You would think that a trail called the Canyon Rim Trail would have lots of views of the Blackwater Canyon.

You would be mistaken.

That doesn’t make this a bad trail, and there are views at either end: the Olsen Fire Tower at the Western end, and along the Allegheny Trail at the Eastern terminus.

The trail itself is part of the Allegheny Trail, which you can take through WV. It also means this trail is getting some extensive maintenance right now, to shore up sections that have become muddy messes.

Location: Monongahela National Forest
Trail: Canyon Rim Trail
Distance: 6.6 miles (out and back)
Elevation: 3162-3705 feet (994 feet gain)

Along the trail, this is as good a view as you get. And once the leaves are out, it’ll be even less.

It was a little steep in a couple of places, and rocky and muddy in other places, but it isn’t a difficult hike for anyone who is in shape.

You get to cross several streams, one of which has a “Stone Bridge”. Most of the crossings should not be problematic unless the water is extremely high or flash flooding.

But in addition to the very pretty creek crossings, if you do a little searching you can find the falls, which were absolutely lovely.

This is where we sat and ate our lunch, and then clambered around on the rocks.

And here’s the elevation graph of the hike.

Our third hike on Friday was also at Canaan Valley State Park, but on the ski area part of the park.

This trail was NOT created by or for hikers. It’s labeled a cross-country ski trail, but is not maintained as such. If you want the view at bald knob, I recommend taking the lift up to the top of the mountain, then hiking across to Bald Knob.

The problem are the portions of the trail that are for skiing down. Hiking up or down such a trail isn’t that fun (Michael got blisters, due the steep grade for a longer distance).

Location: Canaan Valley State Park
Trail: Bald Knob Mountain Trail
Distance: 4.6 miles (out and back)
Elevation: 3572-4336 feet (1000 feet gain)
Parts of the trail: 14% and 16% grades (or steeper)

But the view is lovely.

Here you are looking down into Canaan Valley.

No switchbacks here. Straight down you go.

The surprise was this:

Here you can look down the OTHER side of the mountain. It was kinda cool, although I cropped out the ugliness of where they took out all the trees. It’s not yet a mowed lawn, it’s just a clear-cut clearing. Which is not so attractive.

Someone (ie:me) forgot to turn on the GPS until we were part way up the mountain, so here’s the trip down, minus the leg up to the peak.

After dinner on Friday, we wanted an easy hike to stretch our legs out, so we did Lindy Point.

Michael has use-or-lose-leave, so we spent a long weekend in the Canaan area doing lots of hiking.

In the morning we hiked two trails: Blackwater River trail and the Middle Ridge trail. I have pictures from the one and data from the other.

Location: Canaan Valley State Park
Trail: Middle Ridge Trail
Distance: 2.3 miles (loop)
Elevation: 3331-3558 (483 feet gain)
Temperature: 66-74

The Middle Ridge Trail doesn’t have many scenic vistas, but it does go through several different kinds of areas, and goes by a bog–it’s dry right now, so I didn’t find anything picturesque about the bog, but on the plus side, our feet stayed dry.

I do love the Blackwater River Trail

Here is the elevation graph for the Middle Ridge Trail.

I read (and listened to) a number of great books this month–and even a bunch of new releases!

I listened (again) to Sergei Lukyanenko‘s Night Watch series so I could read the final book in that series, Sixth Watch. I really love that series and highly recommend it. On our drives were listening to Andrea Camilleri‘s Inspector Montalbano series (I’d been trying to get Michael to read it for years) and although Michael gets thrown by all the names (it’s easier for me to read because of that) it is a fun series. Although the earliest books are the best, I never regret reading even an average Andrea Camilleri mystery.

I read two good historical romances, which were extremely different from each other. KJ Charles’ series is MM and full of boinking, but the main character in An Unseen Attraction made the whole book. He’s half Indian, is neurodivergent, and both of those things made the story excellent, allowing for atypical issues between the heroes, and the historical setting adds an extra layer to the whole thing, since homosexuality was a crime. C.E. Murphy‘s Bewitching Benedict is almost a polar opposite, with no boinking and barely any kissing, but like An Unseen Attraction, the characters made the book, and I look forward to more books about the other characters in the story.

