Harwood Mills Hike 3/3/2015

What is it about Harwood Mills and snow? It seems that those two go together like a horse and well, you know what I mean. That is if you are over 50 years old. Two out of the past 3 years we either had snow on the ground or we had to hike very fast to get finished before it came down. This year I pulled a date right out of the sky to have this year’s hike and guess what? We had more snow with a small crust of ice on top, more than all the other years put together. As we drove into the parking lot there on Oriana Rd, I could see it was going to be a fun trip with all the ice covering the lot. The reservoir looked like an ice rink and I was sure one of our members would try and test the ice but “Bob” and “Margaret” stayed away from there. A few people were running late and we danced around in the parking lot waiting for them, so to keep warm, with the temp at 33 degrees. As we arrived the Por-o-Jon Man was cleaning out the Little Blue House. Or was it Green? I’m not sure because all the ones we had as a youngster were made out of wood and only one was painted white, back in the 50’s. Those were the days! So much for my childhood !We circled up and I gave one of my fastest “Safety Talks” ever and everyone of the 17 said their names which were: Margaret, Diane, Stephanie, Dottie, Melissa, Steve C, Ken, Jack, Mark C, Chris, Bob A, Richard, Joe, Bill G, Steve R, Bruce J. and from her car Susan as she was getting her gear together. I am so glad it is early in the year because I made my first mistake by writing down the wrong directions and this made Susan about 10 minutes late. Now I still have the rest of 2015 to be perfect Ha ! Ha ! Sorry Susan ! The Chris I wrote down is a person who was going to hike with his dog Cody. Margaret invited them to hike with us, and he told me of a new place with a tunnel under the highway we can hike at a later date or maybe next year.

As we stood there in the parking lot a large airplane flew out of Newport News/ Williamsburg Airport and in about 8 minutes another large plane flew out and then as we started hiking towards the airport another large plane flew out. We all thought that the airport was really getting busy maybe because of all the snow we have had in the past two weeks. As we reached the 10 foot fence that runs along the airport boundary, another large blue and white airplane flew out once again but this time Jack let us know that this plane was one of the planes they have for the President called “Air Force One” and they were doing touch n go out of this airport because it is not all that busy. Thanks Jack !

On this side of the park we made a loop which was about 2.5 miles and crossed over Oriana Rd. heading for Denbigh Blvd.. Here we lost two of our hikers because they already had enough fun for one day and headed to their cars. Everyone else crossed over the road and here we started looking for deer which we had seen for the past two years. Making it to the power lines, we looked up at the two Osprey Nest located in the towers. Bob A. and I saw a bird that looked like an Osprey but he never got close enough to really tell for sure. It is about 2 weeks too early for them to be here but some have been known to stay all year. We hiked another mile and here we lost three other hikers that wanted to turn back because it was not all that easy to walk in 5 or 6 in. of snow with that hard layer of ice and they did want to visit Trader Joe’s.

I showed them the easiest way to go back and the rest of the group hiked on. Bob A. who always has his eyes trained to spot anything and everything saw what looked like an old car out in the woods. We check it out and sure enough it was an old 40’s truck, which had been there for who knows how long, 30 or 40 years. Hiking on we spotted 4 deer standing in the road about 150 yards away. They let us take pictures of them and never moved. We moved on in another direction and making it to the highway we had about 4 miles with 2.5 left. Here we turned around and headed back towards our cars and trucks. Not wanting to hike on the same trail back, I turned onto one of the bike trails which was easier to walk on. The ground was warmer because there were no leaves on it and this made the snow melt faster making it easier for us to walk. As we walked into the parking lot my New GPS read, 6.55 miles, not bad for a six and a half mile hike.

We now had to head for Joe’s and Mimma’s Rest., for lunch and all but two made the trip. We did pick up one for lunch. It was Diane’s husband Bill who works close by making 16 to eat. This was another great Tuesday Outing even though our leader was in sunny Florida soaking up the sunshine.

Bruce