My first hike since losing our beloved Poppy to Parkinson's Disease was much needed by me and Amos. It's been three weeks and I've not done much other than some part-time work and putter around the house. It's amazing how empty I've felt - almost in a daze. I really haven't had my heart in anything so today's 5-miler helped me focus on the moment, back on the trail for few hours of rocky ups and downs.
Metabasalts are toothy and jagged
The remnants of Hurricane Ian were just beginning to overlay the area with rain clouds against a hazy, metallic sky. There were a few folks on the trail today trying to get in their hikes before the heavier rains arrive over the weekend. A light wind sifted through the forest canopy which is just beginning to flare with some yellows. The terrain was rocky and geologically interesting as the trail passes through three distinct rock bands: phyllites ("cooked" shales and mudstone), metabasalts (metamorphic lava), and very hard quartzite. The banding of rocks below me and waves of clouds created a mosaic of rock and sky all bent towards the northwest made of continental collisions and the arms of a hurricane.
Hog Rock and bands of rain approaching
The trail passed alongside a quarry site used by the CCC to cut stone for the original cabin now part of the Visitor Center and parts of Camp David which is centered within the park. Climbing away from the road crossing into Cunningham Falls State Park, the path became rocky and steep but not difficult. I worked up a sweat and shed my hoodie for my t-shirt underneath.
Zig-Zag Goldenrod, Solidago flexicaulis
Patches of snakeroot and woodland aster were beginning to fade but one of my favorite mid-fall flowers was in full bloom, Zig-Zag Goldenrod. It arched out across the trail in bright yellow sprays of blossoms on crooked stems. Furry bumblebees and blue wasps danced through the arches of flowers and a Mourning Cloak butterfly foraged along a flowery stem. These may be some of the last nectaring days of the year.
Yellow blazes in the valley
Up the ridge and past the smooth hump of Hog Rock, I encountered more people who Amos had to inspect for possible snacks. We cruised through the woods to the Blue Ridge Summit Overlook and found it occupied by a meditating hiker holding a fragrant incense stick in her clasped hands. A light wind carried curls of blue smoke into the leaves. She turned to smile at me and Amos wanted so bad to check out her backpack (snacks) that she giggled. "For my mom," she said and she turned back to her prayers. For Poppy, too, I thought, gazing out past her into the blue hills.
Meditating hiker
Now on the ridge of the mountain, we hiked through a much drier and fire dependent forest of oak and pine but current forest management policy here continues to call for full suppression so as not to burn so historic structures, neighboring properties, and of course, Camp David. A recent human-caused fire (2001) near Wolf Rock has given the park the opportunity establish plant recovery areas to observe the robust return of native plants. Gone from these plots is the invasive Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus) which is pervasive on the approach slopes and throughout the valley below. The fire management team is slowly coming around to consider very controlled low surface burns, a park volunteer told me at the Visitor Center, but she wasn't sure of when and if these small burns would happen anytime soon.
Oak woods on the outcrops
The downhill return to the Visitor Center passed through a swarm of old charcoal hearths with one site outfitted as a demonstration area. These hearths produced charcoal for the pre-Revolutionary era Catoctin Iron Furnace down in the valley. Industrial slavery powered the furnace, forge, and associated industries with free labor. Some of the items produced at the Catoctin Iron Furnace were the very things that were used to brutalized enslaved people - leg and wrist cuffs, chains, iron collars, and head cages. The trail weaves past many charcoal hearths. One can see that the whole hillside is dotted with them. Colliers and their families worked so far from the furnaces that when an accident occurred and a man died, they were buried in the hills rather than transport the bodies miles back to cemeteries.
Charcoal hearth with stack-wood demonstration
Catoctin Iron Furnace, further down the valley (not on NPS land)
The day before this hike, my friend Ann and I wandered around Pine Grove Furnace State Park about an hour's drive north of here in Pennsylvania. We found the Pine Grove Furnace workers and family cemetery and wondered who they were as only pieces and shards of headstones remained. As I walked the last quarter mile to the Visitors Center I wondered again about the lost workers, the unmarked graves of the colliers, Free Black and Enslaved workers who made the American iron industry possible - and thus our nation's declaration of independence from England. It was a sad note to end my hike with but sadness has been my companion for a few weeks now.
Notes:
Catoctin Iron Furnace Historical Societymaintains the iron furnace living history site and iron workers museum southeast of the National Park. It's worth a return visit to see just this site.
Industrial slavery at Catoctin Iron Furnace and the Frederick community effort to reclaim enslaved identity at the site:
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