Fantasy, Urban

Sixth Watch (2015/2016) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield 8/10 (Night Watch)

Fantasy, Supernatural

Burn Bright (2018) Patricia Briggs (Alpha & Omega)

Mystery, Police

The Temptation of Forgiveness (2018) Donna Leon 7/10 (Commissario Guido Brunetti)
The Killings at Badger’s Drift (1987) Caroline Graham 7.5/10 (Chief Inspector Barnaby)

Mystery, Historical

A Brush with Shadows (2018) Anna Lee Huber 7.5/10
A Conspiracy in Belgravia (2017) Sherry Thomas 7/10 (Lady Sherlock)
Bess Crawford
A Bitter Truth (2011) Charles Todd 7/10
An Unmarked Grave (2012) Charles Todd 7.5/10
A Question of Honor (2013) Charles Todd 5/10
An Unwilling Accomplice (2014) Charles Todd 5/10
A Pattern of Lies (2015) Charles Todd 5/10

Romance, Historical

An Unseen Attraction (2017) KJ Charles 8/10 (Sins of the City)
Bewitching Benedict (2017) C.E. Murphy 8/10 (Lovelorn Lads)

Audio Book

The Terra Cotta Dog, Audio Edition (1996/2002/2007) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartaelli narrated by Grover Gardner 8/10 (Inspector Montalbano)
Night Watch
Day Watch, Audio Edition (1999/2006/2010) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield and narrated by Paul Michael 9/10
Twilight Watch, Audible Version (2006/2007/2010) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield narrated by Paul Michael 10/10
Last Watch, Audible Edition (2009/2010) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield narrated by Paul Michael 9/10
New Watch, Audible Version (2012/2014) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield narrated by Paul Michael 8/10

Short Story

Opal (2018) Maggie Stiefvater 7/10

And now: The stats!

eBook : 14
Audio : 5
Multiple Formats : 5
Re-read : 8

Not as many re-reads this month–and more than half of those were audio books (I can’t listen to fiction unless I’ve already read the book. No patience. But I love audio books when I’m walking on we’re on long car rides.) No paper books this month.

Fantasy : 7
Mystery : 10
Romance : 2
YA : 1

I’ve been in a mood for mysteries. I mean, I frequently am, but right now a good mystery (or even a story arc that’s a good mystery) will draw me in more than anything else.

Male : 6
Female : 8
Joint : 6

Female authors pull slightly ahead this month, but not that far ahead for the year.

And that’s the past month in books!

Yay reading!

The weather recently has been all over the place, but Saturday was beautiful, so we took the opportunity to go to Cacapon. (I was also hoping that there might be blooming flowers at Berkeley Springs.)

For all the rain we’ve had, the trails we hiked were weirdly dry–because they were so steep.

Location: Cacapon State Park
Trails: Ziler, Ziler Loop Trails
Distance: 5.5 miles
Elevation: 961-2273 feet (1800 feet gain)
Temperature: 58-67 F

0.6 mile of Ziler trail was 22.6% grade
Entire Ziler trail was 1.3 miles @ 17.6% grade with 1242 feet ascent

For all the elevation gain, there aren’t any decent scenic overlooks or views–the woods are thick and there what rock outcroppings there are don’t go above the treeline.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t a view, it just means there isn’t a photographable view.

At some point we’re going take the trail to Prospect Rock. But this trip we apparently wanted to torture ourselves with the Ziler trail.

Cacapon hike

We really do get a lot of visitors to our feeders.

One of the things I enjoy about Deep Space Nine is the banter between the characters. I think it starts with running jokes about Dax being a terrible gossip, then we start to see Dax gossiping with Kira and quite soon we see short bits of back and forth, and I love those bits.

But the other thing we get with the scenes is in the background, the little things that allow a space station or fighter ship to function.

