Backpacking the Shenandoah

If you have a blog with a title that contains the word "Adventure", every now and then you feel compelled to actually go on an adventure. Even if you tried to qualify the title with the word "Modest", the implication is still that you want adventure. And so I do! Fortunately I have 3 adventurous sons that are more than willing to indulge Dad. So when I suggested to Jared that I come down to Virginia for a long weekend and we take a backpacking trip, he happily agreed. Being more familiar with the area, I let him pick the trail. The criteria for our selection was a reasonable distance, a good camping site, good views, and a parking lot where our car wouldn't get broken into or vandalized.

He selected Ramsey's Draft Loop in the George Washington National Forrest. 9.5 miles the first day to the camping site and then 5.5 miles the second day of easier descending trial back to the parking lot.

We didn't want to get to the camp site too early so we locked the car and left the lot at 2:45 PM. Jared had the way points and mileage loaded into his iPhone. We each were packing about 30 - 35 lbs.

Ramsey's Draft Loop is a series of shorter trails combined into a total of 15 miles. 150 yards from the parking lot the loop began with a right turn and about 2 miles of sometimes steep ascent to the ridge line.

 Both of us with a Gatorade in hand, Jared took the lead up the first switchback.

At times we broke out of the trees and waded through thick knee high forest weeds.

We soon discovered that one of the native weeds was stinging nettle, the leaves didn't seem to bother us but contact with the stem was like the sting of a jelly fish that turned into an itch. After hiking through a bad patch and getting nailed by the nasty plant, we would douse our legs with bug spray. The sting of the alcohol in the bug spray brought some relief.  Fortunately the sting and redness went away after about an hour. I would consider wearing long pants but I'm not sure whether the sweating or the stinging would have been worse.

Getting steeper and thicker.

Finally some relief from the nettles. We broke into the higher elevations. The side of the mountain got steeper and the trail harder to find. The trail was marked with yellow diamonds nailed to the trees every 200 yards or so. More than once we wondered if we had lost the trail and were relieved to find a yellow diamond.

Nearing to top of the ridge we were rewarded with some great views that the camera cannot do justice to.

The rolling green mountains of the Shenandoah against the deep blue skies did not disappoint.

 Most mountains of the Appalachians are wooded at the top, even though they may reach over 3000 feet of elevation. We came across a few tree clearings that gave us a great view.

Another clearing...yes...it's not a postcard.

The top of the ridge was a series of ups and downs over various knobs.

It was a nice day but the effort was more than enough to make us sweat considerably.

I thought of this as somewhat of a shakedown trip, an education in fine tuning our gear. We did not pack a water filtration system, something I already have on my shopping list. Instead our hydration plan consisted of 5 bottles of Dasani and 6 Gatorades. Hey, we did hydrate with a 24 oz water each before leaving the car, what could be wrong with that plan?

I know, gross right? I stopped for bug spray and I was definitely leaking fluids through my skin.

Even if we did have a filtration system, there were no water sources until we hit camp at the 9.5 mile mark.

We calculated how much water we needed for dinner and allowed each of us a Gatorade for the trip out in the morning. What was left we allowed ourselves to drink. If you have never been forced to ration fluids before, it does make you think about what you take for granted.

Jared was the navigator and so far his estimates were right on. When he said that we'd hit a certain land mark in 45 minutes, we did. He calculated that if we kept up our pace we would hit camp about 8:00. Still in time to collect firewood and pitch the tent before it got dark. So my excessive picture taking became somewhat annoying to him. "Slowing us down, Dad!"

"Really? Another?"

I was still able to sneak in a good vista shot!

We battled through some thick brush and descended the final leg of the first days mileage to reach camp right on time, 8:00 PM. There were 2 other camping groups already there, they came up the shorter 5.5 mile side. One group, a man and woman, asked us about the 9.5 mile leg, and then decided to return the way they came.

Modern backpacking tents are great, we had it up in 5 minutes are were looking for firewood.

As bad as our hydration plan was, our food plan was awesome. Jared had a frozen rib steak which had been thawing out all afternoon. Combine that with Kraft macaroni and cheese.....nuf said! After dinner we suspended the dirty pots by a rope from a tree. There are bears in these parts.

We hung out by the fire until 10:30 and then hit the sack.

Unfortunately for as tired as I was, sleeping on the ground isn't as easy as I remember it to be. Come to think of it, it has been 15 years since I last did that. I had a light foam pad but it still felt like I as laying on a stack of plywood. The experience of interrupted sleep makes you think that you haven't slept at all but in reality you just woke up every hour trying to get comfortable. They make good backpacking air mattresses now, another item added to the shopping list.

At one point in the night, we both heard slow deliberate foot steps through the woods, getting closer to the tent. It sounded almost like a person walking. It wasn't noisy enough to be a bear. I thought maybe a raccoon, and I didn't want a raccoon coming under the tent fly to root through our packs. Deciding to confront the intruder I pulled on my pants and shoes (the last thing I wanted was to be chased through the woods by a marauding animal in my underwear), unzipped the tent and went outside with my spot light. It was a deer! A big doe, staring back at me. It didn't run. I yelled at it. "Hey, get out of here, we're trying to sleep". It just stared at me and kept taking its slow deliberate steps through the woods. I went back to bed.

Morning broke with first light coming through the tent wall. I opened my eyes, groaned and rolled over.

It seemed like a few minutes later that I looked at my watch, but it was 7:00 AM.

The morning sun was already high enough to filter through the trees overhead.

We packed up, ate a granola bar and hit the trail. We figured we could make the remaining 5.5 miles in less than 3 hours.

The trail ahead of us was a slow descent. We came across more patches of stinging nettle.

And some sections that were like a walk in the park.

It was a great trip. We accomplished what we set out to do, kept our times and made our destinations according to plan. I learned a lot for future backpacking trips. And, most of all, had a great time.

After reaching the car, there was one thing left to do. Find a diner and eat a healthy breakfast.

Eggs and scrapple is sounding pretty good!