Shenandoah Valley

This weekend we took a romantic trip to Skyline Drive. This runs 105 miles along the crest of the Blue Ridge Moutnains. Specifically, the trip was to see all that we could of the Shenandoah Valley in just two days. Only 75 miles from DC, this was the closest part of the Appalachian trail to us.

We hit the road around 7am, as we needed to reserve a good campsite before hitting the trails. Heading out of DC we hit little traffic and with every bend in the road we less company on the roadway. Well less car company. There was plenty of deer coming out for the dawn feeding time. We hit skyline drive while the fog was still dissipating from the valley.

We hit the campsite and chatted with a few of the park rangers in an attempt to locate the better trails. There are hundreds to choose from and of course the ever present AT. The park rangers let us know a mother black bear and at least one offspring had been seen in the park area. After being in other parks, normally that was a park ranger stating it had been spotted somewhere in the VA portion of the Appalachian National Park. Nothing to worry about. Then we saw this cute face just yards from one trail. In case you can not see, it is an adolescent black bear. We saw a bunch more deer as well and butterflies like crazy.

We made it just over three miles down the side of the range, and then realized we had to make it back up hill. Greg was encouraging, and feeling tired but accomplished we made it back up the vertical climb. While the weather was fantastic, there has been little rain the end of summer time here in VA. This caused the normal river and waterfall views to be a little less then fantastic. The sweeping views on natural beauty more then made up for it.

We headed back to camp to see about getting a fire started and finish setting up camp before sun down. Luckily, we have years of experience camping so we brought firewood (local so no random bug infestation to kill local trees) and only a small amount of items. This means when the sun went down we were not scrambling to find dead wood in a full camp ground as many people seemed to be.

The full moon and crackling fire gave off enough light that flashlights seemed overkill. All too soon it was time to hit the sack. Greg passed out with the cool temperatures and natures song. I stayed awake most of the night, trying to figure out each slight noise. At one point, we had something sniffing at the tent. I opened the zippered window to look in the face of a doe. Apparently, this is more typical for her as she did not seem startled but slowly moved on to another campsite.

With the dew still on our tent we packed up in the morning to hit another trail on our way out. This one was starting off going up the ridge line and then back down. We both knew this would make these couple miles a little easier. There were some small stops to see along the way - old hunting cabin & natural spring - before hitting the landmark.

Mary's Rock made you feel on top of the world and part of The Last of the Mohicans main theme was playing in my head.