Last week we drove up to Shenandoah from the Smokies and it
took us about 7 hours to get to Loft Mountain Campground. On the way into the
campground we saw a mother bear and 3 cubs. Then we drove a little further and
saw another bear!
We originally reserved site F132 but when we tried to set
the camper on the site, it was on too much of an incline so we went and asked
if we could move. The hosts were wonderful and we had no problem moving to A4. While
we sat at our campsite, we saw some bicyclists stop suddenly. When I asked what
they saw, they asked us if we saw the bear that just passed by our campsite!
When we were walking around the campground, we saw another bear. We had dinner
at the Loft Mountain Wayside and it was very good. While we were there a young
girl approached us and told us that the 5 of them were AT hikers and wondered
if we could give them a lift back up to the campground. So, we rearranged our
car and squeezed them all in the car! They were so much fun to talk to and were
very appreciative of the ride.
On Friday we drove up to Big Meadows and tried to have lunch
at the lodge. After waiting for 20 minutes without seeing a waitress or even getting
a cup of coffee, we left and had breakfast at the Wayside. It was cheaper and the service was great. Then
we went to the visitor center and signed up for a tour of Rapidan on Saturday
($10 per person). While we were there we watched a video on the CCC. Then hiked
for a while on the AT going north before going back to the Wayside for lunch. At 2pm we joined Ranger Travis for a hike
going south on the AT at Milam Gap. He did a great job with his short talks
along the way. At 8:30pm we went to a bear talk at the amphitheater by Ranger Kelsey,
who happened to be Ranger Travis’s sister. Before the talk we saw a bear up in an apple
tree eating dinner. The view from the amphitheater was fabulous and we watched
a thunder and lightning storm in the distance.
On Saturday we went back to Big Meadows Wayside for
breakfast. Then at 10am we boarded a van to ride down to Rapidan, which was
President Hoover’s “Camp David.” The tour was led by Ranger Ginny Browne (a
seasonal ranger who is also a history teacher at Page County High School) who
did a phenomenal job! She made me see President Hoover in a different light
since I only think about him during the stock market crash and depression. I
never knew all the good things he did before he became president and even after
he left office! The tour was 2 ½ hours but it flew by! On the ride down we saw
a bear, deer, and hawks. I would highly recommend this tour to everyone. At
lunch at the Wayside, we were joined by 4 bikers from VA and PA. They were
really interesting and we had a nice time. After lunch we went back to camp.
The gnats were really awful every day which made us choose
not to cook at the campsite. The bears were so plentiful that I didn’t sit
outside in the morning waiting for the sun to come up. In fact, there were so
many bears around that I didn’t walk to the bathroom alone. The whole time we
were there, we saw 10 bears!! We decided to hook up the camper on Saturday
night and leave on Sunday morning instead of Monday. We hoped the traffic for
the 6 ½ hr. ride home would be better on Sunday.
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