Shenandoah Day 4 - Final Day Recap

Shenandoah Hike

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The AT trail SOBO from the Rock Spring hut gave us some more spectacular views of the valley. Once again I should note that the condition of the trail was great, there is a lot of work that the park and the trail maintainers do to keep it ready for hikers to use safely .. thanks.

We hike down to the Skyland Big Meadows trail intersection and then got onto the back side of the Dark Hollow Falls trail. We soon saw the parking lot where our car was. After some 25 backcountry miles, we were finished.

We all had a great time and we were happy and sad to be finished.

I have to add just one more picture. thanks Meg for taking us on your Spring Break 2012.

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Shenandoah Day 3 recap - continued

Shenandoah Hike

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We left the Whiteoak Canyon trail and headed up the Skyland Big Meadows horse trail to the Old Rag fire road. We decided not to head to Old rag but head straight over to the AT. We took the Limberlost trail and crossed Skyland Drive at Milepost 43 and hiked through the woods and found the AT not far.

The views along the trail overlooking the valley were spectacular.

We hiked on until we found the side trail to the Rock Spring hut. We were the first to arrive at around 4 pm.

We went down the hill to the spring and filled our water bottles and were getting ready to make some dinner when 3 other hikers came down the trail. We were happy to share the hut and we enjoyed our time taking to them about their travels.

One hiker named Castaway was a thru hiker! He started on Springer Mountain in GA in January and had traveled some 950 miles. He is hoping to get to Maine by June. The other two hikers were section hikers, Moss was traveling on to Harpers Ferry before he had to leave the trail and take care of some personal commitments and the other was Disco who was just out from DC for a two week jaunt to get away. The three of them had been hiking together for the past week or so.

A little later a father and son came down the trail and the 8 of us stayed in the hut. We had a fire in the pit, they made hot dogs and we had a great sunset view right from the hut.

In the morning we had breakfast, shared some more stories with each other, packed up. They all headed NOBO and we headed SOBO back to the Dark Hollow Falls parking lot where we left our car.

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Shenandoah - Day 3 Recap

Shenandoah Hike

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We woke and broke camp and headed out to see if our bear bag was still there and it was!

We found a nice log that looked over the stream and had breakfast. We knew it was going to be a tough slog up the canyon but we were in good spirits and were ready to go.

The trail up the canyon was tough but there were many views. We came to the Lower Whiteoak falls  first. There we at least 3 .. maybe more.

After passing the last of the lower falls we came to a sign post that warned hikers they were only half way up the trail and that they should consider the amount of time and effort need to get back if they were to continue. The trail was very well maintained and here is a shot of some extended rock stairs that were typical  on the trails in the park.

We arrived at the Upper Whiteoak falls and had a nice lunch break and took in all the views.

to be continued ....

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Shenandoah Day 2 Recap

Shenandoah Hike

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Overnight it rained, sometimes heavy but mostly just a light steady rain. The wind sounded really strong as it moved over the mountains and through the valleys and the temperature dropped down to around 30. Our tent only leaked a little but the storm had moved on and the weather was perfect. We packed up our stuff and headed out to retrieve our food bag, hoping a bear hadn't got it!

 

The food was still there! We had some Poptarts for breakfast and headed off. After a short trek we hiked through a big meadow and onto a ridge with a view of Old Rag.

We made it to the Cedar Run trail and felt like we still on target for where we wanted to be. But that was about to change. The Cedar Run trail was very steep and going down took forever.

There were several water crossings, non very technical but just continued to slow us down.

By the time we made it to the bottom we decided that we wouldn't continue up the Whiteoak Falls trail and would camp on the link trail. We set up our tent and had a great view without the rain fly on.

This would put us very far behind any schedule that would allow us to make it over to Old Rag. We decided that we would shorten our trip and hike up Whiteoak Falls trail and straight over to the Rock Spring hut.

Shenandoah Hike

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We are back - Shenandoah Day 1 Recap

Shenandoah Hike

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We made it back yesterday afternoon after 4 days and 3 nights. We decided to cut our trip short by a day but we had plenty of hiking and learned a lot about our conditioning (not too bad) and the conditions (a little harder than we anticipated). It will take me a few days to write it all up but all in all it very fun and a highly successful trip!

We got to the Front Royal entrance and payed our $8 park fee. There was heavy fog in the park and the views most of the drive down Skyline Drive were mostly blocked due to the fog. We went the Byrd visitor center at mile 51 and registered for backcountry camping. No fee, the rangers just wanted to get a sense of where you were going and whether or not you were prepared. We passed that test and went to the Dark Hollow Falls parking lot to start the trip at around 11:30.

We hiked down to the falls, took off some outerwear as the day was warming up and took a few pictures and headed out across the bridge on the Rose River Fall loop.

On the way to the Rose River Falls Jen took a pretty hard fall on some wet rocks. She fell right on her but and although it hurt and scared her a little, she was OK and we trekked on. It turned out to be a good warning for all of us to be careful. When we entered the park the ranger warned us to stay away from Old Rag because they were performing a helicopter rescue. I found a link to the story of the hiker/climber who was rescued. We made it the falls without further incident and the day continued to be perfect for hiking.

We left the Rose River Falls loop trail and got onto the Skyland Big Meadows Horse trail and made it to where we had planned to camp. We set up camp, went down the trail and ate dinner, and hung our bear bag for the night. Finding a tree with a limb that is 10 foot high and 4 foot from the tree is a little tricky!

 

We climbed in the tent, Jen and Meg listened to end of the the Steve Jobs book on tape and we fell asleep early. A great start to the trip!

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