Corbin Cabin Camping

Corbin Cabin

In the wee hours of the morning on June 4th we hopped a plane to the U.S. for our first R&R since moving to Cairo. We had big plans. After a year and a half of desert and dry heat we were cabin bound! The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club maintains a group of cabins in the Mid Atlantic region and we had reserved Corbin Cabin, named after George Corbin who built it and raised his family in the woods of what is now Shenandoah National park.

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A stream ran along side the cabin, actually I believe it is technically a river, where we drew our water for cooking, drinking and bathing. We were looking forward to green trees, trail running and creek crossings. We found all of that, and a whole lot more. We arrived to a cabin that appeared not to have been used in over a year complete with cobwebs & spiders on every window, a swarm of bees living under the eaves of the roof and a rattle snake that had taken up residence in the chimney. We checked the log books to see when the cabin had last been occupied and were surprised to find that a family had left that very morning! What's more, entry after entry in the log book gushed about how fabulous their stay had been. I began to feel inept as a camper.

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Attic sleeping loft

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Main living area (with flash on)

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Main living area with flash off--in the middle of the day

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Kitchen

We are outdoorsy folks, and I'm not just saying that because we shop at Backcountry.com and wear North Face outer wear. Our honeymoon was 10 days of back country camping in Glacier National Park and our home leave between Georgia and Egypt included a 5 week cross country trip during which we camped in a tiny 2 person backpacking tent at National and State Parks along our route. We have some trail cred, just sayin'.

One of the most interesting things about this cabin, however, is that it was once a families home. The Corbin family has quite a bit of history in the area and Seth came across a binder of old photos and newspaper articles from the time when Skyline Drive was being constructed as well as a book of stories about the mountain people who once populated this forest. It was truly interesting to be living inside of this history for one week.

Another cool thing about the cabin was the number of brightly colored butterflies who hung around just off the front porch. When we would come back from a run or hike and put our sneakers out on a large rock to dry a few of these butterflies would inevitable use them for a perch.


This little guy is nearly camouflaged on my sneaker

Due to the dimness of the cabin's interior and the extremely high temperatures we spent most of our time outside, suing the cabin mostly for a place to cook, store our gear and eat away from (most of the) bugs. We spent the first night in the bunk room, but after that we snoozed in our hammocks suspended between the trees along side the river.

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Bunk room

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Sleeping hammocks



Zipped in to these hammocks was the most comfortable place to be. Swinging under tree canopy with the breeze moving above and below we were cool and comfortable. The last night we were there a thunder and lightning storm past of the Blue Ridge Mountains and we were treated to a spectacular display in the night sky all while remaining dry thanks to the canopy and a favorable wind. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life.


Unfortunately, while statuesque, the deer were way to used to humans

Old Rag Mountain

On our second full day at the cabin we decided to hike a well known mountain in the area that neither of us had ever climbed before. As Seth was training for a 40 mile trail race in West Virginia he decided to run the 10 mile loop to Old Rag, while I drove on ahead and met him in the parking area. It was a scorcher. The temperature ended up being just north of 100 F that day. After arriving at the parking lot soaked with sweat (he literally rang out his socks and shirt) Seth refilled the bladder in his pack and we set out for a 9 mile circuit hike, which the park literature predicted would take us a bit longer than 6 hours.

We scoffed at the trail description of "strenuous hike" and "boulder scramble" as we made great time up the trail. That is, until we were within 1,000 ft. of the summit. The boulders began with large slabs that we could easily hop up on and across, but quickly became narrow passages between huge rocks that we had to hoist ourselves up out of and down in to. Following a series of blue arrows across an otherwise confusing jumble of boulders we picked our way slowly across several false summits only to realize that we were not there yet.


From atop one of the "false summits" D'Oh!

The heat continued and we began to conserve our water. We passed several groups who had also under estimated this climb and the heat with empty water bottles in hand and we realized that we were at least in better shape than some. We made it to the top and didn't stop for a photo. It was too hot and we were too tired. The trail began to descend and immediately became cooler and easier. We made it back to the car in 4 hours.

Luray Caverns

The next was forcast to be more of the same high temps. Seth had one of his usual strokes of genius and suggested we head for the much cooler underground world of Luray Caverns. Of course, this would mean a hot and sweaty hike out from the cabin to the car with a whopping 1,000ft. elevation gain over 1.5 miles, but it was worth it. Luray Caverns is one of the natural wonders that we have lived near for year and would probably never make the trip out to see unless, that is, we were living in a bee/snake/mouse infested cabin in the woods on a 100 F day.


