April 26 - May 2, 2024
I enjoyed seven days at Big Meadows Campground in Shenandoah, arriving on a Friday. I point out that, to the best of my recollection, Shenandoah National Park is the first national park I ever visited. I stopped there on my first cross-country trip, in September 1984, leaving Danbury for California on what turned out to be a four-month adventure that would change my life a great deal. I stayed at Big Meadows in September ‘94, too. I won’t go into all of that here.
On this trip, I stayed in two different areas at Big Meadows, and they were very different. The first two nights were on “I” loop. It had an unwelcome pitch on the driveway, but I was able to maneuver the van so it all worked out. The weather on the night I arrived turned rainy and windy. All day Saturday the rain was off and on, so I was in my van much of the time. When the rain stopped, I ventured outside to walk around. I met my neighbors, a couple with their two teenage kids. They had a little dog, too. I had actually said hello to him on a walk I took, not knowing he was my neighbor at the time, and we crossed paths another time Saturday evening after we had met, as he was heading to a utility sink with dishes to clean. He invited me over to their site later in the night to have S’Mores. They live in Maryland and were here for the weekend. They were nice, good-spirited people. Very happy-go-lucky. They were tent camping, and they had a lot of gear and two vehicles with them. Part of their gear, they had a Solo Smokeless fire-ring. It was interesting how it is designed to not have any smoke blowing out at you no matter which way the wind might blow. It had a metal attachment on top that would become very hot, and it would hold and distribute the heat nicely, rather than let it all slip away into the air. They had a fire going much of the time and were sitting around it to stay warm.
The weather turned nice on Sunday. I exited my van to a beautiful morning of sunshine, blue sky, and temps that had risen overnight. It had been 44 degrees at 2AM, now at 8AM it was 56 degrees. And it felt like the wind had disappeared. Damon and family were busy packing things for the ride back home later in the day. They were going to pack, park at a trailhead, and do a hike before leaving. Mary told me she made way too much food and gave me some Chile and some Red Bean & Rice.
I was moving to the other campsite section today. I took a walk around 11AM and saw that my new site was open. I went to the campground office, checked in with them, and then moved my van over. It was a level site with no shade, good for my solar panels. The weather forecast was for sunny skies and temperatures near 80 for the next several days. I had five more days here.
Cycling was fantastic. I did bike rides on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The scenery is wonderful. National parks are great in that one can ride on roads that are not commercially utilized. The hallmark of this park is Skyline Dive, one-hundred and five miles long. It weaves through forest and meadows, rising and falling most of the time. The entire length of the rides I took felt like a park-like setting. I could hear birds almost all the time. There are viewpoints frequently, places where one can pull over and gaze out on the horizon in a dreamy state. They are just great. One could stop at any one of them and have a beautiful view. The elevation changes from viewpoint to viewpoint, ranging from about 1,000’ to 2,500’ from the ridge to the valley below. I enjoy the hills, especially riding up them. The highpoint on the road is at 3680’, which I crossed twice on Tuesday, while the lowest point I encountered was just under 2300’.
Numbers: 150 miles; 13,700’ climbing; 13h 24m riding time over the four days.
Sunday: 40 miles; 3,400 feet hills, 3h 10m; 20 miles out and back south
Monday: 46 miles; 4,800 feet hills, 4h 1m; 23 miles out and back north
Wednesday: 42 miles; 3,700 feet hills, 3h 20 m; 21 miles out and back south
Thursday: 22 miles; 1,800 feet hills, 1h 53m; 11 miles out and back south
On my day off Tuesday, to rest my legs, I failed to do so. I did not ride. Instead, I did some hiking, to the tune of about eleven miles with significant hills. Dark Hollows waterfall was one of my destinations, where there are three sets of waterfalls. The first one is said to be 70 feet in height. The other two are not quite as a high, but still quite substantial, maybe about 50 feet each. The trail to Dark Hollows is short and steep. It’s a 1.4-mile round trip with an altitude change of 440 feet. The sound of the water is fantastic. There were butterflies flying around and lots of birds singing, quite the peaceful pastoral environment.
I have been walking over to the Big Meadows Lodge at night to watch the sunset. The Lodge is adjacent to the campground, about 200 yards away. It is a rustic. Totally open to the public place where one can sit, inside or outside, with a fantastic view of the horizon. About 75 yards west of the Lodge, hidden by trees, runs the Appalachian Trail. I walked down there one evening. There is a rock outcrop just off the trail that provides an amazing view. There’s one more spot for the sunset, Blackrock Mountain Overview. It is the highest point at Big Meadows, looking west over the newly turned green Shenandoah Valley, with lesser-known Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians rising on the other side.
It was an interesting coincidence that I saw, on my fourth day at the new site, the car and trailer of the guy I had met a Mammoth. We talked again a few times about our travels. He had gone to Smokey Mountain National Park from Mammoth, then to New River Gorge, and now to Shenandoah. There’s a good chance we will see each other again at Acadia in Maine in June, as we have reservations there the same week.
When I first made those reservations, I was unsure of my summer plans, but because of the reservation system and the demand for campsites, I thought it best to set it up. It is beginning to look more and more like I will be in the northeast for summer, as I have jury duty mid-July. So, I am working on a somewhat tentative plan for travel through New England, and perhaps some time in the Canadian Maritimes, for the summer.
On my last night at Shenandoah, on my evening walk I crossed paths with a guy coming back from filling his water bottle. We said hi and kept walking our separate ways. My path eventually led me to the backside porch of the Lodge for the sunset view. When I entered the porch, this guy was standing there at the railing. We said hello again, he said he liked my shirt. I had on a Rails-to-Trails Conservancy t-shirt. I asked him what his story was, how did he come to be at Shenandoah.
He is on a bicycle tour, hence his affinity for my shirt. He is riding to visit all the national parks, the ones that are accessible by road, he clarified, in a year. His trip is to highlight and lobby for better facilities for bikes in national parks, lower fees, and better relationships with administration. In particular, advocating they pay more attention and provide funding for bicycle related matters. That’s quite an adventure …
It must be an amazing trip. He has two parks left to do, Cuyahoga in Ohio and Acadia in Maine. He has ridden about 16,000 miles doing it so far, with about another 2,000 miles to complete, he said. Those are a lot of miles! Amazing!
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