|| Spring time in Shenandoah

After many hours of researches on the Virginia mountain hike website, I singled out this one Stony man trail, 3.7miles and estimating a tour of 3 hours with half an hour snack / lunch on the road. This is the first time back to the national park in almost five years. It is again pleasant drive, mostly I'm following 522 highway, it goes up and west and up and west, and we see nearly farms and plants and animals, very peaceful country scenes all along until we turn into 211 highway. Then it becomes meandering, turning back and forth, going up and down till it reaches the Thornton Gap entrance point. We then drive down south to Skyland parking, and the beginning of the trail is just on our left.


Within 0.5mile, we reach the summit of Stony man. They are rocks, layers and layers of them stretching out to one side of the mountain rocks. The mountain is covered with very green and leafy trees, these are resourceful lands. The sky is sky blue with clouds floating like chiffon dresses, and occasionally a proud eagle fly over in solitude, yes, they do not travel in groups.


We are having difficulty of finding the rest of the adventure but finally find the critical four way junction that point to the white trail the Appalachian trail. It is not far that the next overlook shows up in the middle of the way, another hang-over group of rocks, by then most people are nowhere to be found, and there is plenty of solitude that we can just stare at the sky, at the air, and do not think (it's not easy ... ). All right, we have some snacks (apple and peanuts), then set off again to our next leg of the roads.



This next leg is the longest 1.0mile, and very difficult. The surfaces are full of random stones without clear patterns or consistencies. The path becomes extremely narrow with one side of hard rock mountain and the other side all the way downhill (you will not survive). When we get down from the summit, we see water permeates the soil and turns up on the road, it's slippery. For a long time, we can't see people coming towards or following behind us, our patience waning, and our physical strength as well.

Finally I get a shot of a person's silhouette, who is carrying a hot red bag (reminding me why I am also carrying a red bag), and we find several groups standing in the next junction wanting to figure out the white or yellow trail. In the end, we all figured the left turn, however, the roads become even more difficult, if not for the paint on the trees signaling the trail paths. It is the uphill finale, and it is steep. People walk very fast, but everyone is exhausted in the end. It is a challenging three hours, who knew the next two days are even tougher. My muscles are all sored and painful, but I am getting ready for my second day of the memorial day long weekend.