing with the waivers, Bob gave the group a short history of the mountain and a detailed description of the various types of snakes one might find on the hike as well as descriptions of the types of spiders which reside in the port-a-potties. Black widows seemed to predominate in the port-a-potties while copperheads seemed to be the most prevalent snake in the mountains. Fortunately we didn't see any snakes ... or lions or tigers or bears. But we did enjoy commanding views of the Maryland countryside.

We had the first frost of the season that night but the sun came out in time for the hike and we enjoyed perfect fall weather. Crisp and cool. It was a perfect day for a hike.

Unfortunately I only have a dozen or so photos from the day. The memory card on my Olympus was damaged the previous weekend during a kayaking to Chincoteague, Va. But here are a few photos ... Sugarloaf Slideshow .

-Susanita

Lately, it seems like every time I go camping it rains and this weekend was no exception. It poured down rain Saturday night while I was camping at Elk Neck State Park. Fortunately the rain held off until everyone had retired to their tents. And the group got in a full day of kayaking on the Elk Neck River and enjoyed a potluck dinner at the campground, all the while watching the sky as the clouds moved in and the sky turned grey.

Ralph Heimlich hosted the annual CPA Elk Neck kayak camping trip this weekend. I'm calling it an annual event only because as long as I've been a member of CPA there has been a fall Elk Neck kayaking trip. This was my first Elk Neck Trip. And we had about 20 kayakers for the Saturday morning paddle. Ralph split the group into a "slow paddling group" and a "fast paddling group." Ralph led the slow group and Brian Blankinship lead the fast group. And, of course, I paddled with the fast group.

We paddled about 8 miles to a park with picnic tables and porta-potties. Rarely do I get excited to see a porta-potty but when I'm kayaking and the alternative is to pee in the woods ... it's a welcome sight. As we were leaving the picnic spot Shannon was trying some kind of creative entry into her kayak and fell out into the water spraining her wrist. It made the paddle back a bit of a challenge and towards the end I convinced her to let Brian tow her back. Look for the pic in the photo album.



It was kind of overcast and drizzly all day long. But the big clouds didn't roll in until later afternoon. I saw this as a great photo opportunity and tried to get some good photos of people kayaking under the dark grey clouds.



Only Shannon and Brian would cooperate. Everyone else in the group wanted to hurry back to the campground before the rain started. So ... I got a few shots and then we paddled fast back to the put-in.

Ralph had secured a group camping site at the Park and arranged for everyone to contribute towards a group potluck, which meant we had way too much food. Special thanks to Suzanne for grilling the ribs. All the rest of us who were told to bring a main dish brought chicken. Lots of chicken! Bill Dodge organized a beer tasting for the group which helped put us all in a happy mood. And the rain held off.

Several people brought firewood which kept a nice bonfire going until late at night. I decided to experiment with the settings on the camera and take photos with only the fire as background light. Shannon who is a real photographer and bored with photography in general decided to sing. We sang a few songs but could never really get the group interested in joining in. The wine started to make me sleepy and I left the group around ten. I'm not sure how long the rest stayed up because I fell fast asleep in my tent.

Shannon says some guys came through our campsite late at night talking really loud. I might have heard them but I don't remember. But I do remember the rain. For some reason I find it hard to sleep when it's raining and I'm camping. I think the rain started around 3 am. All I know is that it kept me up until morning. The sun rose and the rain was still beating down on the tent. I laid in the tent and listened to the rain and waited for the sound of someone leaving their tent. For the longest time all I heard was the rain. Finally I heard the familiar sound of a zipper and footsteps walking around. A car door opened. When the rain finally stopped I got up and yelled over to Shannon's tent for her to get up as well. I was thinking we might just have enough time to load up the car before it started raining again.



But the skies were starting to clear. The rest of the campers came out of their tents and Ralph started breakfast ... ham and eggs. I think most people had decided not to kayak even though the clouds were clearing. Shannon was still worried about her wrist which we had taped up with an ace bandage. So we decided that it was best not to stress it further by paddling.

So we got in one day of paddling and one night of camping. Not bad for a weekend which looked like it was going to be totally rained out. Here is the complete Elk Neck Photo Album.

Thanks to everyone for a memorable weekend.

-Susanita