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? 

Overnight in George Washington National Forest

I took a trip where I was introduced to a type of camping I had never done before - call it wilderness car camping. When I think of car camping I envision something like a state park with a certain degree of infrastructure: defined campsites and conveniences such as water spigots and bath houses. And of course, you can drive your car to your campsite and so you go in heavy with lots of gear. In contrast, when wilderness camping (backpacking or kayak camping) the campsites are remote, have little to no infrastructure (maybe an outhouse), and you have to get yourself and all your gear to the campsite under your own power - in a backpack or a boat - so you travel light. Wilderness car camping sits somewhere in the middle.

For my friend Steve camping used to mean only backpacking; however, as his hips and knees have aged he's become more open to car camping. But, he still doesn't like the idea of going someplace as developed as a state park. What he and his usual camping buddies (economists all - don't get them started talking about economics) do is drive out to lesser developed places to camp. Our original plan was to go to Red Creek campground in Dolly Sods Wilderness in West Virginia, but we made a game-time decision to head instead for George Washington National Forest (GWNF). 

National Parks are managed for preservation and recreation, and typically have the kind of higher camping infrastructure I described above. National Forests, on the other hand allow a wider variety of uses (hunting, cattle grazing, lumbering) and since they're not parks, their level of camping infrastructure is lower. The GWNF has well defined and blazed hiking trails, but there aren't many defined campgrounds or sites. Rather, it seems you can just pick a spot and camp anywhere in the Forest. Over time, I guess from use, obvious campsite locations have taken shape: maybe someone camped in a spot and built a fire ring, then successive users, by driving and walking around the site tamped down the vegetation, and a clear campsite emerged. Again, National Forests are not as concerned about maintaining nature in its pristine state and so they're fine with campsites being carved out ad hoc, But there's no infrastructure - no water, no outhouse, no nothing.

We met at Steve's friend Dave's house and discovered he had already prepared by loading his SUV with a ton of firewood - five or six of the bundles you buy in the supermarket. Then we added all of our gear. I was packed fairly light, since I mostly just grabbed the stuff I had recently packed for a kayak camping trip I dropped out of at the last minute due to coming down with COVID. But still, I had a pretty big amount of stuff (I packed a lot of layers!), and Dave and Steve had even more gear than I did. After loading everything into the car we really didn't have a square inch to spare.

A full car

Once we made the decision to go to the GWNF we headed for a place the two of them had camped before, which they claimed was almost always available, only to find that despite it being a Wednesday, there were already three different parties camped there. We could have squeezed into that area, but that would have meant a more crowded experience than we were looking for. Plus, Steve wandered into the spot where he and Dave would usually set up and noticed that whomever was camped there had a chainsaw and a half-empty magnum bottle of cheap gin. They had left a half-eaten meal out on the table (not a good idea in the woods), there were filthy kids' toys strewn about and their car was a decades-old beater filled with junk. We got a feeling that these might not be people we would enjoy camping next to, so we got back into in our car and continued up the forest road, where we found an unoccupied spot with a fire ring at the Scothorn Trail trailhead (Lat 38.691750, Lon -78.58007). There were really two campsites carved out there - one to the left of the trailhead, the other to the right. We set up in one and parked the car in the other, which turned out to be a good move. While we didn't see anyone else come by looking to camp, we had quite a few day hikers come by and the presence of our car on the right side cued them to use the right side for parking and stay away from our campsite on the left.

I have mentioned in the past that Steve is the least gear-headed outdoorsy person I know. I was pleasantly surprised to see that he had finally replaced his 1970's A-frame tent, though he still had some of his stuff packed in a backpack of similar antiquity. He brought along his hiking sticks - which are actual sticks. Dave seems to be a more gear-oriented camper and in fact has all brand new gear as a result of having recently lost all of his camping gear in a fire (long story). Still, they were both impressed with some of my gee-whiz gear - particularly my beloved Helinox backpacker cot.

