Bill & I used to go backpacking
@Shenadoah National Park all the time, but that was many years ago, before job pressures & schedule conflicts &
medical problems took their toll. But we decided this past weekend to give it a try again. We chose a relatively short hike
on the Hull School Trail, about 2 miles in to the Thornton River. We had backpacked there about 22 years ago & had
always wanted to go back. So we packed up the dog & all of our gear & headed to SNP.
The weather had been really nice & cool for weeks, but NOT
this weekend. It was HOT & HUMID & very, very buggy. No amount of bug spray could discourage the gnats from flying
into our eyes, ears, nose & mouth. The trail was very overgrown & weedy. It felt like we were walking in the hot,
steamy jungle.
The first problem we encountered was about 1 mile into the
hike. The trail was completely blocked by 7 huge blowdowns (trees that had fallen or blown down.) Hard to get through
with big backpacks on. We had to crawl over them, while Sam crawled under them. Next we came to some mudholes. Bill stayed
on the rocks & did OK, but my feet slipped into the mud & I almost lost one boot. Sam just walked right through
it & was a big muddy mess.
Then we came to the first of several difficult (for me) river crossings.
The way we do them is.....Bill crosses first, hopping from rock to rock, & leaves his pack on the other side. Then
he comes back & gets my pack & carries it across. Then he comes back & helps me cross, because I have no balance
whatsoever. He even had to go back & get Sam one time because his leash was caught in the rocks.
We couldn't set up camp where we had planned because someone else
was already there. We had to keep hiking & I was really getting tired, but we couldn't find a flat place to camp. Finally
I spied a rock wall up in the woods (a sign that there used to be a mountaineer homestead there) so we knew it would be flat.
Bill crossed the river to check it out. The first thing he saw on the other side was a SNAKE ! Yep, we had found
our campsite.
