I debated on titling this post 'When Day Hikes Strike Back'... the day started out innocently enough, with a plan to hike to see some waterfalls in West Virginia. Two hours after leaving the house, we arrived in Shenandoah National Park....Virginia. We should have known then that the stars weren't aligning in our favor :)
But, enough drama - this little chunk of the Shenandoah Valley, White Oak Canyon, is beyond beautiful. We went after a few big rainstorms, so I'm not sure if our experience is the norm, but the area was so green. And the waterfalls exceeded our expectations - they were HUGE. We arrived at the base of the first set of falls after an hour of hiking and two creek (river) crossings. We climbed down some rocks and over some tree trunks to get as close to the falls as possible.
Then came the fun part - up, up, and more up to the top of the falls. The never ending switchbacks were a little exhausting, but the view from the top of the falls was well worth it :) We took a break on the overlook to read our Kindles. From there, we planned to walk a small fire road to another trail and follow the river back to the parking lot. Well... being overconfident and under researched, we not only missed the turn off but hiked about 3 miles past it. By the time we realized our mistake, we had added three hours and six miles onto the trip.
The trip back was a determined march to the car, but we still did take some breaks to enjoy the scenery. My favorite part of the trip was spotting a huge owl perched on a tree on the way back. And we were pretty ecstatic when we arrived back at the car. We drove straight to a Five Guys and downed our entire double cheeseburgers before conversation picked up again. Overall, it was a great trip with a few lessons learned - most importantly, bring a map!
-j
But, enough drama - this little chunk of the Shenandoah Valley, White Oak Canyon, is beyond beautiful. We went after a few big rainstorms, so I'm not sure if our experience is the norm, but the area was so green. And the waterfalls exceeded our expectations - they were HUGE. We arrived at the base of the first set of falls after an hour of hiking and two creek (river) crossings. We climbed down some rocks and over some tree trunks to get as close to the falls as possible.
Then came the fun part - up, up, and more up to the top of the falls. The never ending switchbacks were a little exhausting, but the view from the top of the falls was well worth it :) We took a break on the overlook to read our Kindles. From there, we planned to walk a small fire road to another trail and follow the river back to the parking lot. Well... being overconfident and under researched, we not only missed the turn off but hiked about 3 miles past it. By the time we realized our mistake, we had added three hours and six miles onto the trip.
The trip back was a determined march to the car, but we still did take some breaks to enjoy the scenery. My favorite part of the trip was spotting a huge owl perched on a tree on the way back. And we were pretty ecstatic when we arrived back at the car. We drove straight to a Five Guys and downed our entire double cheeseburgers before conversation picked up again. Overall, it was a great trip with a few lessons learned - most importantly, bring a map!
-j
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