After making camp we hiked the Scothorn Trail (very convenient, since we were camped at the trailhead!), exploring a couple of side trails along the way. Eventually Steve's back started to hurt so he decided to wait while Dave and I ascended the rest of the way to the peak, where he and I were rewarded with a nice view of the Shenandoah Valley and the mountains beyond (Massanutten is a small mountain range - a monadnock, actually that pops up as an interruption in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley, so valley views abound). At the summit our trail intersected with one which runs along the ridgeline. On the way up we had chatted with some hikers coming the other way who said the ridge trail along the ridge offered lots good views, but was rocky and difficult. Given the late hour we decided not to explore the challenging ridge trail and instead headed back. At the agreed-upon meeting point we picked up Steve who, in an only-in-Washington moment, while sitting in the middle of the woods at the trail junction waiting for our return, had fielded a call from a Politico reporter looking for a quote for an article on inflation and potential spillover effects of Fed monetary policy (Steve is a former high-ranking Fed official).

Scothorn Trail - likely an old forest road

The beginnings of fall colors

View at the top

I will also mention that we ran into another hiker on our way back - a young woman who was backpacking with her dog (which was wearing a little doggy backpack - adorable!). I noticed that she had a pistol within reach in one of the outside pockets of her pack. I understand why a woman hiking alone would feel the need for such protection, but I'm sad that we live in a world where this is the case.

Anyway, we got back to camp in time to relax with a cold beer then started making dinner. Steve's idea of camping cooking is, like his gear, mired in decades past - hot dogs cooked on a stick over the campfire, served with baked beans. That was dinner for the two of them; I had vegetarian chili I had brought along, knowing that Steve's food wasn't going to be to my liking. After that it was a pleasant evening of hanging around the campfire. Unlike my kayaking friends, who turn in super early, these guys stayed up almost to 11, and so I didn't have to resort to my usual group camping routine of reading and watching videos in my tent until it was late enough for me to go to bed.

Around the campfire

Different people have different camping ideas and rhythms. I'm used to camping with my kayak crew, who all rise early and immediately get started on the day. I slept pretty well, waking up only at midnight, 2 AM, 4 AM, 5AM, and then finally getting out of bed 6-ish. Once awake I got the stove going to make coffee (Starbucks Via Brew instant), then quietly began packing up some of my gear. When Dave and Steve finally rolled out of their tents about two hours later Steve was surprised to find me mostly packed. But we evened out the timing a little over breakfast. I happily lounged and had a second cup of coffee, and Dave's and my breakfasts (instant oatmeal and grits, respectively) took more time to prepare, eat, and clean up from than did Steve's Pop-Tarts. 

We stopped to enjoy another view on the road back

We broke camp and loaded the car, a task made easier by the fact that we had burned most of the firewood which had taken up so much space the day before. On the way out we stopped and did a short hike - an hour or so - and then headed back to civilization. When we got to Front Royal Dave and I had a good diner brunch at L'Dees Pancake House, while Steve, who is still very COVID-cautious, avoided going inside the busy diner and instead ate a sandwich in the nearby town square (I felt comfortable being a little cavalier about COVID since I presumably still have good immunity from recently having had it).

All told, a fun couple of days in the mountains with an old friend and a new one. Good hiking, and we saw a little bit of early fall colors.  

With Steve

With Dave

Robertson Mountain Hike

 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 forest ranger pickup truck passed by. I'm nervous about a lot of things when I hike, one of which is losing the trail. This is particularly true in autumn, when even the most obvious trail can get obscured by leaves. It's pretty damn impossible to lose sight of a forest road, so I was able to relax about that particular issue on this hike.

Pretty spot on the way up

The fire road intersects with other interesting trails along the way. If I had started earlier in the day or at a time of year when the days are long, I could see extending this hike via a side excursion down the White Oak trail or even bagging both Robertson and Old Rag mountains in one hike. As it was, I continued on my planned route, noticing many of the various trails that intersected the fire road but actually almost missing the Robertson Mountain Trail. There is a trail marker at the intersection of the fire road and the Robertson Mountain trail, but it's sort of off to the side - possible to miss if you're lost in thought while hiking.

The big vistas weren't quite at peak, but individual leaves were beautiful. My new iPhone 13 takes amazing close-up photos!

The trail up to the mountain is unblazed and fairly steep. According to my Strava log, you climb about 500 feet in a little less than a mile (in contrast, hiking up from the valley you climb 1,500 feet in 1.5 miles!). When I got to the top I found the expected rock outcropping at the peak. Here's another thing I worry about while hiking. I don't have a great sense of direction, and it's easy for me, while exploring the rocks at the top of such mountains, to get totally turned around and have no idea where I came in. If there are several trails leading to the peak I can get confused about which one I came in on. Because of this, I took out a red Buff I had in my bag and tied it around a tree right next to the trail I had come in on.

