Another Motts Run Hike

My husband loves to hike. I prefer to talk about hiking. “Oh, we’re planning a 3-mile hike this weekend.” “Yes, we go hiking all the time.” “That hike we just finished was really amazing.” Actually doing the hiking is often not nearly as pleasant. I know it’s good for me to do it—if walking is healthy, walking up and down hills on uneven terrain is even healthier, and getting back to nature can be a spiritual experience. But honestly, while I’m right in the middle of it, walking up some steep hill that I can’t even see the top of, I often wonder “whose idea of a good time was this?”

So last weekend we did about 3 miles of trails in Motts Run Reservoir, more than I usually like to sign up for on a casual afternoon. But now we’re in the “talking about it” phase, so I’m a lot happier. Actually, we had a fine time--the trails are well-marked (except for the Laurel Trail, for which they’ve chosen the blaze color “bark"--if you painted every tree entirely in that very soft grayish lavender color, I don’t believe anyone would actually be able to detect it), and there’s a nice trail map available. The hiking really wouldn’t be considered difficult by any reasonable criteria if you were in halfway decent shape, which is I guess why I was huffing and puffing the whole way. We went to the end of the Mine Run Trail (note to self: beware of trails that aren’t actually on the map, but are just indicated with a big arrow as being “over there somewhere”) for the trail’s promise of a creek. I do love a good creek, the kind with water rushing over rocks. This was the payoff:



So I have a good friend who recently hiked Stony Man Mountain in the Shenandoah National Park. I find that very impressive, considering we’re both in about the same shape. And that sounds a lot better than saying you hiked Motts Run Reservoir. So I either need to start hiking more impressive trails like that, or I need to just rename the ones I’ve hiked. Like saying that last weekend we hiked to the top of Turkey Ridge. And then we went all the way down to the, um, Mine Run Falls. I think that would work if I really sell it, and leave out any identifying details.

What I’m really looking for is that perfectly maintained and well-marked trail that goes to the top of mountains with amazing vistas, and down to waterfalls, with cooling rocks to lounge on, but no ascents or descents. Some sort of Escher-like terrain where you move up and down while staying completely level.



My favorite tree, the redbud.