While replying to an e-mail from one of my associates from back at Boise Cascade, Diane Dillard, I responded to her celebration of having walked over three miles on the treadmill at the mill’s exercise club. Now Judy and I do really miss the workout times at the club and especially the good friends there, so I chided her by saying that we had to do our walking in the “Icky Woods.” So this blog is about walking in the “Icky Woods.”
We have spent most of the past three days in Shenandoah National Park in the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia. Fall colors here are stunning. You can see one of our best pictures at the bottom of the page.
Let us compare the controlled environment of a nice club to a walk in the “Icky Woods.” At the club you get to have modern machines, TV for entertainment, if you wish, a wide flat belt to walk on with never a rock to turn you ankle. The display tells you exactly how far you have walked and how many calories you have burned. I presume so you can go stoke up for the next run. Compare that to the conditions in the “Icky Woods.” Trails come in all styles, but the trails to the best waterfalls come with a built in canyon to climb down. Canyons seem to come with assorted gravel, rocks and boulders to climb over. Trees also grow in the canyons, and for some reason spiders think that the trees on each side of the trail are ideally suited for spinning sticky strands of web. I think they even calculate what the best height is to catch you in the face. Patooi. Then there is the weather. It was a marginal day, but we wanted to see these really great falls on Overall Run. By the way, for those of us from the west that would be a creek or a crick. Here they call these little streams runs. These folks have been naming things long before us, so we must have it wrong. Back home we probably should call it Scappoose Run. Anyway, we get down the run a ways and find the falls, but we can’t see them. We can hear them, but the fog is so thick we can’t really see anything. I finally got a peek between fog layers and that photo will be on the web page too. This brings up the third disadvantage of walking in the “Icky Woods”Â…getting home. Now we have to climb 1,000 feet back up this canyon. About half way back we decide to take this shortcut, you see. Only we read the map wrong. After-all it was a copy of a copy of a copy and just a little fuzzy. The long and the short of it is we took a mile long hike in the “Icky Woods” in the wrong direction. At this point, at the club, you just climb off the machine and go have a shower. In the “Icky Woods” we had to retrace our steps and then take the long cut back to camp. In the “Icky Woods” we also get to see wild creatures like golden mantel squirrels, various birds and white tail deer.
Come to think of it, first chance you get, go for a walk in the “Icky Woods,” just make sure you have a good map.
Judy and I send our love to all our friends and relations. Good bye for now.
Gary and Judy Dinsmore.
