| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2006-06-27 12:01:20 UTC-0400 |
| Description |
Adventures in Shenandoah with the AT Twins Adventures in Shenandoah with the AT Twins Having moved to DC last week, I was already starting to miss the White mountains, so a trip out to Shenandoah national park to accompany Eric and Matthew was something I jumped on readily. For those who don't know, Eric and Matthew (the Gilbertson twins) are thru-hiking the Appalachian trail over the summer and happened to be crossing the Shenandoah national park section this past weekend. So we coordinated amongst ourselves and met up at Thornton gap (about 32 mile south of the north entrance of the park) at 9AM this past Sunday (June 25, 2006). Since Shenandoah doesn't have any public transportation, the plan was to drop off my bike about 15 miles north of Thornton gap, and then park my car at Thornton gap. The weather was really crappy with thunderstorms and rain but luckily the rain held back for most of the day. It was great to see Eric and Matthew as we started up the AT. Eric, as usual, set a torrid pace which thankfully eased a bit after Matthew started complaining about a calf muscle. I made sure to load my pack with extra weight to match their heavy packs. We saw 2 bears and numerous deer on the trail; the deer were fearless of human contact and we walked up to within 10 feet of one and it didn't budge! After a hearty lunch consisting of cheesburgers, fries, and an icecream sundae from a local rest stop, we set off again on the trail and climbed a whopping 1000 feet to the summit of hogback mountain, where we were treated to a cell-phone tower, a hang-gliding launch site, and absolutely no views because of the clouds! But conversation was great and soon we reached my bike at around 4pm. Here, thunderstorms started moving in and the twins were still debating whether to setup camp there or do some more miles when I left them. The bike ride back to the car included an intense 2000 feet climb on the skyline drive, which was extremely tough on my crappy steel mountain bike with a 40 pound backpack strapped to my back, and with no toe-clips! Good that I have a triple crank on that piece of junk! The good part came when immediately after the climb, the road descended 2000 feet and I ripped by reaching speeds of roughly 40-50 mph. I knew I was going too fast when the whole bike began to shake violently! Just so that the rain gods could have the last laugh, they poured down heavy on me for the last mile and I reached the car completely soaked but luckily my water-resistant pack kept things dry for the few minutes that the rain blew down. Once in the car, the rain started in earnest and I experienced the worst rain and thunderstorm I have every seen. The drive back to DC on the highway was brutal, with hazard lights flashing and speeds not exceeding 30 mph. I could literally only see clearly about 30 feet in front of me. I hope Eric and Matthew kept dry! Good luck to them... and I'll likely see them again in DC on the 4th of July.. -Bilal Zia |