Since we’d had a cold snap after the rains, and since temps were supposed to start rising, we took Friday to travel to Blackwater Falls in hopes that the falls were frozen.

It hadn’t bee cold enough to freeze the falls completely, but there was still a fair amount of ice.

Why yes, I did ignore the “Closed” sign and went down the stairs.

For this view? It was worth it. (Plus, I was very careful.)

Pretty!

We also went down to Elakala Falls.

Let me be clear, the scramble down is never especially easy, but in the winter, especially after a lot of rain and then a snap freeze, the path is treacherous.

We wore Yaktrax, because I know very well how clumsy I am.

But it was well worth it.

Because it was already warming up, water was starting to trickle down the icicles.

We also went to Canaan Valley SP.

I mentioned that earlier we’d had rain and then a quick freeze earlier. I hadn’t quite thought about how that would affect this boggy, marshy area.

What happened is that the low areas flooded, and then froze. So any low-lying ground ended up covered in ice.

Normally we’ll walk out to the end of this bit of land, but the path was solid ice–and slippery. So we just looked (it wasn’t worth the view to pull out and put on the Yaktrax). It was pretty amazing.

If you look closely at this picture, you’ll see that a layer of ice formed on the grass, several inches above the ground.

It was a wonderful day, and I’m glad we were able to get away to enjoy it.

We ended 2017 with a hike and Coopers Rock, and began 2018 in the same way.

It was cold, but the days were beautiful so we had wonderful hikes!

Date: 2017-12-31
Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Headwaters, Roadside Trails
Distance: 3.3 miles
Elevation: 1874-2412 feet
Temperature: 11-14 F

Date: 2018-01-01
Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Hemlock Trail
Distance: 2.3 miles
Elevation: 1620-1866 feet
Temperature: 8-10 F

CHRISTMAS BAKING ROUNDUP! WOOT!

First, a whine. Who decided that slice-and-bake cookie are easy?

I mean, they act like it’s easy to create a perfectly round log of the desired thickness, refrigerate it, and then cut off perfectly circular rounds.

I’ve tried refrigerating the dough in empty paper towel tubes, rotating the dough with every slice–doesn’t matter. They always turn out misshapen and I have to neaten them up before baking.

If I’m going to go to that much work, it’s much easier to just roll the dough out and use cookie cutters. Or even cut the cookies with a knife.

This? Bah humbug.

Now, onto the good (and the yummy)!

The Essential Baker by Carol Bloom:

Lemon Shortbread Coins

Fine Cooking Cookies:

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle:

Rum-Raisin Sandwich Cookies

Brandied Eggnog Cookies

Simply Sensational Cookies by Nancy Baggett:

Praline-Pecan Coconut Bars

Chocolate Brandy Balls

The All-American Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett:

Iced Lemon Shortbread Cookies

Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich:

Shortbread

Chocolate Wafers

Vanilla Sugar Cookies

Pure Vanilla by Shauna Sever:

Vanilla Frosting

The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion:

Poticza

Bread Illustrated:

Cranberry Walnut Bread

Coconut Rum Balls

Bourbon Balls

Pumpkin Bread

Eggnog

Apple Cider

As I’ve mentioned before, this is one of my favorite hikes. It’s very short, so it’s good for small kids, but you walk through different habitats and it’s just gorgeous.

This is the first time the Blackwater river has been frozen when we’ve hiked here.

This is the point at which someone went through the ice–and that someone was NOT me.

Picture taking had been curtailed after someone (NOT ME) got their lower leg wet. But I still got a couple shots I really liked.

Friday was overcast and snowing, which was beautiful in its own way, but not very photogenic.

By Saturday afternoon, skies were clear and the sun was out. It was beautiful.

It was a beautiful hike on a beautiful day with lovely company.

We went hiking on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Black Friday, that Sunday, and Sunday the 3rd. I forgot my camera for the first two hikes, and only pulled it out once when I did remember it.

The thing about the woods in fall is that it’s beautiful, but I can’t say it’s especially photogenic.

At Coopers Rock, unless you’re hiking Ravens Rock, pretty much every trail is down hill on your way out, and then uphill on your way out.

Here you’re at the bottom of the Rhododendron trail. Mont Chateau is off to your right. Henry Clay Iron Furnace, Clay Furnace Trail, Clay Run Trail, and Advanced Ski Trail are all behind you. Several of those trails have trails branching off of them, so you can make a variety of loops.

But it’s all going to be uphill from here, unless you go down to the lake. Then it’s even more uphill upon your return, unless you have someone to drive you back from the lake up the mountain to where you left your car.

