Day hike in Shenandoah National Park

 One of the nice things about being self-employed/semi-retired is that I can do things like make a spur of the moment decision to take advantage of a beautiful autumn day and go hiking at Shenandoah National Park. In all honesty, I don't actually have total control over my schedule - I missed two meetings to do this "hooky day", but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

I entered the park at Thornton Gap, and after a quick stop to take in the view at Tunnel View Overlook I parked at Hawksbill Gap and got ready to hike. I had watched the temperature drop by almost 15 degrees as I drove from the valley up into the park and I knew it would be yet colder up top, so I had packed lots of layers and a glove. Wait, what? One glove? Actually, I know for a fact I had brought two gloves since I was wearing them when I left the house, but one of my gloves mysteriously disappeared between home and the trailhead. Either it fell out when I stopped at Tunnel View Overlook (I stopped there again to look for it on my way out of the park, but no luck) or it has hidden itself very well in the car somewhere. So, I was left with a left glove and a pair of very lightweight fingerless sun gloves - I gloved up as best I could and kept my right hand in my pocket for most of the hike.

I hiked a loop up to Hawksbill Viewing Platform - up the Appalachian and Salamander Trails, then back via Lower Hawksbill - about 3 miles with 860 feet elevation gain. I am always chasing a peak fall colors experience like I had once when Valerie and I visited Ted at JMU and went for a hike. We must have hit the peak day of a particularly vibrant year, because it was spectacular and I've never since seen such vivid colors. In planning my park visits I even watch the NPS Fall Foliage YouTube videos - which aren't always that informative and can be hard to watch, since they're filmed outdoors and so have lots of wind noise, plus they feature several giggly young rangers taking fifteen minutes to deliver five minutes worth of information.

Anyway, for this hike it was already past peak at Skyline Drive and above, but the mountainsides down into the valleys were very colorful. Hawksbill has an actual viewing platform where you can stand and get an almost 360 degree view of scenery, plus there's a camping shelter nearby which offers, in my opinion, a superior (if only 180 degree) view. I spent quite a while at both spots, but it really was cold up there - water caught in crevices in the rocks was iced over, and there was lots of wind. I'm guessing it was in the low 30's up top. When I started to get cold I hit the trail again and finished the loop back to the car. 

On the way up to Hawksbill

Hawksbill View

Leaves along the trail

Little Stony Man View

I have to give a shout-out to the family of six - two parents plus four kids ranging from elementary school age down to baby in a backpack - who I saw (and volunteered to take photos of) at the top. It takes a certain amount of guts to shepherd a group of young kids up a mountain trail. 

The Hawksbill hike was less than two hours, leaving me time for more exploration. I did a second hike at Little Stony Man. I parked at Little Stony Man parking (milepost 39) and hiked up to the first viewpoint, then explored the Passamaquoddy Trail for a bit. I could have continued and done another loop (continuing on Passamaquoddy then back on the AT) which would have led me to two more viewpoints, but it was starting to get late (I wanted to get home ahead of afternoon rush hour) and so after taking in the view and once again doing photographer duties, this time for a young Scandinavian backpacker hiking from Harper's Ferry to somewhere in North Carolina, I retraced my steps back to the car. 

Trees at Little Stony Man

Color down the mountainside

On the way back I tried to stop at Rappahannock Coffee Roasters, but either they're not doing retail anymore or just weren't open mid-afternoon on a weekday. I then drove through Washington Virginia, which I had heard had quite a few stores these days (not just the Inn at Little Washington), but there still isn't very much there. My last stop on the way home was at the WaWa in Gainesville where I got a soft pretzel (yay!). They had no decaf coffee (what the actual F? C'mon WaWa) so I got a small regular coffee, which gave me that buzzy sped up feeling for the rest of the day.

Anyway, a nice little outing. Now, where's that darn glove?