East Coast, Day 3 and 4

After staying the night in Maryland, we headed back south to Shenandoah National Park.

While we wish we could have gotten in a bit earlier in Pittsburgh to have time to do the incline, alas, things worked out.  The rental car company was out of economy and basic cars (maybe due to graduation weekend), and we got stuck with a...

Ford Mustang!

Originally, I had looked at doing the well-known "Old Rag" hike, but decided against it as it was more driving and a chance for rain.  The next day was out too for they were working on the road to get to the parking lot.  Oh well - a reason to go back.

We decided to do the White Oak Canyon/Cedar Run trail described as a "very strenuous" 8.2 mile circuit.  Ah - why not.  Well, we did it.  This was a down and up hike...  Shortly after we got to the "bottom", we sensed it was going to start raining.  We put on our rain jackets and listened to the rain approach us.  Then it rained.

Or shall I say poured.  And then the snakes came out.  And then we got tired going up the 3,200 foot vertical drop we had gone down.  We were soaked.  Sorry - not too many pictures on this hike!  Anyhow, it was a nice hike...maybe it was better we didn't do Old Rag.  The funny part about it was there were two men doing the same hike the opposite way we did it.  We saw them at dinner and they said they just got a few drops - we told them we were soaked - and all had a good laugh.

After the hike, we were just two miles back to the lodge.  Where for $86.00, we scored a room with possibly the best view in the place!  Unfortunately, there wasn't a beautiful sunset - but instead, we got to watch another storm roll in.  Very cool.

Despite the two rain storms, it maybe only rained for about 90 minutes total - and then everything was just overcast and cloudy.  So - it really wasn't too bad.

In the morning, we walked over to the Stonyman trailhead from our lodge room and got a beautiful view.  We then went back down and had breakfast in the lodge - delicious.

After breakfast, we headed to the visitor center, and then to the Rose River Loop.  Saw this strange reptile...don't know what it was.

Everything was very green...  It was a 4 mile hike with about 1,200 vertical feet gain/loss.  A bit easier than the day before.

This was the Dark Hollow Falls - one of the waterfalls off the loop (there are a few different ways to get to these falls - there were a few other people there when we arrived). 

We had lunch at the Wayside; saw some Appalachian Trail hikers.  The day before we had seen two AT hikers - one with a dog.  They were doing the whole thing and were on day 86.  I think it may have been the happiest dog in the world.

After lunch, we headed over to the Bearfence Mountain rock scramble.  Short enough to squeeze it in before our drive back to Pittsburgh (about 4.5 hours).

We took this last picture before heading back.