July 19, 2006

It was a beautiful cool morning with bright sun shining to brighten up the day after yesterdays rain. We decided to take a 5 mile hike down to a waterfall. We drove to the parking area.Two spotted fawns leaped away as though caught where they were told not to go and play. The map was posted at the trailhead and we examined it carefully. It didn't match the entrance area as there was a fire road in the wrong location, but we got the general idea of where the waterfall was located. We started down Limberjack trail, a wheelchair accessable trail, and took the side spur onto White Oak Canyon trail. It was a wide trail, mostly downhill and very rocky. The fireroad crossd the trail. We soon came to
a stream that we followed the rest of the hike. The first bridge had some pretty fast moving water going under it; we figured from last night's rain the stream was fast and the waterfall would be nice. We continued and past several cascades that were very pretty. The sound of the water blocked out any other sounds. We came across a doe nibbling ferns. She let us get pretty close, lifted her head to look a us then went back to her nibbling. We continued down wathing every step. Our walking sticks were a great help. The second bridge looked just like the first except that the trail went straight ahead and across the bridge. Which way to go? Will stood on the bridge. The sky was getting dark, we saw the lightning and heard the claps of thunder. It was going to pour. We had no rain geear along. Will thought that under the bridge would be a good place to hold up. Kathy did pack along our space blanket and Will used that to make a makeshift tent under the bridge. We got it up just!
in time. The drips soon gave way to a downpour. We stayed fairly dry. We did have to keep poking the space blanket and letting the water run off. Will attempt at a fire failed.We watched the rain and ate snacks and drank water. The rains let up briefly. Kathy was cold and began to shiver. We were damp from the air, but not soaked. Kathy could not stop shivering. Will took control of the situation and wrapped his arms around her till she stopped shivering and her body temp eurned to normal. More rain came and slowly the sky poured out all it had. We cleaned up our safehaven and began to hike back up the hill. Going up hill and keeping a good pace warmed us both. Two hours later we were back up on the fireroad. Butterflies were everywhere. We got a close up look a one big yellow one. Back at the van instead of the hot chocolate they had talked about earlier they had cold sodas.

Our next stop was the picnic area at Dickey Ridge where we had spent our first night on Skyline Drive a few days back. Will made a stirfry wih white rice, veggies and hamburger. It was yum. We played cards, a continuation of our hearts game started ten years ago! Both of us are over 21,000 and less than 700 points separates us. After doing dishes we sat a while. Deer walked acoss the road. The park originally had no deer; they were hunted in this area out of extinction. When the area was made a national part 13 deer were introduced and today they have thousands. The sun set behind the trees, we pulled over to the visitor center parking and watched a movie. A park ranger came along shining her mega light light in the windows. She told us there is no curfew in the park but we can not spend the night parked in the park. We finished watching our movie and drove out of the park.

We loved our drive along Skyline Drive. There are no traffic signals! We found this statement on one of the brouchures," As the park's forest vegetation matures, views change too; some distant vistas have been replaced by intimate woodland scenes." A fancy way of saying that in some areas you can't see because the trees have grown and the park has no intention of doing any trimming! There are still plenty of vistas. Back in 1887 George Freeman established Camp Stony Man, a resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Today they call it SkyLand. A group calling themselves the Southern Appalachian National Park Committee recommended the park in 1924. Construction began in 1931 and by 1955 visitation was over a million visitors a year. We highly recommend the drive through Shenandoa National Park.

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