Shenandoah & Blue Ridge Parkway

After I finished my last post at a foggy pullout I hiked down to Rapidan Camp, Herbert Hoover's Presidential Retreat (the function Camp David serves today, the latter established by the next president). Because it wasn't a weekend and it was late in the afternoon I was the only hiker there. Staff were busy shutting down the camp so I didn't get to tour the former president's house but got to read the history in a display at the Prime Minister's House and enjoy the tranquility of the setting. Hoover was an avid fisherman and loved hearing streams so they rerouted the water from two nearby streams to create a nice flow below his house. The photo below of the wooden deck shows the view from the President's house, with the water just 25' below.

I was thinking of my fishing friends when I took this photo. 

This was a light hiking day, steeped in history.  The Visitor's Center I visited in the morning had a very good display of the park's history. I couldn't help but have mixed emotions. I am an advocate of National Parks that preserve the wilderness for future generations. But it had never occurred
me that when parks were established in areas of high population density (i.e., the first areas in America to be colonized) that it would require that people be displaced from their homes, whether they wanted to be or not. Some of the government's tactics to get people to give up their lands were less than reputable and the purchase prices not always fair. Only the elderly were allowed to stay on their lands with the understanding that when they passed their land belonged to the park. Others attempted to fight to keep their lands but lost their battles. I ran across some history along the Blue Ridge Parkway with similar scenarios.

I enjoyed some lovely sunset views on my way back to the campground after my Rapidan hike. There were rain clouds forming that made for some interesting lighting (see 2 photos below), but it made me wonder about the forecast of clear weather for the next day, when I planned to tackle the iconic hike of Shenandoah -- Old Rag.





It rained that night but the next morning dawned clear. The trail head for Old Rag is located outside of the park; about 1.5 hours drive from where I was camped. I stopped at several overlooks to photograph sunrise colors on my way to the hike (photos below). The valleys on the west of Skyline Drive were filled with fog.

Old Rag Mountain, my destination for the day's hike.

Old Rag is a 9.2 mile loop hike that involves some pretty serious rock scrambling if you go from the Old Rag parking lot and opt for the scramble route. There were some big steps and a good arm workout to pull yourself up or ease yourself down between big rocks. I trashed my favorite hiking shorts. I'd half trashed them on the long Mt. Adams glissade (under rain pants even!) that Diana and I did in August. but a few slides down rocks during the Old Rag scramble finished the job. The route up traversed through a lot of the rocks you see in the photos. I was happy for a sane way back (down a normal trail and along a fire road back to my van).






There were still pockets of fall colors here and there. Despite the 1.5 hour drive to the trail head and back, I managed to get the loop hike in, get some groceries and gas and get back to the park as the sun was setting.


The next day I hiked to the top of several small peaks and did a hiking loop that went down, down, down to a single water fall and back up again. There is no shortage of water falls in Shenandoah.


It rained hard for several hours that night. I was SOOO happy to be snug in my van, nestled between sheets, rather than in a tent in a clammy sleeping bag. The next morning I watched a man pull his very soggy sleeping bag out of his tent. The rain fly was plastered down to the tent. He wasn't there early in the morning so I don't know whether he bailed during the night (to the nearby lodge?) or just went for an early morning drive to warm up.

The heavy rain and accompanying wind overnight  cleared out the haze. I was on my way out of Shenandoah by way of 3 different hikes and was happy for more expansive views.



In my 5.5 days in Shenandoah National Park I hiked 45 miles and drove the 105.5 mile length of Skyline Drive (parts of it several times). Only 1 campground was open but because I was there late in the season, on  weekdays, there was no problem getting a campsite and prices just went on late fall discount ($17/night).

So here's where I need to gush about how much I love my van. Usually when I hike this much I grow tired of freeze dried or dehydrated food and wind up craving crunchy green salads, fresh fruit, cold beer, and ice cream. But when I get back from a hard day of hiking, all of that is in my fridge!  When it rains at night I don't have to hassle with packing up a wet tent the next morning and pitching it, still soaked, the next night. There are still things I'm learning the hard way about all its bells and whistles but for the most part it's been relatively problem free and oh so wonderful.

On my last day in the park I  squeezed in 9.15 miles of hiking and caught one last sunset at the southern end of Shenandoah. Thanks to an "All Stays" app I downloaded that directed me there, I spent the night in the parking lot of a nearby Cracker Barrel Restaurant (a new one for me). They don't mind a few RVs in their parking lot overnight and of course I felt obligated to go inside for a restaurant meal. But the crowds of people and the noise inside felt like culture shock after a quiet week in the park.

I hopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway the next morning. It's an amazing National Park -- a 469 mile long  road that offers scenic driving along a ridge in the Appalachian Highlands of Virginia and North Carolina. Because it's late season and post fall-color splendor, it's an amazingly peaceful drive with little traffic. I drove most of the day yesterday, stopping for short hikes at a variety of scenic overlooks.




Today I had intended to resume driving but, checking on line, I discovered that the park I needed to camp in to do the 2 hikes I want to do is closed for 2 days for a managed deer hunt. No worries. I'm making it up as I go so I changed plans at about 10 this morning. I left my van at the scenic campground I was in lastm night and hopped on my bike for a hilly 34 mile ride. I started out riding a quiet county road into Floyd, VA, then rode south on Hwy 8 to hop on Blue Ridge Parkway and head north, looping back to the campground.  The long climbs up hills (it's a ridge after all!) really wore me out! Somehow I missed taking photos that would demonstrate just how hilly the ride was but enjoyable (except for the last few hills near the end of my ride.  The weather was pleasantly warm sunshine. Once I got on the Parkway it was amazingly peaceful, with very little northbound traffic coming up behind me, and only slightly more traffic southbound.

We'll see what tomorrow brings. Theoretically a 10.5 mile strenuous hike on the Parkway but time will tell.