It was hot in Dayton, Ohio and not nearly so hot in the mountains. This hike just seemed right - a great summer get-away!

Near the new Fruit Moon of my fifty-second year, I shared a walk with my good friend, Bill Shanyfelt in the Shenandoah National Park.

We began our journey in Dayton with a 5:00 AM departure and drove to Waynesboro, VA where we entered the park at Rockfish Gap.  I dropped Bill off at the Jones Run parking lot, where my sons and I had begun a southbound section hike last fall.  



This marked the first time I was going to use my newly purchased, but 24-year-old Suzuki GS450T motorcycle as a way to self shuttle down the trail, hopping from one end of a small section to the next by driving the bike up on the back of my pick-up truck.

I had built a trio of ramps for the bike.  Each was made from a 2x8, 8 feet long.  The weight bearing center ramp has 2x4s nailed to both long edges, which adds considerable strength to the ramp.  The outer ramps are just for balance as I bring the bike up and down the ramp.  

I added ropes to hold the end of the ramp against the truck bed so that all risk of the ramp dropping off (as weight was reduced and the truck bed rose) was eliminated.



Bill is a well grounded outdoors man.  I have taken three trips with him to the Boundary Waters Canoe area over the last 5 years. He has been a runner since he was in high school, still competing in the top finishing places for age group in every race he runs.  

Bill attends Patterson Park Church in Beavercreek, the same church my family calls home.  He has worked with the kids of the church for as long as I have known him - which is now up near 11 years.  He is an easy going, strong, non-complaining type who makes hiking a real joy.

As an experiment, Bill left most of his heavy-weight camping equipment home for this trip, instead carrying some of my spare gear.  This included a Warm Hammock, lightweight pack, and an alcohol stove combination.  



One of Bill's passions is wildlife macro photography.  About half the photos on this web page are from his camera.  

Here, while waiting for me to return from my motorcycle shuttle, he had the opportunity to watch a number of butterflies on the milkweed flowers near the parking area.


So, after the wait necessary for me to park the truck at the High Mountain parking area and then driving my bike back to Jones Run, we began our hike about 2:30 PM.  

We walked about 9 miles to a mountain top hammock camping spot about a mile south of the Ivy Creek overlook.  

We were up with first light and on the trail a short time later, about 6:30 AM. We hiked the morning and arrived at the truck a little after noon.

Then we were off for another shuttle, picking the bike up and then moving the truck north to Milam Gap parking.  


During the day's hiking, we began what became a daily routine of eating blue berries, black berries, raspberries, and thimble berries.  It would have been easy to walk our way though the park without any food supply.  There were that many berries.

Here, Bill has caught a blueberry bush with ripe, almost ripe, and quite green berries in the same cluster.


There were juicy raspberries of the red variety, seen here, and also black raspberries.  

I learned the difference between blackberries and raspberries.  When pulling the raspberry off the plant, a hole is left in the back of the berry where the core pulls out.  When pulling a blackberry off, the entire berry comes off, core and all.

Yet another raspberry type berry is the thimble berry.  These berries have a very large central hole in their back when pulling the berry off for eating.  It almost looks like a thimble when the berry is nice and plump.


Though Bill enjoys berries a lot, he really digs herps.  He has been chasing various frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, and tadpoles for years.  

He also takes very nice pictures of them.  


Of course, not all the beauty of plants comes from their fruit.  Their blooms also make walking in the woods a nice diversion from the everyday life style we all get used to.

Here, one of the berries (Thimble Berry) is caught in bloom.

After a long 19.1 mile day, we finally came to a campsite on Bald Face mountain.

Sleep comes well after working hard in the outdoors.


The next morning we were up with first light again and made it to the truck by 11 AM. We got the bike and then sat down to eat hamburger at a park concession at the Meadows. Then I did the bike/truck shuttle and we were back on the trail by 2:15.


Just before we began walking, we came across this Rat Snake on the road. It was about to be run over by several auto wielding snake murderers.  But Bill was able to get it off the road and into the grass before that happened.

It may have been trying to get off the road for some time, as the snake really seemed quite hostile when he tried to coax it off the road.  
At the Meadows, there is a nice museum named for the Virginia Senator's family. In the museum we stopped to see a couple movies and to read about the history of building the Skyline drive through the park.

