Last Training Hike

Bob does his vertical-mile-birthday-continuing-epic-kick-off hike on Friday, so this weekend was his last training hike. We took it easy, and went up to Catoctin Mountain Park in Thurmont, MD. We haven't been there in years. We stopped at the visitor center and learned that a large section of the park was closed due to secret service request. We guess number 43 was hosting some pals for an autumn visit to Camp David. At any rate, we figured out a nice hike circuit, starting by hiking up the hill to Chimney Rock, then over to Wolf Rock. We then backtracked down for about 3 miles total.

The weather was beautiful: windy, cloudy, sunny, snow pellets. Awesome hiking conditions. Especially since yesterday was shorts & t-shirt weather.

Here's the close and long view from Chimney Rock.


And here we are at Wolf Rock. We used to go climbing here in the 1980's. Kind of fun to go back...


After going back to the car and having a bite to eat, we headed up the hill on the other side to Cat Rock. We couldn't resist this photo opportunity.


Here's Bob at the 3rd rock outcropping of the day, Cat Rock. We only hiked about 6 miles and less than 2000 vertical - a perfect pre-event workout to keep Bob's legs happy.