Jason Lancaster

Chris and I went hiking last Sunday on the Gunpowder Central trails. I can’t help but go in the woods and get poison ivy. I don’t know why I’m so prone or how I manage to get it even when I’m careful to wash myself down after. This time I have it on my elbow. I figure I had the oil on something of mine (shoes maybe?) and scraped my arm with them.

It was worth it though. I found some cool bouldering in a little cave just off the trail. The picture below was taken before I put my five fingers on and tried climbing in them. Unfortunately, I was a little high so I needed Chris to spot me which means no pictures of what I ended up putting together. My plan is to go back there on Saturday with a crash pad, real climbing shoes, and a brush or two to clean the rock. I forgot how annoying dirt was. I also forgot how sharp real rocks feel compared to rocks in the gym. Hope I don’t tear up my hands too bad!

I briefly mentioned the complications of layering clothing in my previous post, however it’s hard to explain why you should have wicking layers in the cold until you’ve experienced it. Primarily, the issue is that standard cotton clothing can’t dry out quickly, leaving you colder than you would have been if you had just left the shirt at home.

I happened to come across a blog entry over at Trailspace that I thought I should share that talks about the importance of wicking layers. Without it results in the following:

I now have a small, red, blistered patch of skin on the middle of my torso—mild frostbite. Next time it’s so cold I’ll leave the heart rate monitor at home.

Continue reading “A Lesson on Wicking” »

Emily and I spent our weekend camping at Big Meadows in Shenandoah. Each day had a point where it rained, but overall the trip was relaxing, fun, and adventurous. The rain was good too because we didn’t know you had to/or could make reservations at Big Meadows, which meant we didn’t know where we were staying on Saturday night because they were booked full. Luckily, space opened once the rain started so we were able to stay at the campground.

I was surprised at how cold it was. I know it’s fall now, but the weather was much more like winter. Each night lead to a low in the low 30′s, and each day was only about 50 or so. Very surprising, and something I’ll need to plan for next time.

I was able to start a matchless fire on Sunday night, something that might sound hard to do on the face of it but little do you know I actually found a fire pit that someone had recently cooked on with charcoal. Placing my wood on top with some kindling soon started a great fire for cooking. Food always tastes better when you’re camping and this time was no exception.

I packed my climbing shoes with the rest of our camping gear and scoped things out the first day, looking for some good climbs. There is a great 50 foot rock face about 1.25 miles (or a 35 minute normal paced hike) north of the Big Meadows Amphitheater going north along the Appalachian Trail. After seeing it the first day and snapping some pictures, Emily and I took some rope, my new hammock, and some other gear to spend the day on these new-found rocks. There are some great climbing routes there and I’m really hoping I can convince some climbing friends to come back there and backpack/camp there with me to check things out further.

Last weekend Chris flew in from Ottawa to spend some time here in Baltimore. I took him hiking at Old Rag and introduced him to the world of Maryland blue crabs. It was quite a bit of fun, mainly due to the nice change of pace for me to have a friend that wants to do something outdoors. All of my friends are slackers, and you know it.

Ultimately, what I have to show from his being here is a couple of beat up ankles, due to my trail-hiking shoes which just didn’t want to cooperate with me. They are bloody and scabbed, and not very pretty. On top of that, I can’t get my climbing shoes (or any other shoes) comfortably on, so I’m stuck not being able to do much in the way of physical activity. What a drab!