Sunday would have been my cousin Ben’s 33rd birthday. My aunt and uncle held a memorial hike along the Appalachian Trail on Sunday, but I’ve felt very uncomfortable recently around groups of people I don’t know, so Michael and I chose to hike up Seneca Rocks, which is one of the first places he climbed.

There are two ways to get up Seneca Rocks: climb the face or hike from the side. We–unsurprisingly–chose the hike.

Here are some views of Seneca Rocks:

This is the end of the hiking path: only climbers with proper gear are supposed to go beyond here.

We also made the slightly more arduous hike (because it’s not a path, but a trail) to the base of the rock. We came in from the left, so it’s looking up at the lower face on the far left. Here’s a look upwards.

This is a gorgeous stream running below the rock face. One of the nice things about visiting state parks is the water ways tend to be clean and clear and unpolluted (ie, not orange from acid mine drainage, which used to be the state of all the creeks local to Morgantown.)

Here’s the view from the observation deck:

And here’s a sign that caught my fancy. You could see several areas of erosion where people took “shortcuts.”

Since we made an actual weekend of our trip (staying overnight instead of just a day trip) we had our leisure to visit several of the parks and recreation areas.

Spruce Knob is West Virginia’s highest peak. We did not hike to the top, but instead drove (I believe it’s an 11 mile hike).

Despite being the end of May, it was quite cold–there was even ice on the ground under the observation tower. But it was also gorgeous, and there were not many people, so one could actually get a sense of the isolation of the area.

It’s nice to be in a mostly wild area, and not see or hear other humans.

Mind you, it’s not quiet in these areas–nature isn’t particularly silent–just peaceful.

Coming back down from Spruce Knob, we made the mistake of listening to the GPS, which kept wanting us to turn down roads marked “Private! No Trespassing!” or overgrown dirt roads.

On the other hand, it was an absolutely gorgeous drive.

We also took a short hike at Dolly Sods

We also saw many signs of Superstorm Sandy. There are some trails throughout the various state parks that are still closed, and we had to clamber over several downed trees on some of the trails.

And there was plenty of beauty to admire.

Perhaps my interest in decay is unhealthy, but it’s fascinating to see how quickly the monuments of man disintegrate.

At Seneca Rocks.

Cool Springs Park along Route 50. We’ve stopped here before. It’s still fascinating.

Played around with processing some of these pictures as black & white. Any thoughts?

I think it would be very strange to live in Sharpsburg, an area that seems completely given over to Antietam Battlefield National Park.

I wonder if it is hard to live so much in the past and in the history of such horror.

As I said yesterday, I took very few pictures of the battlefields. Here are the pictures I took within the park area.

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As we walked around Antietam, I was surprised at how large the area was. I have no experience with war (for which I am greatly thankful) so I really had no idea what to expect.

The day was beautiful, which made it even stranger to consider that 150 years ago so very many men had bled and died there.

Here are some of the pictures I took at Antietam–not many pictures of the battlefield–I mostly walked and reflected.

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Saturday was supposed to be gorgeous, so we hopped in the car and went to Shepherdstown & Antietam.

We spent most of the day (that wasn’t spent in the car) walking around Antietam, but we did stroll around downtown Shepherdstown. And ate two very good meals there.

Didn’t take my camera out much around Shepherdstown, except for the cemeteries.

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Here are some of my favorite pictures from Philadelphia.

Historical reenactor climbing the steps in Congress Hall

Miniature Cast Pewter Toy Train at the Liberty Bell Center

Elfreth’s Alley

Second Bank of the US

Historical reenactors walking to Congress Hall

Dragon above parking lot in Chinatown

Window of the Second Bank of the US building

Elfreth’s Alley

That are other pictures if you click through to FLickr, including pictures of cobblestones and bricks, because they fascinate me.

Besides being sick for weeks keeping my away from here, we also went to Philadelphia last weekend.

Why Philadelphia in January? Because our friend Tania was on the east coast! (YAY)

But since I’d never been to Philadelphia, we made it an extra long weekend, and took in the sights.

There were a couple disappointments: Christ Church Cemetery is closed January and February, so I could peek in through one set of bars, but a brick wall blocked me from seeing the vast majority of the cemetery. And I would have enjoyed seeing the inside of one of the restored old homes, but for the most part, we had a lovely trip, and got to see almost everything we wanted.