Here is one of the two bridges by Henry Clay Iron furnace. This is the area where multiple streams meet to then run down to the lake. Going up most of the trails you can see the streams turn from running water to run off areas that are flowing only after a rain or when the snow melts.

But down here, there is always water.

And then leaves piled up in the stream.

I can spend, literally, hours wandering around these streams, building rock towers, knocking down leaf dams and moving sticks that are blocking the stream.

My excuse is that I want to keep the streams and run-off areas from backing up onto the trails, which makes them a muddy mess that is exacerbated by all the mountain bikes, but truly, I just like playing in the water.

We’d hoped to catch the last of the state’s color at Harpers Ferry, but it was past peak, and the weather never cleared, so it was a grey day.

Despite that, I enjoyed walking around Harpers Ferry, especially the old buildings and fieldstone walls.

“May be uneven” is a bit of an understatement.

Just a little uneven.

I took a lot of pictures of the stairs, because I find them beautiful and fascinating. You can click through any picture to get to Flickr.

The tunnels and such from when the town was water powered.

I wish the clouds had cleared for a little bit, because I wanted some better pictures of the old church.

Not that it stopped me from taking a million pictures.

As I said, plenty more pictures if you click through to Flickr.

It’s been 100 years since Grandmom was born.

Grandmom & Aunt Doris in daisy field behind house on Oak Grove.

Grandmom, Aunt Doris, and neighbor kids.

Aunt Sophie, Uncle John, Grandmom, Great-Grandfather Laukaitis.

Grandmom & Aunt Sophie

Albert(?) Grandmom, Popbo, Aunt Sophie.
Also: SPATS!

Aunt Sophie, Grandmom, Aunt Doris

Aunt Sophie, Grandmom, Aunt Doris

Aunt Sophie, Grandmom, Aunt Doris

Grandmom & Aunt Doris

Cousin Pat, Cousin Jimmie, Aunt Chris, Grandmom

Grandmom & Popbo

Grandmom & Popbo

I had to put in one with curlers. :)

I still miss you Grandmom.

In 2013, I spent some time wandering around the graveyards in Shepherdstown, and I was quite saddened to see that the although the “Reformed Graveyard” was well maintained, directly across the street, the Lutheran graveyard was barely maintained and in terrible shape.

I was delighted to find that someone has stepped up and done a great deal of work cleaning up the Lutheran Graveyard, including putting back up fallen gravestones.

It looks like the fallen headstones that had been moved from their original place are now neatly leaned up against the cemetery wall.

Aged 82 years and 17 days.

Polly was the only thing I could read on this stone.

This was more of a meander than a hike, since I kept stopping to look at everything from the view to individual leaves.

I decided a couple weeks ago that for fall pictures, visiting places during the week would be less crowded and thus much nicer. We still saw people at New River Gorge, because I wanted to hike some of the best views, but it was not crowded, which was lovely.

Location: New River Gorge
Trail: Long Point
Distance: 3.1 miles
Elevation: 1779-2106 ft (539 ft gain)
Temperature: 67-70 F

They spent the summer doing a lot of work on Long Point, and it’s now open again. They replaced the board walk with a causeway, raised the trail in several of the muddy places, and rerouted the trail in other places.

All of which is a sign of how heavily used that trail is, and why you should hike it during the week, rather than the weekend.

Of course, there is good reason the trail is so busy. Because of this view.

And also because of this view.

Even this view:

The other trail we took was Endless Wall out to Diamond Point.

Location: New River Gorge
Trail: Endless Wall (to Diamond Point and back)
Distance: 2.2 miles
Elevation: 1838-1980 ft
Temperature: 70-68 F

One day we’ll hike the entirety of Endless Wall. But since it’s generally the last hike of the day, since Diamond Point is prettiest in late afternoon/early evening, I don’t expect it to be any time soon.

I actually think the view at Diamond Point is nicer than Long Point, but you can’t see the bridge as clearly, so perhaps that’s why it’s less popular with non-climbers.

The sun and clouds were really uncooperative, so this is one of the best pictures I got. You’ll have to take my word for it that it was even prettier than this.

The unincorporated town of Droop is named for Droop Mountain, where a Civil War battle took place in 1863. The Droop Mountain State Park has preserved these sites and is both an historical site and a state park with hiking trails.

There was plenty of color, and the drive down 219 was gorgeous.

Unsurprisingly, we were too early for good fall color.

We looked. We could see no signs of a trail.

Little bit of color!

The path to cabin 8.

There was also supposed to be good color at Berkeley Springs, which was also a lie.

However, I love Berkeley Springs and love watching the air bubble up from the bottom of the springs.