Underground lake


Wishing well-the water is greenish blue from the copper in the pennies



All in all it was a truly memorable trip. We decided to cut it short by a few days and return to Arlington for showers, air conditioning and window screens. In the future I think we will save our cabin camping for the months when night time brings frost.

Henny Penny Visits Egypt

The alarm went off at 4:00 AM today so that Seth could get an early start for a 21 mile run in the Wadi in preparation for his 78K at the end of July. He did a smashing job, and I'm sure he'll post something about the run in the near future. I'm writing to share what happened within 45 minutes of our arriving back home.

Just as we were about to sit down and devour our breakfast a series of loud banging noises began to ring out from the bathroom at the end of our hall. We had noticed stacks of cement bags on the curb in front of our building on our way in and assumed the racket was part of the construction project. As we were about to take our first bite a particularly loud crack, followed by the sound of scattering debris, made me pause. I had closed the bathroom door earlier because of the noise. I walked back to check on things after Seth joked that "They sound like they're breaking in to our house."

They were.





Greeeeeeaaaaaat. Seth looked up at me from the couch as if to say, "I don't think I can move, can you deal with this?" I went upstairs to the apartment above where the construction was taking place. The workers followed me downstairs and brought a crew of guys to mix up some concrete and patch the ceiling. Seth rallied and helped oversee the job. We no longer have a hole in our ceiling and the poached eggs on toast were delicious.

As we say in Egypt, "Kollo Kwayess" [Everything's fine]

There is a Goat....

... in the back of this microbus. And yet....

Egypt is the land
Originally uploaded by SethTri

The Departure Has Been Lifted!

That about sums it up. On 28 April, Meg got the word that the departure had been lifted. She got booked on the first available flight (2 May) and should be returning home on 3 May. It's about stinkin' time!

I know she'd rather be on the plane already, but I'm kinda glad she isn't. While the house hasn't reverted to full on bachelor-pad mode, it.. ah.. requires some work.  Thankfully I have a 3 day weekend to take care of that! Needless to say though, we're all pretty glad to hear the news and the confirmed departure has lifted all our spirits.

If you're in DC: get your visits and phone calls in. Your short term lease is up. The repo-man is coming and I'm taking her back.

Sunrise Easter Service at the Arlington National Cemetery

Years ago when I was living in the DC area I read about the annual sunrise service held on Easter at the Arlington National Cemetery Amphitheater. I went alone and discovered a little known gem this city has to offer. This year I found myself in the area for Easter again. At 5:30 this morning I headed back to the Cemetery in the pre-dawn hours for a quiet spiritual morning.



Leaving my car in the parking garage I joined the flow of people moving toward the visitor's center in silence. We boarded the shuttle buses and wound our way along the network of roads heading toward the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the amphitheater behind it. We filed into our seats, marble benches on gradually sloping tiers, and listened to the Navy Choir and Army Band warming up as the sun climbed higher in the east behind the amphitheater.





The music was beautiful, both man made and Nature's work. Between readings and performances the birds swooped from one tree to the next filling the mild morning air with their own songs. The final piece the choir performed was the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah. We were left on our feet with goose bumps as the choir and chaplains filed off stage.



I took the slow walk back toward the visitor's center through the cemetery. Spring time in Washington is lovely.







After returning home I joined some friends for a paddleboat ride around the Tidal Basin. The weather was gorgeous.

Egypt and Italy.. a Pile of Catchup!

It's been so long since I last wrote something here, where do I even begin?

Let's start with Egypt:

Egypt seems to be calming down, but it's not the old Egypt and still has its moments of instability. Strikes right now are keeping people from taking the trains to Luxor and there was a protest outside of the U.S. Embassy on Thursday (though it was only a couple dozen people).  Overall, living life here is fine. I'm able to get about and do the things I want to do, including running on a regular basis. However, because the security services are still significantly degraded we are required to travel in pairs. Also, the Embassy remains under an ordered departure, so Meg is left in Virginia. We are always hopeful it will be lifted shortly, but the government is a bureaucracy and the situation in Egypt is fluid.  

Monday is Sham El Nessim - Egypt's Spring Festival that apparently has been celebrated for over 4,000 years. So between the school spring break, Easter weekend, and the Sham El Nessim, there are very few expats around this weekend. But a couple of runners are still around and the weather has been AWESOME (65ºF Low - 82ºF High) so we're still enjoying some nice runs in the desert. 