A marker to help me stay unlost

I explored the rock outcropping at the peak, but didn't find any vista. I felt kind of bummed - like maybe this is one of those views that's only good when the trees were bare. It was still a nice hike, but I was a little bit disappointed about climbing a mountain and not getting a view. I explored around the peak area some more; I didn't find any view, but I did find a campsite, where I sat down and had lunch. While I was eating my lunch I spotted a guy coming out of the rock outcropping at the peak. As far as I could tell, there was only one way in and out of the rocks, and I hadn't seen him arrive, nor had I seen him while I was up on the rocks - so he must have been on some part of the rocks I had missed.

After lunch I climbed back up the rocks to try and find where this other hiker had been, and lo and behold - I found an area I had missed before, with a lovely, expansive view of Old Rag and the valley below. The spot was warm and sunny, as well. I unbundled a bit and walked around taking pictures, then sat for a bit just enjoying the view.

View at the top

Bald on Night Mountain (apologies to Mussorgsky)

Shiny!

The hike back was just the reverse of the hike in - except that I stayed on the fire road all the way to the parking lot. On the way out I made a quick stop at the Skyland Lodge. I'm rarely in this section of the park and I wanted to see what the lodge was like (nothing special). I also wanted coffee, but the line was too long. I stopped at a couple of the overlooks on Skyline Drive, then headed home. I did eventually get my coffee, along with a soft pretzel, at a WaWa Market on the way home. Ted and I are big WaWa fans, and we both particularly like their pretzels. Coffee and a pretzel may seem like an odd combo - but not if it's WaWa.

Looking west from a Skyline Drive overlook

BTW, one thing I didn't worry about, but perhaps should have, was bears. When I posted photos from the hike on Facebook, a friend commented that she had been hiking that trail just a week earlier and had had a close encounter with a a bear!

Shenandoah Spookout

So, I took some time off in between jobs. My idea was to spend about half my time catching up on the “to do” list so that I could go into my new job without worrying about that kind of stuff, and the other half doing fun things. As it happened, the weather throughout the period was absolutely lovely and so it was hard for me to focus on anything but outdoor activities. Well, one day I decided spontaneously to head out to Shenandoah National Park. I just had an urge to be in the woods, to hike. I knew that the foliage post-peak, but I wasn’t really going for leaf-peeping.

Since I hadn’t planned this trip my first step was to hit the computer and find a hike that I hadn’t done before, which was fairly accessible, had something to recommend it, and was about the right length. That led me to the idea of doing a hike on some of the trails out of Mathew’s Arm campground area. There’s a nice hike there that leads to what is supposed to be a pretty waterfall. Unfortunately, this choice turned out to be problematic. At the entrance to the park I noticed a sign saying that the campgrounds, including Mathew’s Arm, were closed for the season. I asked the range if I could still get to the trailhead there. He said yes, but that I would have to park across the road at Rangeview and hike down into the campground. What turned out to be good about this is that it gave me the opportunity to see  (from the outside) one of the few remaining WPA bunkhouses – the houses that were built to lodge the workers who built the park as part of a New Deal construction effort in the 1930’s. What was bad is that it added quite a bit of distance to hike down Skyline Drive and then down the access road into Mathew’s.

It should be said that I’m pretty good at scaring myself. As I walked into Mathew’s Arm I thought about the fact that I was kind of light on supplies (just basic day hike stuff) and that I was going into a part of the park which was closed off and would probably deserted. Pus, no one knew I was there. Needless to say, I soon conjured scenarios where I injured myself or was attacked by a bear and died out in the wilderness because no one knew where to look for me – my very life depended on the ranger at the entrance remembering that hiker who asked about Mathew’s Arm. Sad to say, I can whip myself into this kind of frenzy even while hiking in suburban parks. I drive myself nuts.
I found the trail head at Mathew’s Arm and proceed with my hike, soon adding the worry that I’d lose the trail, since there was a thick carpet of newly fallen leaves, making it hard in spots to follow the trail. That latter fear was alleviated a little when the trail turned into a wide forest road. 

