Shenandoah Matzo

It was one of those perfect spring days. Warm, sunny, and super-enticing after a cold, awful winter . Th kind of day when you just have to blow off your responsibilities and head for the hills.

I drove out to Shenandoah National Park early Monday morning. Stopped at the ranger station and paid my fifteen dollars (fifteen dollars!). Made a joke with the ranger, "OK, I'll pay you the $15 but in return you have to not tell anyone that I'm here today instead of at work." The woman sits by herself in a booth all day. You'd think she'd at least crack a smile when a visitor attempted to make conversation, even in the form of a lame joke.

Nope. Shtum. Anyway ...

I cruised down Skyline Drive to mile 19, passing along the way a large number of cyclists, many of whom appeared to be part of a group (they all had the same triangular rear reflector and all looked to be senior citizens). Since I'm in the proces of shopping for a bike myself I kept a lid on my usual feelings towards cyclists and ran not a single one of them off the road.

Little Hogback View

My goal was to do the Sugarloaf hike. This loop hike starts at the Keyser Run Fire Road parking area. I still feel bad about last year when I sold V on a hike by telling her that fire roads are easy hiking, and then we wound hiking on what turned out to be the world's most vertical, difficult to hike fire road. Keyser Run is more of a typical fire road: broad and fairly flat. From Keyser Run you continue onto Pole Bridge Trail, then Sugarloaf Trail. These are pretty areas with some significant elevation gain. According to the park brochure this is a 4.6 mile hike with a 1,029 ft. elevation gain. My GPS actually measured over 5 miles, but I did a little exploring here and there. I have to admit, there were moments on the Sugarloaf Trail when I was getting tired from the climb and wondered a little bit about why I was out there doing this. Then, however, I crossed Skyline Drive and hung a right onto the Appalachian Trail where I was immediately presented with the first of several great vistas (at Hogback and Little Hogback). I sat myself down on a rock and took a snack break, enjoying the view. It being Passover, I pulled out my Ziploc(TM) of matzo. "I wonder if I'm the only one in Shenandoah National Park eating matzo", I thought. I figured I probably was. I turned out to be wrong. Matzo, some nuts, turkey jerky, and water. Delicious.

Matzo break on the Appalachian Trail

 The AT meanders along, somewhat paralleling Skyline Drive but not sticking to the ridge line, so there were lots of switchbacks. Eventually I wound up intersecting with the Drive at the Little Hogback Overlook, where I paused again and took in the view. There I drank a little can of coffee we had gotten from the local Asian supermarket. Kind of like a Starbucks Doubleshot, but made in Thailand. And very caffeinated! From there it was a short hop back to my starting point. Thanks to my Thai canned coffee, I was indeed hopping, skipping and jumping down this last part of the trail.

I took the drive back out of the park slowly, stopping at a few of the overlooks to enjoy the view. I was blissing out on being outdoors in the sunshine and didn't want it to end. I took a picture of a dad and daughter visiting from Arizona. I admired the monadnocks. I cruised along, still not running any cyclists off the road.

At the top of the park I stopped at the Dickey Ridge Visitor's Center where, in a fit of responsibility, I pulled out some paperwork I had to read for work. I sat on a park bench and enjoyed the view and the setting while I read a top level requirements document for a new piece of software. While I was sitting there a family - parents, two school age kids - spread out a blanket not far from me and began to set up a picnic. The parents were speaking Russian to the kids; the kids were answering in English. Out came salmon, cheese, fruit - and matzo! On my way out as I walked past them I pulled my own little baggie of matzo out of my backpack and wished them a Happy Pesach.

I stopped at Spelunker's Burgers in Front Royal on the way back and got a milkshake - a rare indulgence for me, but I felt justified by nature of my hike and the deprivations of Passover.

Then it was back out of the hills and home.