Take this scene:

Chief O’Brien: Dilithium matrix is aligned and calibrated. – Just be a bit more careful, that’s all I ask.
Colonel Kira: Opening antimatter injector ports. – Trouble in paradise?
Doctor Bashir: It was nothing. – Emergency life support and damage control systems standing by.
Chief O’Brien: I wouldn’t call it nothing.
Lieutenant Ezri Dax: Autonomous guidance system initialized and active.
Chief O’Brien: He lost Travis.
Colonel Kira: Hm – sounds serious. – Verify astrometric database.
Doctor Bashir: Miles built this Alamo model, replete with small figures. Quite spectacular, actually. – Data sets loaded and verified. – Anyway, he was showing it to me in Quark’s when we – rather I – accidentally misplaced Colonel Travis.
Nog: Phaser safeties engaged. – Can’t you make another one?
Chief O’Brien: What, so he can lose it again? – Field stabilizers online.
Colonel Kira: Well, that’s what happens when you share your toys. – Synchronizing warp plasma flow…
Chief O’Brien: It’s not a toy! It’s a model, built to scale.
Doctor Bashir: He really did a fantastic job.
Chief O’Brien: Nacelles holding at pre-warp threshold.

These scenes feel real–the conversations people would have while going through checklists or other regular tasks. They’re taking the tasks seriously, but they are also joking around and teasing each other and generally being normal people.

It’s something that was brought up in the episode “In the Pale Moonlight” where they are trying to create a fake meeting between Damar and Weyoun.

GARAK: That’s it. Freeze programme. That’s all the new material. The rest of the programme plays exactly as you saw it before. What do you think?
SISKO: It’s better. They seem more real.
GARAK: Yes, and all I had to do was add a little petty bickering and mutual loathing.
TOLAR: So, you are happy?
SISKO: It’s satisfactory.

It’s the similar principle that makes me love the scenes of teasing and general chatter between the characters on DS9. It makes them seem like real people.

It’s a tiny thing, but I it delightful.

Here are some of my favorite books from last month:

This Side of Murder by Anna Lee Huber is a mystery set post WWI. There aren’t a lot of mysteries set in this time period, which is too bad, because it’s really the start of the modern era. The author also writes the Lady Darby (Anatomist’s Wife) series.  The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater is the conclusion to the Raven Boys series. I put this off for a very long time, because I was terrified it wouldn’t end well. How foolish of me. You really do need to read this series. The Myth Manifestation by Lisa Shearin may be the last SPI Files book, as it was self-published, but it was very well done, and I’ll keep hoping for another book. And I finished my re-read of Rising Stars with Visitations by J. Michael Straczynski. That really is a phenomenal series.

Mystery, Historical

This Side of Murder (2017) Anna Lee Huber 8/10 (Verity Kent)
Bess Crawford
A Duty to the Dead (2009) Charles Todd 7.5/10
An Impartial Witness (2010) Charles Todd 7.5/10

Romance, Historical

The Lescaut Quartet
Dark Angel (1994) Tracy Grant 8/10
Shores of Desire (1997) Tracy Grant 8.5/10
A Scot in the Dark (2016) Sarah MacLean 6/10
Dukes Prefer Blondes (2016) Loretta Chase 6/10
Forever Your Earl (2015) Eva Leigh 5/10

Fantasy, YA

The Raven King (2016) Maggie Stiefvater 9/10 (Raven Boys)

Fantasy, Supernatural

The Myth Manifestation (2018) Lisa Shearin 8.5/10 (SPI Files)

Fantasy, Historical

Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was (1984) Barry Hughart 8.5/10

Comics

Rising Stars, Vol. 3: Fire And Ash (2005) J. Michael Straczynski, Keu Cha, Ken Lashley, Christian Zanier, Jason Gorder, John Livesay, Edwin Rosell, David Wohl, Dennis Heisler, Dreamer Design, Robin Spehar, Liquid!, Matt Nelson, John Starr, Tyson Wengler 9/10
Rising Stars: Visitations (2002) J. Michael Straczynski 8.5/10
Rising Stars: Voices of the Dead / Bright (2006) by Fiona Avery, Dan Jurgens, Staz Johnson, Al Rio 4/10

Audio

Night Watch, Audio Version (1998/2006/2010) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield and narrated by Paul Michael 9/10
Cold Reign, Audio Edition (2017) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam 8/10 (Jane Yellowrock)
The Brimstone Deception, Audio Version (2016) Lisa Shearin narrated by Johanna Parker 7.5/10 (SPI Files)
Hugger Mugger (2000) Robert B Parker narrated by Joe Mantegna 7/10 (Spenser)

Short Story

From the Editorial Page of the Falchester Weekly Review (2016) Marie Brennan 7.5/10 (A Natural History of Dragons)

And now, the stats!