I hiked out the Mathew’s Arm trail, hitting the junctions with the Weddlewood and Beecher Ridge trails as expected. I have to add that in the entire time since I left the car I had not seen a single other person, reinforcing my idea that I was alone in the wilderness. As I approached the Tuscarora trail junction, not far from the waterfall, all of a sudden all the hairs on my body (yes, I have some) stood on end and I spontaneously turned around and started hiking in the other direction. I’ll never know whether I had sensed something ahead of me on the trail (a bear!) or whether I had just succeeded in scaring myself into irrationality, but something told me to turn around rather than go on. So I did. That’s why I can say only that Overall Run Falls is “supposed to be” pretty – I never quite made it there to see it for myself. Needless to say, on the way back I started to run into other hikers, and when I got back to the Mathew’s Arm lot there was a crew there working on some repairs. It turns out I was far from alone out there.

When I got back to my car (BTW, there were other people in the parking lot) I felt a little short-changed since I had cut my hike short (the extra distance to get to the trailhead notwithstanding) and so I did a short hike there. I hiked about a mile up the Appalachian Trail (1 mile down, 2159 to go!) to Range View cabin, one of the PATC cabins in the park. It was unoccupied and so I sat down on the front porch, had a snack, and enjoyed the view. The day had warmed up nicely and so I laid back for a bit and enjoyed the warm sunshine. Finally, I hiked back to the car and headed home, stopping at Spelunkers in Front Royal for a somewhat-earned milkshake. 

Meadows Cabin Weekend

My friend Gina decided to celebrate her birthday by renting a historic cabin at the edge of Shenandoah National Park and inviting along a bunch of friends. Despite being swamped (as usual) at work, or maybe because I was swamped at work and needed some time "off the grid", I jumped at the invitation. The group included Gina and Peter H2, Dave and Cyndi, Nelson, Suzanne and me. Oh, plus the icing on the cake - Jen had a business trip to DC and came down a little early to join the outing.

Meadows Cabin

I volunteered to drive Jen. She flew into National, took the Metro to my neighborhood and walked to my house, detouring to walk up her old block along the way. Given the limits of bringing stuff with you on an airplane, she was short 1 or 2 gear items and hadn't brought any food and so our first order of business was to gear her up. I grabbed some stuff for her (now, in addition to saying that I have slept in Jen's tent, I can also say that she's slept in my sleeping bag) and after a stop at Westover for lunch (Italian Store pizza!) we picked up some food food and then headed for the hills. 

Cabin Selfie

We got to the cabin just a few minutes behind Gina and Peter. Dave, Cyndi and Nelson (who had driven together) were already there. It's not quite clear to me why, since there's a perfectly good dirt road there, but they don't let you drive all the way to the cabin. You have to park about 1/4 mile away and walk the rest of the cabin. Knowing that Gina was bringing a garden cart for the purpose of hauling gear I I hadn't exactly packed light. I had the basics in my backpack but had also brought a tub of extra stuff, plus instruments. We made a few trips with backpacks and a garden cart to bring all our stuff up - gear, musical instruments, drinking water, food, etc. 

The cabin dates from 1913, from an era before they created the park. On the main floor it has a great room with bunkbeds on one side and a sitting area with a big wood stove on the other, and a kitchen. Cooking is via a cast iron wood stove or hot plate. There's electricity but no running water or refrigeration. No bathroom, of course - outhouse only. The cabin also has a loft room up a steep stairway with some more beds. Dave, Cyndi and Nelson stayed upstairs. The rest of us stayed downstairs, closer to the stoves. Dave siad he heard "a rat" walking around upstairs at night. I'm sure he heard something, though whether it was a mouse, a rat, squirrels or whatever I don't know. 

The kitchen

It seems perfectly natural that a house from 1913 would be rustic - rough-hewn beams and wood stoves for heat. When I thought about it, though, I realized it's ten years newer than the house in which i grew up, a Victorian charmer (well, technically Edwardian) with stained glass windows, parquet wood floors, and central heat. Urban NYC vs. rural Virginia living, I guess.

Planning Saturday's Hike

Down the Trail

Anyway, I noticed on my phone that at some point in the afternoon I had gotten an email about gigs at Westover. I had been chasing their booking agent for months and so I was eager to get back to him before he gave the slots away. Cyndi mentioned that she had found a spot with cell service  on the nearby blue-blazed trail and so I took off in search of coverage. So much for "off the grid". To make a long story short, I found a spot where I got phone coverage, and so I took the opportunity to call Valerie. I had a nice walk. I briefly got lost off the trail because I was paying too much attention to the phone. With daylight fading I hightailed it back to the house. But I never found data coverage. It was Sunday before I got the email out.

