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The next visible turn was onto a trail that was no longer maintained and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.