Trade Paperback: 3
eBook: 12
Audio: 4

I read comics this month, hence the three trade paperbacks. And four seems to be new normal for audio books.

Fantasy: 10
Mystery: 6
Romance: 5
YA: 1
Comic: 3
Multiple Formats: 4
Re-read: 12

Genre-wise I had a fair amount of variety last month, but I mostly had re-reads. This seems to be an era of needing comfort reading.

Male: 6
Female: 11
Joint: 2

And female authors take a strong lead in February, possibly because I stalled on the Spenser series, not caring to listen to the narrator for the rest of the series.

And that’s what I read last month. Lots of great books out there, so there has to be something for you!

This may well have been our last hike in snow of the season, so I was glad we were able to enjoy it–and that it was such a beautiful day.

I love the Cranberry Wilderness and am glad we got to hike it in the snow.

Location: Cranberry Wilderness
Trail: Charles Creek, Cowpasture Trails
Distance: 1.9 miles
Elevation: 3422-3564 feet
Temperature: 31 F

There used to be a prison in this area–a prison that didn’t bother with walls and barbed wire, since it was so far away from civilization that there was nowhere for escaped prisoners to go.

Although this prison was open during the Korean war (conscientious objectors were typically sent here) there are very few signs of civilization left: some spots of asphalt, the occasional chimney, and some stairs.

Charles Creek

Since it’s only a half mile, we always walk the Cranberry Glades Boardwalk when we are in the area. Because it’s the end of the winter, the boardwalk is in need of repair–if you need an accessible route, wait until spring when the forest service has been out to repair sections of the boardwalk.

The start of the trail follows the edge of the glade.

I was surprised to see the pitcher plants coming up through the snow all along the boardwalk.

Normally the underbrush is so thick you can’t see the bog, but at the end of the winter all the grasses are eaten are have died down and you can clearly see the boggy areas.

Beautiful!

The Falls of Hills Creek is one of the places where there is a very small window of time if you want light for taking pictures.

We managed to nail that window Saturday.

Lower Falls

Hills Creek

Middle Falls

So, I found this: Racial and Ethnic Categories and Definitions for NIH Diversity Programs and for Other Reporting Purposes.

American Indian or Alaska Native.
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.

Asian.
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Black or African American.
A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. Terms such as “Haitian” or “Negro” can be used in addition to “Black or African American.”

Hispanic or Latino.
A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. The term, “Spanish origin,” can be used in addition to “Hispanic or Latino.”

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

White.
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.

As categories for books go, the following seem to make the most sense, at least as far as my reading habits go:

Native or First Peoples
Asian
African or African American
Hispanic

But that still has problems. Is Arabic a category that should belong there? It’s culturally distinct from Europe and Africa. Should there be a difference between the Hindu and Islamic south Asian groups? They’re certainly very different from northern Asian groups. And what about Russians? Are they Asians or just white?

In my mind, if I’m going to split things into two categories, it’d be white and non-WASP, but that’s all kinds of problematic for a variety of reasons. Division by continents doesn’t work, because: colonization and slavery. Division by color is ridiculous because for the longest time as a kid and even teenager, I thought everyone with “tanned” skin and dark hair was Italian, so I’m completely incapable making that judgement.

So… I’m still stuck.

Although sometimes I hate it, most of the time I love Twitter. And it’s getting love today for allowing me to come across this:

The State of Racial Diversity in Romance Publishing Report by The Ripped Bodice (a romance bookstore).

Earlier this year I wrote a series of posts about kids’ books and made a point of noting that fell into the category of “multi-cultural” (ie non-WASP).

There were quite a few pictures books on my recommended list but the numbers dwindled as the reading age got older.

Now I want to know about both the author identity and character identity of the books I read. Perhaps I should add tags to my reviews? LGBT would be one, and I already have a category for Asian, since I love Asian-flavored stories. But what do I *call* the different categories? Just Non-WASP as a category name? I suck at naming things–and it’s even worse if the name is something important. (Reminder: His Furriness’s official name was “Kat” so when I say I suck at naming things, I really do mean it.)

So what are good category names for such things? Anyone? Help? Please?