Hiking in a Cloud!

Hello from the great signal-less abyss of Shenandoah National Park!

The past three days we've been slowly winding our way down the 105 miles of Skyline Drive that runs straight (being generous with that term) through Shenandoah National Park.  What a beautiful drive!  The road itself is excellently maintained, ascends the mountains and then snakes through the  peaks to give wonderful vistas from both the east and west sides of the mountain chain.  There are literally dozens of scenic overlooks which we took total advantage of on the first day in the park and got some really great photos to share (as usual, in a later post!).  Miriam remained un-carsick through the drive, which was great for both of us.

We only made it about twenty-something miles into the park on the first day due to our late departure from Prince Frederick, MD and frequent stops once in the park.  Our first camp was in Mathews Arm campgrounds, although I've taken to calling it Fort Gnat-Rain....since that's ALL that was there!  It was not terribly clear weather we would get some bad weather heading our way, but once we started to set up camp an unholy swarm of gnats descended on us, forming little gnat halos around our heads.  While I didnt get the ear-buzzing ones that Miriam was apparently suffering with, the gnat squadron around my face seemed terribly keen on flying directly into my eyes and mouth.  Some of our gnat-related misery was abated by using our mosquito netting, and Miriam finally dispersed a good number of them with an impressive campfire she built and maintained.

This was the first time we were able to have a "real" camp dinner, meaning cooked over the campfire rather than our stove.  Miriam fire roasted some freshly-dug potatoes courtesy of the Boyntons in MD (our hosts for the previous four nights) and hotdogs.  Just as we were finishing eating, a seemingly far off thunderstorm started rolling in, bringing light rain which steadily increased.  Luckily the tall stands of trees that we were camped under kept us remarkably dry while  Miriam got the cooking setup stowed and I worked on packing up the rest of our gear.  This was also the first site we have been at that provided a bear-box, which was roomy enough for our two food boxes and our cooler, leaving us with far less gear to bear-proof than usual.

The rain was quite welcome despite our earlier rainy experiences on Assateague since it quelled the onslaught of flying pests and we were actually able to keep some of the windows cracked for air in the car before we went to sleep.  Aside from bug proofing us for the moment the rain also brought much appreciated cool air and a break from the hot weather, which was also quite nice.  The rain stopped sometime before 11p.m. so we had to "button up" the car, but the cool air made sleeping in an enclosed station wagon far less hot and stuffy than usual.

In the morning the weather seemed to break and despite being gray, seemed like it may improve.  Without any sort of cell signal we were unable to get a weather report on my phone, so we were playing it by ear.  After a stove-cooked breakfast of eggs and leftover potatoes we began to get accosted by bugs again, emboldened by the break in the rain.  A camper slightly down the hill from us came running up to some park Rangers (actually, campsite hosts who look after the individual camp areas) who were surveying the campsites to figure out the grade of the parking areas.  Apparently there was a bear poking around near her tent which both freaked her out and caused her to go running up the hill with only a long t-shirt and sneakers on (apparently all her other clothes were in the tent).  She had left her husband down at the campsite to monitor the bear, although it would seem to have been far less embarrassing for her to have done that from the car parked adjacent to the site and let her husband get the rangers.  By the time they made it back to the site the bear had gotten bored and left.

We didnt quite get everything packed back in the car before the rain came again, and I managed to get pretty well soaked in the process.  The rain had gone from a drizzle to a steady downpour between the beginning of our repack and when the last parcel was bungee'd to the cargo rack.  Leaving Mathews Arm, we hummed along south eventually scouting for a potential hiking trail.  The rain had let up and was only spitting by the time we found the trail head to Stony Man Nature Trail.  I actually preferred getting wet to getting bothered by bugs, plus the cloud cover and rain would keep us cool so we decided to try the trail on.  I took my intentionally heavy army pack (as some extra exercise) and Miriam donned her rain gear.  It was a short hike, about less than a mile, but it was all uphill since it led to Stony Man summit, somewhere around 4,000 feet.  We're not sure exactly how much higher we hiked from the parking lot, but it couldnt have been more than two or three hundred feet.

Hiking in a gentle rain was really nice and I took to jogging up some of the steeper sections to try to condition my breathing, which worked real well.  The summit of Stony Man was amazing, although we were socked in by fog and had essentially no view...just grey on three sides and the wooded trail to our back.  The trail opened to an entirely rocky peak, with smooth boulder-like formations and jagged crevices where chunks had broken away.  There were a few little rain pools that formed on the flatter parts.  The difference from being on the trail to being up on the top of a mountain was quite pronounced.  A cold wind blew from the grey nothingness in front of us, and that's when I realized that it wasn't "raining" on us, we were actually IN the cloud!  What an amazing thing, to be inside a cloud.  I know that it's the same thing as being in ground fog, but this felt totally different.  This was a thick, wet, cold cloud, blowing over us as we stood on top of the mountain.  Unfortunately we did not bring the camera fearing it would get ruined in the rain, something that turned out to be a good call.

Our ascent back to the car was a little more eventful than our "climb", having gotten lost for a bit after taking a wrong turn on an equine trail that led us away from the parking lot.  The precipitation increased to a steady rain, but our visibility remained good enough to navigate the trail, whichever one we happened to be on.  By the time we got to the car it was pouring on and off, and visibility was decreasing steadily.  We were soaked and cold and loving every minute of it.  I was never at the top of a mountain before and am so glad that I got to share that experience with Miriam.

We got my wet pack in the wagon, and attempted to leave the parking lot but quickly realized that in just a few minutes our visibility went from about five hundred feet down to about twenty.  So we turned back into the parking lot and parked to wait out the fog and rain, which we were hoping would disperse together soon.  What we thought would be a half hour rest turned into an hour and half, as visibility worsened to what I would call "hood ornament" distance, which in the Buick is only about four feet from the drivers seat.  A car parked about twenty feet to our right was only visible to us as a vague image of silver hubcaps, since the dark blue body of the car sank away into the fog.

Once we were somewhat sure that we wouldn't crash instantly upon leaving, we got back on the road and made our way slowly south again, coming in and out of dense cloud layers as we pushed up and down the mountains.  The weather was still bleak when we got to Big Meadow,which is the largest campground in the park, and we stopped for some bathroom breaks and to get our National Park Passport book stamped (or cancelled, as I guess is the correct term).  There was a really nice free museum devoted to the history and construction of Shenandoah National Park so we took advantage of the bad weather and strolled through there.  It was interesting to see old blueprints of the roads and buildings and even the picnic tables that were used to construct the park, as well as a lot of the old appraisals used to buy off private land owners when the park was commissioned.  I have to say, the museum told the whole story of the park, even the not-so-flattering parts where they essentially evicted private citizens from their own land with under appraised buyouts.  The weather finally broke with our exit from the museum, so we decided to push on.

After taking on ice and fuel from the little gas station that was much more fairly priced than the general store adjacent to it ($11.99 for a 1lb bottle of propane stove gas!!!), we headed south again and made it about ten miles further down the road before stopping at Lewis Mountain Campgrounds.  A grand travelling total of about thirty miles that day.  We set up camp again and Miriam somehow managed to get a fire going with foraged wood that was soaking wet from the day's rain.  The fire waxed and waned as it caught and smoldered, causing quite a bit of smoke, but we managed to roast some sausage and the rest of the potatoes over the iron grate on our  fire pit.  We had a brief introduction to Campmeister Doom, who I will be sure to include in  an upcoming post about Ranger Doom (who we met in the Delaware Water Gap).

This morning we woke to a heavy heavy fog and managed to get packed up and leave around 10:30 a.m., right after the fog burned off.  From Lewis Mountain we worked our way the final thirty-five miles to the end of the park, where we found a Tourist Info Center off the main road where Miriam got a few maps missing from our collection and we were given directions to a small internet cafe in Waynesboro, VA where we are now (and able to post using the laptop, hence why this post is soo long).

We're on our way to Mammoth Caves, although it seems like we will have to camp for the night somewhere between here and there as its an eight hour drive and there isn't much time left in the day if we intend on setting up the camp kitchen when we stop.  Hopefully we'll be able to keep better in touch as we work farther west and out of the mountains.

We look forward to all of your comments!  We love reading them and knowing that people are following us is always wonderful.  It's time for us to head out now, if we intend to make any headway today.

Till next time!
RhodeKill Rob