It was a nice way to learn more about history of the park.  The displays helped me understand the sacrifice of those who had homesteads here.  There were many who were forced out of these beautiful mountains in the establishment of the SNP.  


Along the route, this little frog peeked out of a spring. He was curious why such large animals as ourselves would be stomping around in the woods and drinking out of his spring.



Overlooks in the Shenandoahs are common.  Sometimes the air is just right to add that kind of bluish tint to the air that caused these mountains be known as the Blue Ridge.  

After wearing a pack for hours in the woods, it is nice to occasionally run into a patch of daylight to dry my shirt and to get a little bit of UV on my skin.  

One of the great fungus types for eating is the Chantrel.  Just a little peppery to the taste, it has a delicate aroma and a very pleasing texture to my palate.

This fungus grows from the ground or from leaf litter, not from stumps or logs.  A very similar looking fungus does grow from wood, but that one (Jack O Lantern) causes a few hours to a few days of intestinal distress.  

We had a number of these mushrooms during our hike.  They are widespread along the trails of the Shenandoah Mountains.



By the end of the day, as we camped near Rock Spring Hut, we had covered 43.5 miles in three days of travel. On our walk to the Hut, we walked along Franklin Cliffs at sunset, which Bill said was the best part of the trail we had seen yet.




Many of the deer in SNP are quite unafraid of man. This one was only a few yards away from a parking area and seemed not at all concerned with our presence.



And this one was almost within an arm's reach of the trail.  We started counting the deer we saw, but quickly came to the conclusion that there were simply TMTC deer - Too Many To Count.


We carried simple wooden walking sticks.  They worked just as well as the most technical sticks I have carried in the past. As a plus, we were in bear country and also saw a number of dogs with their owners.  I have always believed that a wood stick has certain advantages when it comes to bears and dogs.




Just north of Skylands, we passed a sign pointing out that we were at the highest point on the AT in the park.  That seems a little diminutive for a high, but it was worth a hero picture.


I always enjoy a sit-down.  I especially enjoy it when I can talk to a friend and see into the distance.  

Of course, some places are more conducive to staring out into the void than others. The view from Mary's Rock is outstanding.  We reached the rock in mid afternoon and were stunned by the beauty of the overlook.  This is one that the tourists on the roadway never see.



We had seen frogs and toads and bugs of all sorts.  However, Bill was overjoyed when I saw this timber rattler in the path on our second to last day. The snake was about 2-1/2 feet long and a sweetie.  It was hard to get it to stay around long enough for a good photo.



The second to the last night and the last night in the park, we got to know this hiker who calls himself Sabbath. It was good to have a long talk about spiritual things, discussing difficult points in the New Testament, and learning together.  

It also turned out that his dog was a great bear finder.  In the last day of walking with Sabbath, we saw 5 bears and heard at least one other.  Total bear count for the trip was 7. We had seen one on day two and we saw another on our last morning in the park.  All of the Ursa were unhurried and not particularly curious.



At Gravel Springs Hut, I was asked how I am able to fit everything I need in a sub-20 pound pack.  I got the pack contents out and answered a number of questions for several campers there.  

I don't know if they enjoyed this bunch of advice from a gear fanatic, but I enjoyed it.


Two of the hikers, who had seen bears the same day, wanted to know what sort of trail names they might pick up.  

The father-daughter team had just loved the bear encounter and talked in excited voices about the special relationship with large animals in the park.  

I suggested, and they jumped at the chance, of being called Baby Bear and Poppa Bear.  

After talking about this for a bit, they stopped by the shelter to formalize their names by making an entry in the register accepting their given names.


Finally, the trip was at an end.  Bill and I had traveled 71.9 miles in 5 days of hiking and had learned that we hike well together and enjoy each other's company. Bill is strong - perhaps a stronger hiker than I am - and enjoys the outdoors so much that he is welcome on any hike I take in the future.



 But every good trip must come to and end.  For us, it was an early rising on Saturday Morning and driving back to Dayton by mid afternoon.  Bill needed to meet his daughter at the airport, where she was returning from several months in Europe.  

The good news about not wanting a trip to come to an end, is that another trip is often about to happen.