Dinner was Gina's white lasagna, lots of snacks, sides and veggies, and no shortage of wine.

Saturday Hikers

Saturday was chilly, cold enough that we got a dusting of snow, but not super cold. After a nice breakfast (Jen's breakfast burritos) and a little wood splitting we headed out for a hike. Hiking in Shenandoah always means rocky trails and lots of elevation change. We let Peter choose the hike - which may have been a mistake, given that hes a pretty extreme hiker. We hiked out for a bit. Jen and Suzanne turned back because Suzanne's hip was hurting (we're all getting older). The rest of us continued, hiking about 13 miles by our estimation with well over 1,500 feet of elevation change. We hiked in and out of snow all day as our elevation changed. The hike included a brief lunch stop at Rapidan Camp, which was built as President Hoover's country retreat (Roosevelt established Camp David). Overall, a very pleasant day, but we were beat by the time we got back. I felt generally OK, but my feet hurt from a day of rocky tread and up-and-down hiking. I sat down with a glass of wine and dozed off for a bit while trying to read my book.

Saturday Hikers

Falls

Saturday dinner was a feast - Dave and Cyndi's sweet potato and squash chili, cornbread baked in a cast iron skillet, my vegetarian stuffed cabbage, and the usual assortment of snacks and sides. And no shortage of wine. After dinner Jen and I played music for a while. Everyone was tired and we headed to bed early. We had gotten the hang of feeding the wood stove and the place stayed nice and warm overnight.

Music

Sunday morning, after a nice breakfast of omelettes, we headed out for a short hike. It was a warmer day and so we were less bundled up and we could stay warm without being on the move. We hiked down to a pretty set of waterfalls where we hung for a bit. When we got back to the cabin we laid out all the leftovers on the picnic table for lunch. And sang happy birthday to Gina!

Sunday Hikers

Cyndi

Birthday Cake!

Peter and Dave cutting wood

After that it was time to head home. We trundled everything back to the cars, then all of us except Gina and Peter hit the road. As always, it was great to get away from it all. As always, it was nice to get back to indoor plumbing.

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.

A couple of trips to the Shenandoahs

It's a quick trip from where I live to Shenandoah National Park: an hour and forty-five minutes at most. Every year I vow I'm going to take more advantage of this nearby hiking wonderland, however I'm ashamed to admit how often I go for extended periods without going there. Well, this Fall I have been true to my vow, having logged two recent trips to the Shenandoahs.

First, just I was really jonesing for a hike, Teddy asked if I'd want to come along on a Yorktown High School Outdoors Club hike to Old Rag Mountain. I felt pretty happy that he asked - not every teenage kid wants his dad tagging along on a school trip with his friends. I was also thrilled because this is one of the best hikes in the area. The hike is about nine miles of fairly steep vertical trails with some rock scrambling to finally reach a great view at the summit at about 3200 ft. elevation. There were as many adults as kids along on the hike: two Yorktown teachers (required), my friends Elisa and Steve, another Dad and I accompanied five high schoolers and one younger kid. A very nice group of kids - I think the kind of kid who would spent a weekend day hiking rather than playing Nintendo or going to the mall is the kind I'm inclined to like. Interestingly, the trail was much less crowded than usual - perhaps because it was at the very early edge of foliage season and most folks were waiting for more intense Fall colors to appear.

Fast-forward a couple of weeks: This past Friday after a crazy week I found myself with a day off and decided to head for the park again to get my own look at near-peak colors. I can make myself crazy second-guessing my decisions and I did so as I drove out to the park - such a long drive, this wasn't a great year for foliage because of a hot, dry September so why am I bothering?, I had so many chores to take care of, I needed to practice for an upcoming bar mitzvah gig, was it even worth the trip? These thoughts dogged me all the way to the park but disappeared the minute I was out of the car and on the trail.

