Bob's Workshop

Bob continues to outdo himself with his woodworking projects. Using furniture designs inspired by Thos. Moser, Bob's skills keep getting better and better. If you aren't familiar with Thos. Moser, you should check out their website.

Here is Bob's version of the American Bungalow lounge chair:


He drew all his own templates by studying the Moser catalogs, and one or two trips to the showroom to get a feel for the proportions. The brass mechanism allows the chair back to recline.

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As a gift for Frank Jessup, who has been mentoring Bob for a few years on a myriad of wood working skills, Bob made a bow-back stool which is drop-dead gorgeous!

Hike 'n Ski

The weather has been similar to the Front Range of Colorado this week: it was 65 degrees on Monday and 20 degrees on Friday, with a quick, fluffy snowstorm to close out the week!

We went hiking on Friday up Buck Hollow and down Buck Ridge, near Sperryville in Shenandoah National Park. It was very cold. The trail starts with a crossing of the the Thornton River. The water level was a little high, and the rocks were slick with ice which made crossing extremely tricky. Unfortunately Bob slipped and landed up to mid thigh in the frigid water. He decided he could make the hike okay, which he did. And he helped me cross that stream, plus few others that were also icy.

Bob sucking up some of the water in his boots with our bandanas:

One of many icy spots along the trail:

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We were able to get out and ski some laps around Fort Hunt Park this morning, before the snow started melting. We saw a bald eagle, which is always a bonus. We enjoyed the crisp air and sunshine!

Happy Bob

Making tracks. Anna's circa 1985 skinny skis:

It doesn't work to swing with skis on:

January Fun

We've been getting out & about, but we haven't taken many pictures lately...

We did get another ski weekend in before the meltdown started. We lift-serve skied at Timberline in WV one day, using our telemark skis for most of the day before switching to our locked-heel downhill skis. There's nothing like telemark skiing to get the ol' quads fired-up (and knees for that matter!). It's always gratifying to be able to spin off a bunch of linked tele turns.

The next day we repeated the same uphill, cross-country ski that we did the previous weekend, starting at the base of Canaan Valley and climbing to the top of Weiss Knob via the pipeline. I believe this is just over 1000' feet of vertical. The snow was consolidated this time, so we were able to cruise the whole way. It felt great to keep a steady pace, just comfortably out of breath.

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This past weekend we hiked up Signal Knob in the Elizabeth Furnace area of the GW National Forest. The sleet & ice from the previous day made for a fairy-land of ice covered trees, which of course melted as we hiked along. It was really cool to have small, drippy ice chunks falling all around us on the warm sunny side of the mountain. On the shady side, and as we climbed higher, it was still frozen solid -- in the trees and on the ground. We were glad to have our hiking poles (and bummed the camera had been left in the car).

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Snow predictions in WV for this week, so maybe we'll get some more skiing in? Stay tuned...

Ski WV Powder!

It's been very cold and very snowy in West Virginia so far this year. We took advantage of the unusually awesome conditions this past weekend and enjoyed some really great skiing. We splurged and got a lodge room rather than camping. There were many justifications for this: 1) up to 10" inches of snow was predicted for over the weekend, and the camper van isn't the best snow vehicle, so we had to drive the Subaru. 2) It was miserably cold to tent camp. 3) It was the weekend before Anna's birthday, so call it an early birthday treat. This was the Thule box's first trip with skis in it, and it was nice indeed.

Here are some pictures of the weekend...

View out of the lodge window.

Carl humping it up the base of Baldy, through a tunnel of snow trees.

Carl, Adrie and Anna

Anna skiing along the pipeline toward Weiss Knob

The long view of the pipeline. So pretty!

Lunch break

Anna at the top of Weiss Knob, in mid calf deep powder.

Blackwater Lodge. They have an icicle problem!

Looking down into Blackwater Canyon, and the half frozen Blackwater River.

Bob at the canyon overlook.

You have to click for the big picture to appreciate how beautiful those trees are!

We did a great trail at Blackwater Park one day, which we've never skied before. It was sometimes challenging to find the trail markers, as they were often covered with snow. The trail marker on this tree is the only part that is snow-free!

We'll remeber this weekend for a long time to come!

A New Year

Tree Reflections

I, for one, am ready for a new year! We spent the momentous turnover of the decade with our good friends Roy & Yoli in Delaware. We partied, ate, drank, and even did a 3.5 hour hike in the woods surrounding Trap Pond. It was a mini-epic, since the map didn't correlate at all to the trails, and because it is dead flat there weren't many landmarks to go by. We made it back in plenty of time to help prepare a most special New Year's day dinner. A great way to ring in the new year!

Bob & Roy

Cypress trees in Trap Pond

Celebrate