Capon Valley Run

The weekend after the Race for Hope, we participated in another charity run. Considering that it was a 50k, through the woods, up and down mountain and stream, for this one we volunteered.



136 runners starting the race, almost all finished.



We helped man an aid station 19 miles into the course, set up where the running trail crosses the road. The runners were remarkable athletes. The first two showed up at our aid station 2 hours and 20 minutes after starting. Both passed us by without stopping, just waved and said a few cheerful words as they passed. The lead runner was the fittest person I have ever seen. He had hardly broken a sweat, was breathing normally, and basically looked like he was just jogging around the neighborhood.

Fire

Now it is a real camp.

Race for Hope

Lizz and I did the Race for Hope last weekend to benefit brain cancer research. We went as part of the Revolution Health team. This cause is a big one for Revolution, as the founder Steve Case lost his brother to brain cancer. According to interviews with Case, that experience influenced him to get involved in reforming health care and starting Revolution Health.



Steve ran the race too. He ran up and jumped into the picture just as we were taking it, jumped right in front of me. Steve is the guy to the left of the sign, wearing a light blue shirt and no hat. I am the face right behind his. Lizz is the face hanging just over his left shoulder. (This picture is shrunken - click it to get the full picture). Readers from the dot com era will remember Steve as the guy who built AOL, and bought Time Warner just before it all crashed.

Hiking Camp May

The first night in Camp May was quite nice. Since we are in a valley, they are no sunsets nor sunrises. Instead, after the sun goes down behind Baker Mountain to our west, to our east North Mountain turns purple, just like the song ...above the fruited plain...



The next morning, we went on a first hike around the land. The community in which we live is crossed by a number of primitive trails, and there is an understanding that all the residents are free to hike throughout the 240 acres. We wandered about the top of our ridge and eventually found this rather obvious trail, pictured here.



This trail winds its way down the less steep side of the ridge to this stream. The water in the stream is perfectly clear, and the bottom is lined with long plates of blue slate.



We could hear a waterfall running, and worked our way up the stream a bit, thinking we might actually own a waterfall. This is the magnificent cascade we found making all the noise. Another picture shows you a dog for sense of scale.



Sammy, our dog, is a Tibetan Terrier. These dogs have been bred for a couple thousand years as companion animals. Specifically, they were intended as companions to travelers crossing the Tibetan plateau and Himalayas. Just as a herding dog loves to herd, it seems to be in his nature to hike. He always seems to be happy to go along and do whatever with us, but hiking really appears to love hiking around. He also finds it necessary to jump into any significant pool of water he can find, and this water is cold.



Working further up the ridge, in a tributary ravine to this stream, I did come upon this more promising set of falls. The steps pictured here drop about twenty feet. It was just a trickle this day; I think they need a good rain to really go, and the weather had been dry the preceding week.



We worked away back down the stream to the main stream that runs down to the Cacapon River. The steep slope runs up to where we are camped, but it is far too steep just to walk up. We ended up making a big circuit around our ridge, and coming back to Camp May along the community road.



Finally, here are some more nice shots we took along the hike back to camp.