It was a chilly, windy morning but I was properly dressed. The air was crisp and the view was notable even from the parking lot. I parked at Panorama (near Thornton Gap) and hit the Appalachian Trail headed to Mary's Rock. This is another vertical hike to a spectacular viewpoint - albeit a shorter one than Old Rag. I had my GPS with me and the elevation view of my track is pretty entertaining: flat across the parking lot, then a steep steady climb, gaining 1,200 ft in elevation over just 1.8 miles of trail. I had brought my camera along. Between the partly cloudy weather and the aforementioned sub-optimal foliage conditions, the big vistas were not popping with color to extent they sometimes do. However, there was plenty of color at the level of individual trees. I pointed my camera at stands of trees and even individual leaves - some of the leaves had strikingly beautiful multicolored patterns. I think I got some nice pictures.

The summit of Mary's Rock affords a nearly 360 degree view of the park and the Shenandoah Valley. Because of its sweep I think it's actually a more stunning view than Old Rag. I scrambled up the rocks at the summit to get an even better view. The view was so nice that I ignored the cold wind and stayed up on the rocks to eat my lunch. My Spaghettios Thermos (passed down from my children) hadn't kept the Asian noodles with peanut sauce I had prepared very warm but the dish was still tasty and just warm enough to help counter the nippy conditions on the mountain. I had the summit to myself - again, the trail had been fairly empty - though a couple of other hikers showed up just as I was starting down.

On the drive back I spotted a coffee roaster store in Sperryville. I was past the place by the time its presence registered, so I pulled onto the shoulder and drove about 100 feet in reverse back to the store. The place is a true roaster - they roast their coffee in-house. Their bags of coffee all carry roast dates, and the dates of the two bags I bought were the current day and the day before - fresh roasted! I poured a cup for the road (which they comped to me since I bought two bags of coffee!) and headed back home, this time without any inner second-guessing.

They are risen!

Midway through today's hike I had two simultaneous and contradictory thoughts. Tired and achy from rock scrambling on the way to the top of Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah Park, I looked at the next challenge and thought, "Boy, maybe I'm reaching the age when I'm going to have to cut back on some of these more strenuous outings." The reason I had time for my thoughts to wander, though, is that we had caught up with a hiking group composed entierely of Korean (I think) senior citizens and had to wait while they scrambled up a particularly challenging crevice in the rock. They were slow, but each and every one was making it. Ted and I had talked for a while earlier in the day with one of the younger members of their group, Joe, who told us that this group hikes every Sunday, and that they do it for their health. From the pace they were setting up the mountain, I'd say it was working! I guess if you set your mind to it, you don't ever have to slow down.

We did this hike as a closer to Ted's Spring Break. The last day of Spring break promised great weather, and so the two of us headed for the mountains. Ted had never done this hike before, and I'm not sure whether I had either (I know I've hiked the nearby White Oak Canyon trail), but it's known as one of the most spectacular hikes in the region. We expected the park to be empty, given that it was Easter, but when we arrived at 9:45 AM the upper lot was already full. The trailhead was abuzz with activity, including the Korean seniors doing group warmups.

I won't bother with all the particulars of the hike. I'll just say we did the classic Old Rag loop, 8.8 miles, plus the walk to and from the lower parking lot, for a total of about 10 miles. Elevation gain of about 2350 ft from the lot to the summit. Peak elevation, about 3200 ft. The weather indeed turned out to be lovely - chilly at first, but warming with the afternoon sun. We got ourselves pretty warmed up from the hiking and scrambling too; at one point just before the summit my legs got pretty rubbery from exertion and I had to take a little break.

We reached the summit at about 1 PM. There were still little icy pools of water here and there in the rock at the top, but overall it was a wonderful scene. Sunny, great vistas. We reconnected with a few groups we had bumped into on the way up - the three foul-mouthed nurses and their friend Tom, the young rock climber chick who had given me a boost to help me start up the challenging crevice mentioned above, and of course, the Koreans.

The hike down was on easier trails, but was still tough. I know from experience that for some reason I'm very slow when going down in elevation (it must be some muscle imbalance, since I'm fine on the climb), and so lots of people passed us on the way down. Finally, Ted and I arrived at the car tired and happy, with a great feeling of accomplishment.

The only other unusual part of the hike was that it was still Passover and so I couldn't take my usual collection of trail snacks - energy bars and the like. Instead I made do with matzo & cheese, an orange and various other little kosher for Passover tidbits I found at home. Likewise, when we stopped at WaWa market in Manassas for a snack on the way home, I had to pass up all the yummy chometzdick (that is, not kosher for Passover) snack foods. I wound up with the healthful, if not 100% satisfying combo of Baked Lays and apple slices.