Hightop Mountain, Hut, and Springs - Appalachian Trail - Shenandoah National Park

This was a great hike in the Shenandoah National Park, from South River Picnic Area to Hightop Hut. It is approximately 13 miles round trip and has a couple persistent uphill sections of climb.

As usual, I’ve posting some videos showing the trail, the shelter, legal campsites along this section of trail, and more importantly (to me) the springs. 😊

The Hightop Hut is a fairly standard 3 sided structure with an internal mezzanine and can sleep approximately 8. There is one privy at this location, a couple poles to hang food bags from. I did not see a food locker. The spring was pretty good and flowing. There are also several very good tent sites right nearby.   

Map: https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/upload/2017_SouthRiver_RoadTrail-508.pdf

A free permit is required to overnight in the park.  More information can be found here: https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/campbc.htm

Watch my other hiking videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa

My new trail name is now "Alpha Gal"!

I’d like to make a public service announcement to bring awareness to the tick borne illness called “Alpha Gal”.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy

This is a pretty serious allergy caused by the bite of the Lone Star Tick. Sometimes called Mammalian Meat Allergy (MMA), it has no cure.

This tick is present across the South and has spread to the Northeast. It is present in Shenandoah National Park and I was bitten by one (I removed it) and was later diagnosed with the allergy. In a nutshell, you become seriously allergic to red meat and dairy (anything that came from something with hair)! Beware of ticks, especially the white spotted ones, I never thought it would happen to me!

Bearfence Hut, Spring, Scramble, and Alpha Gal - Appalachian Trail - Shenandoah National Park

My new trail name is now "Alpha Gal"!
I’d like to make a public service announcement to bring awareness to the tick borne illness called “Alpha Gal”.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy
This is a pretty serious allergy caused by the bite of the Lone Star Tick. Sometimes called Mammalian Meat Allergy (MMA), it has no cure.
This tick is present across the South and has spread to the Northeast. It is present in Shenandoah National Park and I was bitten by one (I removed it) and was later diagnosed with the allergy. In a nutshell, you become seriously allergic to red meat and dairy (anything that came from something with hair)! Beware of ticks, especially the white spotted ones, I never thought it would happen to me!

I plan to start incorporating food choices and how I deal with it into my vlog. For a start though, there are many hiker staples that are now off limits for me (determined trial by fire prior to the test results):
NO FROSTED PoP Tarts (most non frosted are ok)
NO Jerky, Meat Sticks, Slim Jims, etc.
NO Snickers, or most similar candy....
NO Gummy Candy - usually contains gelatin from mammals
NO Cheese, Cheese food procuct, Cheeze, Cheese Whiz, Chez', etc of any kind.
NO Pizza (vegan ok)
NO Ice Cream Challenge (unless they have sorbet)
NO Nido
NO Chocolate, Hot Chocolate, etc.
NO Yogurt, or Yogurt covered anything
NO Lunch Meat of any kind - even turkey, as they are often processed with milk ingredients.
None of the obvious burgers, dogs, mac-n-cheese, etc.
The list goes on...

Ok, on to the hike!
This was a great hike in the Shenandoah National Park, from Big Meadows Campground to Bearfence Hut. It is approximately 15 miles round trip and has very little elevation gain / loss. I’d list this as being moderate if you include the “scramble”.  More information on the scramble part of the hike can be found here: https://www.nps.gov/shen/bearfence.htm
As usual, I’ve posting some videos showing the trail, the shelter, legal campsites along this section of trail, and more importantly (to me) the springs. 😊
The Bearfence Hut is a fairly standard 3 sided structure with an internal mezzanine and can sleep approximately 8. There is one privy at this location, a couple poles to hang food bags from, AND a very cool (and large) bear locker to place food in. The spring was very sad and barely flowing – you will need to scoop or pump from this one. There are also several very good tent sites right nearby.   
A free permit is required to overnight in the park.  More information can be found here: https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/campbc.htm

Lewis Falls Loop Hike - Shenandoah National Park
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jSFGXrL5cE

View of Mercury - Total Solar Eclipse 2017

I want to lay a big shout out to fellow YouTuber and Subscriber ColoradoCamper for noticing that I had captured a glimpse of the Planet Mercury in my Video of the 2017 Eclipse. I had no idea that I had captured the tiny planet. Being in close orbit to the sun, Mercury is difficult to see. I was so excited to have captured it. In this video, I isolated and froze a number of frames where the planet showed up well.   

https://www.youtube.com/user/ColoradoCamper 

I was fortunate enough to be in Nashville Tennessee the weekend of 21 August 2017 and made sure to schedule time to see the eclipse. The eclipse was viewed from the Smith County Welcome Center, located at mile marker 267 on Interstate 40, between Nashville and Knoxville, TN. This rest area serves both East & West bound traffic and was very convenient. In addition to the regular parking for tourists, there is 'Angler' parking by the Caney Fork River. The Caney Fork River is beautiful and provided a great distraction while we waited for the eclipse. This location was right on the center line for totality and afforded an exceptional view. We experienced 2m39.5s of totality! We were there at 7:30Am and it was already almost filled to capacity. They closed access later in the morning. From the parking lot was great access to the Caney Fork River which provided a wonderful diversion while we waited for the eclipse.