With the ordered departure still in place, Meg is in the U.S. while I'm here in Egypt.  I think we are now over 90 days. Also, I haven't had a break from work or Cairo since this whole thing started. I've been getting weekends off for about the last month, but going to Luxor or the Sinai are still not advised. So it was a great relief to get a week off from April 2-10.  Meg & I used it as a chance to get to see each other and get away from our respective jobs.

So, we ventured off for a week in Gressoney, Italy. This involved flying into Milan (see previous post) then a 90 minute transfer to the small town of Gressoney La Trinite. Europe has not received a lot of snow this winter (unlike the United States) but there was still enough left for us to enjoy some turns. I did a little off piste skiing with some more new found friends at the Telemark Ski Company. The off piste was reasonably decent, but it was incredible to feel the snow conditions change as temperatures, sun exposure and slope aspect mixed to create extremely different snow conditions as you moved around the mountain.

Four Great Things in Italy!

At one point we were not far from this photo coming down a slope and the bowl about 100m away from us (separated by a rock band) let loose in an avalanche! Since we were on the same angle only with more people on it, we hustled off and found a safer slope. Late in the afternoon on our last day, we were doing laps on a certain section of nice, relatively untracked snow. There was a bit of a traverse to get back to the lift. Between our second and third lap, a slide covered our traverse. The slide probably would not have buried you, but it would have knocked you off your feet. As we looked farther, we saw the slide may have pushed you over a cliff into a creek bed. Clearly the warm conditions through the week were making things dangerous so we got back on the piste and decided having a drink was a smarter/better way to spend the afternoon.

Lots of sun and fun was had. After a week though, we had to leave: Meg to the United States, me back to Egypt. When I got back to Egypt, I found it was actually cooler in Egypt than it was in Milan. What's up with that?

Day One in Milan

I arrived in at the Milan airport with a full day to burn before Seth would arrive from Cairo. After stashing my large backpack in airport baggage storage I headed for the train station and purchased a round trip ticket on the express train into the center of Milan. Before leaving for Italy I had done a bit of research on recommended sights and places of interest as well as printed out a map of the Milan subway system.

The express train was excellent. It was clean and quick, taking just 28 minutes to arrive in the center of town. When I left the station I opted not to go directly on the subway, but to walk along the streets for a bit. I was headed to the Duomo, a massive cathedral that one would think easily spotted from nearby streets.



The subway map print out ended up being my most valuable tool as I had not purchased a city map. I knew the Duomo had a subway stop on the red line and as I walked along the streets I spotted an entrance to a red line station. From there I began walking from station to station gradually sensing my way toward the cathedral. I wandered off course once or twice (“Woops, that’s a green line station. I must have been meant to take the left bend in the road back there.”) and was about to accept the fact that I might not find this monstrosity of a church even though it was surely just around the bend when I spotted a tall spire between two buildings. I was hot on the trail!



There are two main attractions at the Duomo: the interior and the roof. You can access the roof of this cathedral via a narrow twisting staircase of stone, or an elevator. I opted for the manual approach. Once on the roof you are surrounded by buttresses, intricately carved spires and stone railings. There are stone staircases built in to the roof, not as an afterthought for they show signs of weathering and wear that indicate many years of use and exposure. Aside from the view I was most impressed by the incredible detail and attention paid to the carvings in every out of the way corner, railing, banister or windowsill on this roof. Based on the level of detail put in to the roof, you can imagine what the interior of the church was like.



After leaving the church I headed to a sidewalk café for lunch. I was drawn in to one by an animated server who was doing a fantastic job pulling in people off the street and making conversation. I watched as he essentially started a casual conversation with passersby and then pulled out a chair and invited them to sit, placed a menu in their hands and excused himself, apologizing for the fact that he had to go inside to get his order pad. He was a master. These people may have just finished lunch somewhere else but he was so smooth they were about to eat again. I decided to give him my business as well. It turns out he is Brazilian, but has lived in several different countries, including the U.S. He speaks 5 languages and will be leaving Italy in 3 months to return to Brazil and open his own restaurant with the money he has saved while working around the world.





While waiting for my sandwich to arrive I thought I’d order a coffee. I looked over the menu quickly and found an entire page devoted to coffees. When he asked what I would like I ordered a latte.

“Latte?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Just milk?” he clarified.
“Yes, just milk.” I confirmed, thinking he meant only milk with my espresso.
“Would you like it hot?” he asked. This seemed like an odd question.
“Uh, yes. Hot please.”

A few moments later I was brought a small glass of hot milk. Mental note: “latte” is Italian for milk. If you want an espresso with steamed milk you need to order a “café latte” or a “latte machiatto”. Gotcha. I drank my milk like a good little American.