Waking up early, we got the rig ready to travel. Being that we travel in the middle of our
belongings, we hear every plate rattle, unlatched door open, misplaced storage
slide…so prep is an important part of our journeys – and we perfect it ever so
slowly as we go! The trip to Shenandoah
National Park was not as smooth as one would have hoped. With some narrow turns and the mirror causing
more problems – yah, making sure it’s set right is best BEFORE we get on the
highway!! – I felt my confidence dip.
Turning off the highway we made our way into Shenandoah on
the beautiful, albeit hilly and curvy, Skyline Drive. A gorgeous linear park that follows the
Appalachian Trail for over 100 miles, Shenandoah is a new park for us. Loft Mountain Campground is near the southern
end and we began our stay there picking our sites near each other and avoiding
the area cordoned off for bear watch and others with rattlesnake territory
signs! 
We got our sites set up just in time for familiarizing walk
around the area and an ice cream treat from the campstore. Each of the Shenandoah campgrounds lies just
off the AT and campers wander in throughout the day to the well-placed
campstore and the showers offered there before making camp for he night and
heading back out. What amazing athletes,
these hikers of 2186 miles of mountainous terrain! Kudos to my nephew, Evan, who conquered both
the AT and the PCT! 
A late afternoon mega storm came through and the rest of the
day was spent relaxing and settling in before the evening games of rummikub
commenced. Rob and I took a nighttime
walk through the park enjoying the countless stars and trying to not get lost
or wander into the bear capture area in the dark!
The next day had us up and out early to tackle the AT for a
stretch with an offshoot to the park’s Frazier Discovery Trail promising to
enlighten us on the history of the local settlers of the area. The AT is, at least in this Virginia stretch,
a quite wonderful trail to hike. With a
well-managed trail, good signage and clean footing for any terrain, it was
great hiking.
Taking the offshoot to the discovery trail was a completely
different experience. Immediately, the
trail became tight, rocky and steep and the “discovery” element was obviously a
personal experience vs a planned educational one without a sign or plaque to be
found! No matter, we kept at it enjoying
the exercise and the vistas along the way stretching to the horizon.
On the trail back, Rob distracted me with pointing out all
the bear scat on the sides of the trail after which just behind me Marcia
yelled “SNAKE”! I turned around to find
her and Jack staring just across the trail from the previously noted bear scat and
saw the 5 foot-ish timber rattle snake I apparently had just missed stepping
on!!! We watched it watch us and it gave
us a rattling show a couple times before slithering off into the woods. WOW! I
had my camera on video the entire time but apparently got flustered (wonder
why?!) and never hit record!
No comments:
Post a Comment