An Urban Boychick Takes on the Outdoors

 On October 19th, hoping to catch something near peak foliage, I drove out to Shenandoah National Park to do some hiking. Looking at places to hike, I saw Robertson Mountain mentioned as a neglected gem - overshadowed by nearby popular hikes like Old Rag. You can approach Robertson from the valley ( here and  here are listings for that hike ) but I chose the somewhat easier (though about the same length) hike from Skyline Drive . I parked at the Limberlost parking area (about mile 43 on Skyline Drive) and started out on the Limberlost Trail, which it turns out is one of the accessible trails in the park - it's flat, smooth gravel. It was chilly when I headed out and I started out bundled up in my puffy jacket, wool hat and light gloves. After a little bit, Limberlost intersects with the Old Rag Fire Road, which, being a road, was pretty easy hiking by the standards of Shenandoah. I mean, the trail is wide and flat enough to drive a truck down - something I saw proof of when a...

This was the incredible shrinking trip. I had originally hoped to pull off an overnight bike camping trip. Unfortunately, as the date approached I just couldn't motivate myself to prepare for a camping trip, which is a lot of work no matter how many times you've done it before. So I changed to the idea of doing a day of biking, staying over in a hotel, then a day of hiking. But really, who wants to stay in a hotel in these COVID times, particularly in areas which may not take it seriously? And let's face it, given the political signs around town I'm not at all certain this is an area that gives much weight to pandemic precautions. Also, as the date approached, the weather, while great for biking (cloudy, though warm), wasn't great for leaf peeping - so I decided to put off the hiking portion and just do a cycling day trip. Yeah, maybe I wouldn't want to stay in a hotel in this town So here's what it came down to: a roughly 50 mile one day bike ride. I would ...