Highacre Haven

During the spring and fall, we work with a group that volunteers in one of the local parks doing outreach work with hikers and park visitors.  This weekend was the winter gathering, which mainly consisted of renting a place for some of us to stay and stuffing ourselves silly for two days straight.  Good times.

This year (my first with the group), the gathering was held at Highacre House in Harpers Ferry, WV, which I recently visited for the first time.  Oddly enough, we saw the house when we visited a couple weeks ago, and had no idea we would be staying there this weekend.

The Girl and I arrived Saturday morning, after the first night of eating and games had already happened; work, traffic, and baking a loaf of Cheesy Sexy Bread prevented an earlier arrival.  Our group started the day with a stroll through a portion of the town on top of the hill.

Driveway gate

Same driveway, same wall, same great stonework

car boots are sometimes unnecessary

Highacre house sits at the foot of the historic cemetery crowning the hill.  It has a great view of where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers meet, and of the ruins of the St. John's Church, which was built, burned down, and rebuilt before succumbing a final time.

After lunch, a few of us headed across the river, and up the trail to Maryland Heights, diverting before the viewpoint to go up a very steep path to the old stone fort that once commanded the area with gun batteries and scores of troops who had to haul everything--water, food, supplies, and enormous, heavy cannons--up this road.  Not horses.  Troops.

Even though some of the cannons had a range of over a mile, the fort itself was still built to handle a direct attack.  Two long stone walls protected two long rifle trenches.  Originally, these walls extended well down the mountainside, and the top third of the mountain was clear-cut to provide wood for charcoal works, and to allow a clear line of sight in all directions.

The second day started early when I learned that it's hard to get a good sunrise shot from a valley.

However, I did get a better close-up of the sign on the cliff (I still can't read it) and a pair of climbers working their way up its face.