Finally...

Thursday - May 7th -- Woke up in my comfy Fairfield Inn in Charlottesville, and looked out the window to see… rain. Still pouring outside. I was in the unusual predicament of actually having made more northward progress than I had intended while enjoying much less of the great outdoors than I had hoped. If I was going to be stuck in a hotel for yet another night, I might as well stay in Charlottesville, and maybe play tourist. I checked the radar. It looked like there were some clear skies behind the current deluge. I went downstairs and took my time with the complimentary breakfast (thanks, Marriott!). By the time I looked out my window again… sunshine! I was off. I cruised back west on I-64, and turned right on Skyline Drive.

I had gone no more than five miles on Skyline Drive when I realized why people go to the trouble of driving on this thing. On a reasonably clear day, it’s gorgeous. After two days of driving in a rainy haze, this was magnificent. This is what it’s supposed to look like!



A green canopy punctuated with thousands of tiny white dogwood blossoms:


Beautiful views at each turn:




I had intended to aim for the Natural Chimneys Park, but fifteen miles on Skyline Drive convinced me I should stay in one of the primitive campgrounds there. I was prepared to go without electricity or water. No problem. I got to Lewis Mountain Campground – just under 100 miles up Skyline, and stopped to set up my tent. It was perfect. I drove down into the nearest town – Elkton, about 17 or 18 miles away – to get some ice and last minute items. I decided to celebrate with a steak.

Back up on Lewis Mountain, I cooked my steak on the grill and heated up a mixture of canned corn and peas as the sun began to get lower in the sky on the far side of the valley. I had chatted with one of the other campers who said a bear had wandered into camp just on the other side of the ridge the night before. No big deal. Then it dawned on me, as I watched my steak sizzle on the grill, that I was basically sending smoke signals to the bears for miles around. Fresh red meat, come and get it. Oh well.

From the Shenandoah National Park website: "Shenandoah National Park has one of the densest populations of black bears documented within the U.S..."

I was a little nervous:


As I was cleaning, another camper walked up to me and said, “I saw your plates.” Gator tags. Then I looked at the hat he was wearing. Gators. Haha. We stood and talked for a while. His name was James. He had graduated from UF, was working at FAU in Delray Beach, and was an avid camper/hiker. He was solo camping too.
As we stood there, a deer walked into a nearby tent site to nibble on the green grass. Then another. Then two more. We minded our own business, and they minded theirs. James eventually wandered off, but I told him I was going to start a fire, and to come by and warm up before he hit the sack. The forecast said it would be mid-50’s, but it was windy up on the peak of the mountain.

My campsite on Lewis Mountain:


I started a nice fire, and sat in my chair reading by the light of my battery operated lantern. I could look off across the Shenandoah Valley, beyond Massanutten, and see the Alleghany Mountains in the distance. It was perfect. James came by for a quick warm-up by the fire. I read for a while longer, and watched while a few late-arriving parties pulled in and set up. Then it was bedtime. I read in tent for a good hour, actually spending most of that time convincing myself that my steak some signals had been ineffective. When I decided that I was no longer afraid of bears, I dozed off. It took my sleeping bag and my Gator blanket to keep me warm, but I slept well, considering I was in the middle of nowhere. Finally.