Probably my favorite thing all weekend (besides seeing Tania and Nathan) was the Printing Office in Franklin Court.

The park ranger running the printing press was fabulous. There were a handful or so of kids when we walked in, and he was demonstrating the press, and showing them all the bits and telling them how things worked–it was really lovely.

The press he was using was set up for a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

The second press was set up to print various pamphlets that would have circulated in Franklin’s time running the printing office.

One of the things we learned was that the terms “Upper Case” and “Lower Case” came from typesetting. Capital letters were kept in the top boxes, hence “upper case.”

I asked my own questions, and purchased a copy of the Declaration that had been printed there.

We also went to the post office, where I mailed my postcards. I didn’t take any pictures, but the woman there was very nice, and told us about about some of the things Benjamin Franklin did as post master, including “franking” or marking mail with the signature B. Free Franklin.

Friends and family should look closely at the post mark on the postcards they receive, as it’s one of a kind.

As I said earlier, I spent a lot of time walking around and photographing the ruins of St. John’s Episcopal Church at Harpers Ferry.

The church was used as a barracks and a hospital during the Civil War, and was damaged at that time. Although the church was rebuilt, it was soon abandoned after a new church was built, leaving these remains on the hill.

Facing north, from below the ruins. ^

Facing WSW, looking in through one of the doors. ^

Facing ENE, taken from the hill behind the ruins. ^

Facing east, looking into the ruins from behind. ^

Facing southwest, from inside the ruins. ^

I took a lot more pictures, many of which are on my Flickr stream.

This weekend we drove to Harpers Ferry.

For those of you not familiar with American History and/or the Civil War, Harpers Ferry is where John Brown seized the US Armory and Arsenal that was one of the events that brought the issue of slavery to, perhaps, a boil.

Of course, other things happened in Harpers Ferry, and the Appalachian Trail cuts through Harpers Ferry.

This is the building where John Brown and his group holed up. However, this is not the original location–the building has been moved multiple times, including, at one point, to Chicago.

Facing west.

Facing east, towards the Potomac River.

This monument marks the original location of the building.

The national park has images from the time of the Civil War posted about the city/park, and the fact this building was moved made it hard–initially–to orient the current city to what was in the pictures.

The fact that the two arsenals are ruins now, but were in the pictures, made it even more confusing to me.

But I eventually figured it out.

There are a LOT of ruins around Harpers Ferry. The ruins of St. John’s Episcopal Church particularly fascinated me, and I spent a lot of time wandering around them taking pictures. Enough pictures they’ll be a separate post.

Arsenal ruins: the park has signs with a picture showing the archeological dig of the foundation. The ground level here is about three feet higher than when the building was built.

Virginius Island is an abandoned area. There are ruins there of a water powered cotton mill and other water-operated machinery.

Ruins of bridge footers across the Potomac River.

Ruins of bridge footers across the Shenandoah River.

Stone stairs (here’s a picture that might give you a better idea of the steepness of the stairs.)

It was a gorgeous day, and the advantage of going in November, is there weren’t huge crowds of people.

Our plan yesterday was to drive to Harpers Ferry today. However, the fact I went to bed early and still slept ten hours meant that we ended up looking for somewhere closer.

We set off for Swallow Falls, only to discover it was still closed from the storm. (Yeah, Michael somehow missed the giant bold text at the top of the page, saying they were closed.)

So, we redirected towards Deep Creek Lake.

Since the lake is low, we walked along the shore.

I was (unsurprisingly) fascinated with the multiple tree stumps, lying on the shore like strange, tentacled, sea creatures.

But we also just enjoyed what a beautiful day it was.

In today’s mail:

Bravo Greatland Graphics, you just made my day!

After escaping the crowds at Bridge Day (I love watching the BASE jumpers, but then, so does everyone else), we went to Babcock State Park.

Amusingly, many many other people had the same idea, so by the time we left, the parking lot was overflowing.

Babcock State Park is famous for its grist mill–you’ve probably seen a picture of it.

You had a wait quite awhile to get a picture without people.
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One week after our last visit, we were back at the New River Gorge, this time for Bridge Day.

The skies were overcast and grey, but there were still BASE jumpers to watch.

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