Stop 1: Shenandoah

We’ve had a fun few days in Shenandoah, and it all started with a bear sighting. As soon as we drove into the campground on the first night, we noticed a crowd gathered around a baby black bear. Since then we have seen 3 more bears, Morgan saw one when he was on a hike with Charlie, I ran across one sitting right in the middle of a trail and a guy in front of us almost hit one with his truck. We had deer wander up to our camp quite often, and we had an annoying raven that would start cackling at about 6 every morning. Oh the joys of nature.
Apart from our animal sightings we’ve had a blast hiking around Shenandoah. A local guy told us about one trail that we did on Wednesday, lets just say it was a bit out of our league. Neither one of us have EVER done anything that strenuous. It was a little less than 2 miles, straight down a mountain. At the end of the trail was a natural rock slide that Morgan had some fun on (I was busy trying to catch my breath and stop my legs from shaking) and a swimming hole. After a little relaxation it was straight back up the mountain, Charlie handled it much better than we did! I think hiking is by far his favorite outdoor activity, that and growling at passerby at the campsite. Char spends most of his days lounging under the picnic table and hiking, so far he’s absolutely loving it.
We finally feel like we’ve gotten the hang of things around the campsite. Morgan wakes up early and takes Charlie on a little hike, then we make breakfast and sit around awhile. We go for a longer hike in the middle of the day, then back to the campsite for quiet time (reading/napping). We’ve been having so much fun cooking in our dutch oven. So far the menus have included pork chops n’ potatoes, hotdogs with grilled peppers, buscuits and gravy with fried eggs and the usual camp fair of sandwiches and such. We met some great neighbors Emma Lou and Elwood along with their son Jimmy and his wife Coleen, and they’ve been keeping us fed with fresh cinnamon rolls, ice cream and plenty of hot coffee in the mornings. Emma Lou actually shed a few tears when we rolled away early this morning, but we got their address and promised to keep in touch.
We wouldn’t change a thing about our first week (except maybe a few less gnat swarms dive bombing our eyes), but we’re really looking forward to the next couple stops: Hickory Run in Pensylvania for 2 days then Harold Parker Natural Area in Massachusetts for a couple days. So far so good, Morgan is pleasantly surprised with how little I’ve been complaining. We’ll be back with updates in a couple days!
Here’s a link to some Shenandoah pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nikki.mkelley