Appalachian Trail

Front Royal, Virginia High 72 Low 55

It was a nice cool day today, although mostly cloudy, so we decided to go for a drive on the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park. We saw lots of beautiful scenery today. A lot of the views looked hazy so we plan on going back when it is a sunny day. 

We did get our wildlife sighting today when two deer ran across the road in front of us.

We have wanted to take a short walk on the Appalachian Trail and today was the day. Before we started, a man came off the trail on the other side of the road from the north. Cindy talked to him and got permission to take his picture. He told her he started on the trail in Maine and when he gets to Tennessee he will decide whether to finish the whole trail.

We walked on the trail and Penny even walked for a ways. Her little short legs don’t let her go very fast. I’m afraid she got her people to carry her most of the way.

We soon came to a point where the trail splits and upon examining the trail post we found directions to the main trail, which is marked with a white mark on the trees, and directions to an overnight stop along the trail. The secondary trail is marked with blue marks. The sign said it was only .2 miles to the hut and we decided to go that way.  

The thing we didn't know was that it went downhill very fast. We both wondered about going down, because we knew if we went down, we had to come back up, but we went for it and went to the hut.

The yellow band around the top of the sign for the spring said the water was from an unknown source and to boil it at least one minute before using. The water looked pretty clean. 

The man Cindy had talked to was there and we talked to him some more. I asked him how long it would take him, and he replied, about 6 months. He was traveling with his son, but was a way in front.

When we started back to the truck, I found out how badly out of shape I’m in. It was pretty strenuous going back up the trail, but we got back to the truck alright. I figure that we probably walked 1/4000th of the trail today.  The man we talked to said he passed the halfway point in Maryland. The trail is almost 2200 miles long.

If you remember the comment from the flagman yesterday on what there is to see. We did see lots of trees, we saw some animals and the Trail was very quiet.

After driving about a third of the Skyline Drive, we decided to leave and come back on a clearer day. On the way back we stopped at a store that had quilts and antiques for sale. Cindy got a few pictures.

Thanks for visiting.