Shenendoah bonuses

We only meant to finally visit Shenandoah National Park, but found other gems in the area. One was President James Madison’s home Montpelier. We learned that Madison was instrumental in structuring our democracy, including his design of the three branches of our government as well as the basics of the Bill of Rights. Interestingly, Madison had dozens of slaves on his plantation, and never once in his life did he free one of his slaves.

We learned that the Appalachian Trail basically runs the 110 miles of Shenandoah National Park from South to North (or vice versa, I guess), crossing the Skyline Drive no less than 32 times. As could be expected, the Woman wanted to find as many of those crossings as possible given our time here. What turned out to be really cool is that the AT crosses the Drive at many of the impressive overlooks, heavily crowded with tourists. We would hike both ways from the crossing, generally trying to do about a mile each way. This section of the AT was near one of the best overlooks we found.

We found the AT just steps from Colectiva om the Big Meadows campground near the middle of the Park. We let Kona get in some AT time while we got in a couple more miles on the AT. Here the AT was mostly tree covered, so we didn’t get the great views we got near the overlooks. But we still enjoyed clicking off a few more miles on this awesome trail. Apparently through hikers really appreciate Shenandoah National Park, as roughly every 12 miles of hiking you can get a hot meal at one of the lodges. Sounds a bit like the Camino de Santiago!

We headed to the portion of the AT that winds its way up to Sarah’s Rock, a popular high point with fantastic views. However, we were tight for time, and determined the 1.9 mile (one way) with an elevation gain of 1,200 fe
et might not fit our timing. So, instead we headed for the Dark Hollow Waterfall Trail, which alleged to be only 1.5 miles round trip. Unfortunately, we didn’t know before we headed out that this shorter trail actually had an elevation change of 3,350 feet – one way! We managed to handle it, but honestly, it kinda kicked my butt.

One more bonus was the gravesite of Stonewall Jackson – not all of him, just his arm. Elmwood Manor, a private estate that predated the Civil War, was a military headquarters and field hospital for Lees Army of Virginia. On May 3, 1863, Jackson took his officers out on a patrol to assess the positions and strengths of the Union forces. As he returned from this routine patrol, the Confederate forces in camp decided that Jackson and his officers were Union troops. They fired on them, and Jackson was mortally wounded. His arm was amputated to hopefully save his life, but it was in vain. He later died of infections that were likely due to the amputation. The soldiers on site decided that Stonewall Jackson’s arm warranted a burial of its own.

While enjoying a nice campfire in the Big Meadows Campground, we were visited by many of the other occupants of the Park. This cute young lady visited for a while each of the days we stayed there. She seemed to be perhaps more curious about us than we were about her. We thoroughly enjoyed the interaction.

We hiked to Rapidan Camp. When Herbert Hoover took the White House, he won the election by the largest landslide to that time. He looked for a location near Washington where he would conduct the Nations work in a setting that would maximize his results. Since he loved nature, and fishing, he found a parcel near the emerging Shenandoah National Park, and built a compound to conduct presidential work. Rapidan Camp was essentially the first Camp David. Our tour of the grounds filled us with insight into Hoover the man, and also some insight into why after one term, he was unseated by FDR, and this time it was by a landslide that still stands as the largest in US history.

Talk to you soon.