Matthew Singer

Month: April 2010

  • Big Falls on Overall Run

    Big Falls on Overall Run, originally uploaded by Matthew Singer.

    It’s great to have my camera back. Two weeks ago, I bent a pin in the card slot which rendered the camera useless. After speaking with Canon support, I packed up the body and shipped it off to the nearest repair facility. It left FedEx that Monday and arrived at Canon on Wednesday. I authorized the repair and it was fixed on Thursday and shipped back on Friday. I received my camera on Friday. While I’m not happy to shell out the expense of fixing my equipment, I am very pleased at the speed and helpfulness of Canon’s support and repair.

    In the weekend I didn’t have my camera, I hiked up Old Rag in Shenandoah National Park, which has the best views around. I brought my old EOS 3 and a roll of Kodak E100GX with me. Two weeks later, I still haven’t gotten the roll developed. Of course, it doesn’t help that I forgot to bring it to Maryland with me this weekend.

    Monday and Tuesday we were on an overnight canoe trip with the most gorgeous weather. I left my camera behind until I get a good dry box to port my gear in. But Tuesday evening, I headed into the park to find the big falls on Overall Run. The 93 foot waterfall is the highest in Shenandoah National Park, but it also tends to run nearly dry in the summer. A few weeks ago, the falls would have been raging, but the peak Spring greenery made this week the perfect time to look for the falls.

    I found it easy enough. After 3 miles of down-hill, the trail opens up atop a cliff with a great view of the valley and a great view of the Big Falls. There are a few other notable cascades before the big plunge and I’m sure there are some more after. At the bottom of the mountain, Overall Run has a nice water slide and swimming hole, easily accessible by the Thompson Hollow Trail.

    I’m glad I have my camera back and I’ll surely be careful not to damage it again. There are so many places left in the area that I wish to visit, and my time is dwindling before I leave Virginia for Idaho.

  • Duncan Knob

    View on Duncan Knob, originally uploaded by Matthew Singer.

    I got up early this morning to hike before the heat of the day. I would have liked to have gotten up earlier to be at the summit for that early light, but I enjoyed what I got.

    I arrived at my trailhead by 8:00 and reached the summit of Duncan Knob a little after 10 and I had the trail and the rocks to myself. I basked in the sunshine and enjoyed the view for almost an hour before heading back. When I got back on the Gap Creek Trail, I heard voices. I had to do a double take, but sure enough, there were people heading up. I guess I got there and left at the right time. Two pair of people passed me, and my perception of solitude was shattered. Oh well, they were headed up and I was headed down, I could still have the rest of the hike to myself, right?

    For the most part, that was true. But as I drew nearer to the parking area, I passed a lone backpacker and then a group of 3 women and another family of 3. But by that time, I was minutes from the car. I guess I wasn’t the only one who thought Easter was a good day to take a hike.

  • Life at Camp

    I haven’t been very good at updating this or my livejournal in a while. I’ve been fairly busy for the past few weeks. I returned to my job at the mountain campus (www.mountaincampus.org, check us out) in the middle of March and spent the first two weeks cleaning up and preparing for the season. With all of the heavy snow this winter, we had a fair number of trees fall in critical places, so we spent the better part of a week removing some of them. It’s been so wet, though, that we can’t get to all of them with the truck yet, so there are still many downed trees remaining. We also got all of the tents set up and the buildings deep-cleaned so they would be presentable for a summer camp open house.

    Last Friday, Steve and I went camping at Hone Quarry outside of Harrisonburg. The Forest Service campground is small and rustic, and nestled in a deep hollow of Shenandoah Mountain. It’s a beautiful spot that feels isolated even though it’s fairly close to civilization. It’s also not very crowded in the off season. We managed to choose the coldest night to camp. Temperatures dropped down to about 25 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the comfort limit of my 20 degree sleeping bag. It’s good to know the insulation survived the washing machine. In the morning, we hiked the short trail to a rock overlook and then tried to drive to Reddish Knob, but at 4300 feet, the road still had some snow drifts near the summit that were not going to fare well with my car. We headed down the mountain and went to Second Mountain for an afternoon of bouldering.

    Last weekend, the new staff arrived for the start of training. We’ve been teaching them the ropes (literally) while playing on the elements and getting them set up for the new season. Training continues next week and we’ll get our first school group the week after. Here are a few photos documenting our fun. (more…)