NORSA ICE 2016

12-10-2016

The NORSA ICE was back and better than ever to close out the wild ride that was 2016.  Up for the challenge, as always, were Steven L, Tom, Justin, and Dan Marino.  In a major NORSA milestone, Matt White attended his first NORSA ICE since 2003, when a dislike of cold nights and/or paranoia led to a gap of over a decade between winter camping adventures.  Rounding out the team was Steven S, about to move to Colorado and participating in his last NORSA ICE east of the Missouri for the foreseeable future.

The team planned to return to Dolly Sods, but due to a fire ban in the area, they instead set their sights on Table Rock.  Adjacent to Blackwater Falls State Park, this relatively new winter trail for NORSA had been traveled by Steven S in the summer a couple years prior.  Being close to the ski areas in West Virginia made it likely to be a prime and authentic ICE trip.

 The drive included patches of snow as they approached the destination.  Once inside the park, the last mile of the forest road wasn’t plowed so they stopped at a small parking area and hiked in the rest of the way.  At this point it was about noon and the car thermometers read 20 degrees F.

Their plan was to do a loop that covered the trails on day one and would return on a forest road in the morning.  However, they missed the turn onto the Plantation trail.  The next visible turn was onto a trail that was no longer maintained and reached a dead-end in a meadow.  Precious daylight was lost circumnavigating the meadow, bushwacking for a bit, and looking for clues on pieces of lumber.  At last they realized the error and opted to return to the forest road to hike to its terminus with the Table Rock trail.

Fortunately, making up time was no problem, other than a few large mud holes covered in thin ice.  A lost dog with a radio collar was roaming in these parts.  The owner showed up the next day taking his truck through these rugged sections of the road.

Despite the setbacks, they made it to the Table Rock campsite with enough daylight to set up camp and do some quick foraging.  The camp sites were practically on top of the trail and the fire ring was pretty small.  However, they had the area all to themselves, and the Table Rock overlook was certainly magnificent in winter.  Despite the snowy and wet trail conditions, there was a reasonable amount of firewood.  Eventually they were able to warm up around the fire with cold beer and freeze dried or foil wrapped dinners.

The wind and snow from earlier in the day had turned to calm skies by mid-evening.  As the fire waned, both Stevens and Tom enjoyed the stillness at the overlook.  The view was still impressive underneath a nearly full moon.  It was a moving moment for the trio to think of their many NORSA ICE adventures together, all the way back to the notorious Signal Knob-Warren Hospital trip.  Then the moment passed in favor of  yelling puerile phrases into the darkness to hear it echo.

The night temperature was estimated to be in the teens.  Everyone slept well except for Matt, who only had a 30 degree bag.  Despite Matt’s prediction to the contrary, everyone survived and the morning was pleasant, with one last trip to the overlook accompanied by a little cowboy coffee.  After packing up, it was a pretty straightforward hike back down the road.  They even found an extra hatchet on the way.

It was less straightforward to find a spot for lunch in Davis since everything was closed on Sunday.   Despite the uneven availability of burritos, West Virginia delivered another excellent outdoor experience.  A fitting send-off for Steven S after eight NORSA-rific years of camping in the mid-Atlantic.