Adventure to Cook's Wall

Much of my hiking seems spur of the moment. Work, bad weather, family events, and general chores tend to prevent me from going out as often as I would like. Especially right now in an El Niño winter which is very rainy for the southeast United States. Hiking in the rain isn't that bad, but isn't that good either, especially when it's 33 degrees Fahrenheit. So when the sun comes out and the chores are mostly caught up I find my heart and soul slipping down the road to a trail. My body must follow or I'll find myself in a state of deep depression. So I've gotten into the habit of keeping two or three trails and trips in the back pocket, planned out for when Providence shines on my desire to hike.

Such planning and preparation is simple as long as a person keeps it simple. My mom used to tell me and my brothers to "K.I.S.S"- Keep It Simple, Stupid. This concept is important in any kind of planning: the more cogs involved in your plan the more that can go wrong. So I try to keep it simple, and I try to incorporate the basic principles of mission planning every Marine is trained in, and that is another acronym called BAMCIS. BAMCIS is Begin planning, arrange reconnaissance, make reconnaissance, complete planning, issue orders. Now that sounds like a lot, and it could be, but I use it more as a… guideline.

So when I begin planning, the hike will happen, probably within 30 days of the initial planning. I have to ask, where, and when do I want to hike? How long? How far? How far away? AllTrails the mobile app and www.alltrails.com, it might be one of the greatest tools available to adventurers, and is free for a basic account, though a premium account is well worth it. I wish I could say they sponsored me, and hope that one day they might. You can search and find most hiking trails/greenways/blue blazes, and even a lot of overland routes in the US. It's not a perfect manifest of every trail ever, and I have found a few errors, but it's a great starting point! You can search for trails by distance, difficulty (though this is very subjective), purpose of the trail. They have layers for satellite and their own topographical, and USGS topographical available in premium. You can see pictures of the trail other people have uploaded, and uploading your own pictures is pretty easy (in my opinion.) It synchronizes with your phone’s location information if you allow it, and you can record your hike as you go as well, and follow your progress in the map. If it's a city greenway or county trail that's usually good enough for me, I'll do a quick check on Waze (also unaffiliated) to see how far away it is, save it in a "to do" list in AllTrails.

That begins planning, making reconnaissance, and completes the reconnaissance. Completing the planning is a matter of making sure I have things available to strike out at a moment's notice. To have a pack with shorts or pants, a shirt I like hiking in, shoes, hiking sticks, a water filter, a tent or hammock, a sleeping pad, and maybe a bag and a cook kit, a light, and water. The last 2 pretty much stay with me, the others have to live in a day pack in the truck.

When those days come-the stars align, and nothing is stopping me I issue the orders to myself and go, but I don't abandon sense with civilization. I tell Angel, my wife, where I'm going, and about how long I'll be gone, sometimes I invite her and the kids, sometimes I just go, but she knows generally where I'll be, and when to expect me back by.

On February 23rd just such a day arose and I headed to Hanging Rock State Park. I had done a quick search for a good hike that should take less than three hours. I found the Cooks wall via Moore's wall trail loop, which was quoted as 4.4-5 miles. While the elevation gain was over 800', the contour lines didn't look too bad so that's what I set on. I left work about 3:40PM and got to the HRSP lake parking lot around 4:40PM, hit the trail about 4:50/5PM. It was a lovely evening for a hike, through mushy, muddy, and wet. Rhododendrons hung thick on the Moore's wall trail in the valley leading into the lake. The shade from the bushes kept patches of ice from melting despite temperatures being in the 60s that day. Recent ice storms had brought trees down all over the forest. New little bushwacks (improvised trails off the actual trail) cut around the fallen pines and hardwoods.

0.8 miles down the Moore's Wall trail the trail forked. I hung a left onto the Magnolia Spring trail towards the Cook's Wall Trail. The trail, which had been a very mild grade (only about 70 feet of elevation gain in a mile), became a slightly harder grade (almost 500 feet in a mile) and had me out of breath for most of that incline until I got to the ridge. At the ridge, the Magnolia Spring Trail (which passes by the Magnolia Spring, which I didn't stop for because I was racing to catch the sunset). The Cook's Wall Trail runs west past House Rock and over the crest of Cook's Wall Mountain before running through a saddle that brings you up to Cook's wall. I missed a clear view of the sunset by less than five minutes, but it was still beautiful. The west side of Cook's Wall Mountain had several large patches of ice still; I found clambering around the fallen trees to be fun, but definitely slowed the journey some.

I spent maybe 10 minutes enjoying the views before turning back down the trail. The views got better as the Triad began to turn on their lights as the mountain looks down on Winston-Salem and Greensboro. I stopped a couple times to enjoy the lights coming on, but pushed hard to get past the ice on Cook's Wall Mountain. I soon found myself halfway back to the parking lot where the trail intersects with Magnolia Spring Trail. By this time, especially being on the east side of the mountain, I switched on my little flashlight and followed trail markers back to the parking lot. It was the first time I had hiked by myself in the dark. It was nice. It was nicer with most of the hibernating animals still asleep, not that I'm scared of that sort of thing, but it's one more thing I would have been thinking about as I stepped down the dirt path. It was a nice break in the week, a good exercise for the legs, and a welcome mental rest from the chaos of the day - to - day shift work.

So stay prepared for short getaways. Keep a bag or two in your trunk. Maybe for the morning or afternoon, maybe the day, a night, or a weekend even. A dedicated set of clothes and equipment makes it so much easier to be able to go at a moments notice. Food can be had on the way, on the east coast if you're carrying a good water filter, water is usually within a mile or two. The biggest thing is to give yourself the best chance of an enjoyable adventure and the fewest possible excuses for not going. We love you. Keep it simple, keep it calm, and hike on.

Ken.