We woke Sunday morning with a very exciting outlook ahead – we had just completed the last scheduled stop of our journey! Ahead of us was 2 weeks of unplanned, unscheduled, unbridled romping in the woods before arriving back in the ATL. Where to start?
We decided to head across the state towards the Blue Ridge Parkway, and visited Williamsburg and good old C-Ville on the way for an Ednam and a Montpelier sandwich from the gourmet gas station. When we arrived at the BRP, we decided to head north on Skyline Drive to behold Shenandoah National Park. We found a place to camp for the night and woke the next morning for a ranger program with the birds of the park.
Our new friend the red tailed falcon
And the barred owl
And the screech owl
That afternoon we took a 4-mile hike to get us back on the wilderness track. It was a bit of a shock to our citi-fied systems, but was a perfect prelude to the 7 1/2-miler we took the next morning on which we encountered a black bear and a pair of jet-propelled peregrine falcons.
A ginormous butterly on the Appalachian Trail
Our lunchtime view
Weary after our hike we wound our way up Skyline Drive to the Skyline Lodge for dinner, and our wildlife tally kept increasing. By the time we arrived back at camp we encountered a rattlesnake, 4 black bears, 2 wild turkeys, a barred owl, and countless deer.
Self-portrait with a post-hike high
A giant rattlesnake by the trail
The next morning we wound our way back down to the Blue Ridge Parkway and started our journey down the 500-mile scenic highway. We camped at Cave Lake where Chris took a quick evening dip in the cool waters. After 4 nights in the wilderness we were well refreshed and reflected with mixed emotions on the short road home.
Plunging into Cave Lake
We headed to Roanoke yesterday to get caught up on our laundry and our blogging. On the way here, the odometer passed the 12,000 mile mark, 2,000 miles past our initial estimate. What an adventure it has been!
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