https://www.tnvacation.com/local/carthage-i-40-welcome-center-smith-county

http://www.eclipsewise.com/solar/SEnews/TSE2017/TSE2017gmap/TSE2017gmapNE.html

As far as numbers go, here they are:

Lat.: 36.1381° N Long.: 85.8044° W Time zone=UT1-5/EST/CDT
Total Solar Eclipse Duration of Totality: 2m39.5s Magnitude: 1.015 Obscuration: 100.00%

Event	Date	Time	Alt	Azi
Start of partial eclipse (C1) :	2017/08/21	12:00:38.0	63.6°	154.2°
Start of total eclipse (C2) :	2017/08/21	13:29:06.5	63.9°	204.4°
Maximum eclipse :	2017/08/21	13:30:26.4	63.8°	205.1°
End of total eclipse (C3) :	2017/08/21	13:31:46.0	63.6°	205.8°
End of partial eclipse (C4) :	2017/08/21	14:55:41.6	52.1°	238.4°

The video was taken with three iPhone 6 with inexpensive 8x and 12x lenses from Amazon. The 8x lens has a nice case that made it easy to align the lens, but the lens was a little cheesy. The 12x lens was better and had a universal adapter (clamp) that was a little harder to keep aligned. To reduce light, I cut a hole in the lens caps leaving a rim around the edge to hold the filter in place.  I used the material from my fake eclipse glasses I got from Amazon.  To further reduce light and help focus, I created a smaller f-stop by placing a washer with a hole much smaller than the lens under the cap. As you can see, the results were not bad for a cheesy iPhone lens. This would have been much better with a real camera. Around 12x or is needed to make it really look good.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PIP2VCW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AV3ZUQA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Watch my other hiking videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa

Total Solar Eclipse 2017 - Totality at the Caney Fork River Rest Area

 

I was fortunate enough to be in Nashville Tennessee the weekend of 21 August 2017 and made sure to schedule time to see the eclipse. The eclipse was viewed from the Smith County Welcome Center, located at mile marker 267 on Interstate 40, between Nashville and Knoxville, TN. This rest area serves both East & West bound traffic and was very convenient. In addition to the regular parking for tourists, there is 'Angler' parking by the Caney Fork River. The Caney Fork River is beautiful and provided a great distraction while we waited for the eclipse. This location was right on the center line for totality and afforded an exceptional view. We experienced 2m39.5s of totality! We were there at 7:30Am and it was already almost filled to capacity. They closed access later in the morning. From the parking lot was great access to the Caney Fork River which provided a wonderful diversion while we waited for the eclipse.

https://www.tnvacation.com/local/carthage-i-40-welcome-center-smith-county

http://www.eclipsewise.com/solar/SEnews/TSE2017/TSE2017gmap/TSE2017gmapNE.html

As far as numbers go, here they are:

Lat.: 36.1381° N Long.: 85.8044° W Time zone=UT1-5/EST/CDT
Total Solar Eclipse Duration of Totality: 2m39.5s Magnitude: 1.015 Obscuration: 100.00%

Event	Date	Time	Alt	Azi
Start of partial eclipse (C1) :	2017/08/21	12:00:38.0	63.6°	154.2°
Start of total eclipse (C2) :	2017/08/21	13:29:06.5	63.9°	204.4°
Maximum eclipse :	2017/08/21	13:30:26.4	63.8°	205.1°
End of total eclipse (C3) :	2017/08/21	13:31:46.0	63.6°	205.8°
End of partial eclipse (C4) :	2017/08/21	14:55:41.6	52.1°	238.4°

The video was taken with three iPhone 6 with inexpensive 8x and 12x lenses from Amazon. The 8x lens has a nice case that made it easy to align the lens, but the lens was a little cheesy. The 12x lens was better and had a universal adapter (clamp) that was a little harder to keep aligned. To reduce light, I cut a hole in the lens caps leaving a rim around the edge to hold the filter in place.  I used the material from my fake eclipse glasses I got from Amazon.  To further reduce light and help focus, I created a smaller f-stop by placing a washer with a hole much smaller than the lens under the cap. As you can see, the results were not bad for a cheesy iPhone lens. This would have been much better with a real camera. Around 12x or is needed to make it really look good.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PIP2VCW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AV3ZUQA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Watch my other hiking videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa

Pogo Memorial Campground to Raven Rock Shelter - Appalachian Trail – Maryland (Mile 1049.2 – 1059.1)

Forgot to post this video last October when I finally finished up Maryland. I used the Thurston Griggs West of Pogo to access the AT and then hiked North to Raven Rock Shelter. I slept at the Ensign Cowall Shelter and also Raven Rock Shelter prior to hiking back out. The water at both shelters was flowing but poor. There is a cool cow field and the Devil’s Racecourse (separate video) to see along this part of the trail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0tWU3gVnfg
This is also where the MD rocks start to kick in. It rained on me a bunch and this was my 1st experience hiking for a whole weekend in the rain.  
Watch my other hiking videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa