Shenandoah Hiking Trip - Part 2 of 3

The following is a travel log of my hiking trip in the Shenandoah National Park, in Virginia.

Part 2 of 3

Day 3 - Saturday April 21 2007

Today would be a race against time. We had arranged to meet Emily for lunch at the trailhead. She was driving from Baltimore with sandwiches for lunch and also bringing along a much desired secret. We had oatmeal for breakfast and quickly set about breaking down the camp. Under time pressure, we started down the trail a little after sunrise. Despite feeling pressured, we had a lot of fun fording the same river multiple times. (river2) When there were stones available, we would dart from stone to stone. As the river grew deeper we had to find more inventive ways of getting across. Jason "MacGyver" came upon a novel way. In this picture you can see him midway across the river. After a time we grew tired of the river and started our ascent out of the valley. Jason was able to send a text message to Emily along our trek up. I was able to receive a text from my other friend Jason. It was a welcome relief to see Emily waiting for us as we emerged onto the road. Emily sandwiches were filling and hit the spot. Now for the secret...To my and Jason relief, Emily had brought along some suntan lotion. Both of our arms were starting to show signs of a slight sunburn. After lunch we loaded into Emily's car and headed back to Jason car. The trailhead looked different under bright sunny conditions. After stashing our trash and we loaded up with our extra food once again loaded up into Emily's car and headed south, to Blackrock trail. The trail derives its name from the black lichens that grow on the edge of the rock face. The parking lot was full of cars, but were able to squeeze in at the end of the lot. We mounted our packs and started down the horse trail. Midway down the trail we met some mounted trail clearing volunteers that had been sawing through recent dead falls. With horses comes, horse waste, and horse flies and a slight stench. These made the journey down the trail a little more challenging. Once at the base of the valley we decided to set up camp along the river. This was a really good decision. There was plenty of water and the next campsite would be a two hour hike away, arid and on the summit. Once we had the camp setup we had a leisurely evening with much time spent cooling off in the river. We had a multi-course meal for supper. It started with a lightly spiced pasta dice with some tasty "Alaskan" salmon as the appetizer. The main course was a stew. We closed out the day with full and happy stomachs.

Day 4 - Sunday April 22 2007

The next morning we were greeted by another warm day and after breakfast quickly started to shed layers. Once we had loaded up all of the Nalgene bottles, Dromedary bags and Camelbacks and briskly started our ascent of Blackrock Mountain. It was slow going as the climb was steep, and its was hot. We took advantage of any breeze to cool ourselves. It would be a day of climbing. As we were worked our way up the mountain we took a series of pictures, Jason and Emily in the scree zone and Chris in the scree zone. Our initial goal for the day was to summit Trayfoot mountain which ascends to a height of 3380 feet. Just as we thought we had reached the summit, around the corner it would start to climb again. We stopped for lunch on one of the inclined sections. Lunch took the form of pita, tuna/salmon, avocado and the infamous brick of cheese. After we summitted Trayfoot Mountain we took a variety of pictures, Emily relieved at reaching Trayfoot summit, Chris and Emily relieved at reaching the summit. In the shade of a tree we took our final picture before starting our descent. Our goal for the afternoon would be to descend to Skyline Drive and to camp in the Doyle/Jones Fall area. It felt great to we walking down for once. Along our trek east we took some pictures while crossing along scree zone. (Chris among the boulders and Jason and Emily among the boulders ). Jason took the following picture as it marks my first time hiking along the Appalachian trail. After crossing Skyline Drive we stopped at the first stream to wet our caps and scarfs. This is a picture of the Upper falls. Jason and Emily hiking down the falls. We would be setting up camp in a sloped area that runs parallel to the falls. Jason went along ahead and was able to locate a flat campsite which offered access to running water. After setting up the tents we spent the next hour or so, trying to cool down. It would take about 20 minutes of standing a cold pool of water before I started to shiver. As I was to find later, I still was warm inside. As we getting ready for supper I snapped this picture from across the river. The next part is still sort of foggy in my mind as the details are not to clear. We had decided to prepare and eat supper on the slippery rock face across from the camp. It was at this point that we had two adverse incidents that caused us to eat our meal on the other side of the river. Our largest Dromedary bag slide down the slide of the rock face and into the quickly flowing river. Emily was able to dash down and grab the bag and got wet feet in the process. Jason darted further down stream, just in case, Emily was unable to grab the bag in time. Jason shouted to Emily that perhaps, we should cook supper at the campsite. A short while later as Chris was setting up the Jetboil, the gas canister slide down the rock face into the river. Luckily, Jason was able to grab it a little further downstream but not before going feet first into the river. He was able to grab the canister just before it disappeared. Chris cooked supper upriver as Jason and Emily tried to dry out the boots and clothes on the nearby rocks. My thought at the time was at I really hoped that no additional adversity would threaten us overnight. Our attempt to have apple cobbler for dessert was dismal failure as you have to prepare and cook the apples and cake crust separately and then combine together once they are cooked. The apple cobbler just tasted weird. One of the first things we did once at camp was to throw the ropes over branches to suspend our food from overnight. Jason always had a knack for throwing it over a branch usually 15 feet in the air. This is a bit of an aside but one of these occasions what I thought happen was that the rock came back to hit but no, he had banged his foot against a nearby log. I had a good laugh until I figured out what really happened. So, what do this have to do with where were left off. When we set up camp Jason had suspended the ropes from a large tree while Emily and I had pumped water. Getting the ropes in the tree once at camp would save us future grief of trying to throw rocks in the dark. Emily, in socking feet, helped me hoist the two food bags as Jason dried out his boots nearby. Much of Jason's clothing had got drenched while retrieving the Jetboil canister. Jason was short of dry clothes. He tried on Emily's Capri but it was too small. I gave Jason my goretex rain pants. It was time to get some rest but I was still hot from the day's exertion. I lay in the tent on just my thermarest until 0130 before finally getting into my sleeping bag.