We were heading into Memorial Day weekend, a time when Americans take a breather from work, and celebrate the start of the summer season by packing up their pringles and beer and head off into the woods to do some camping.  In other words, 'they' were competitors for us -- we were all competing for the same (scarce) number of camping spots.  As we generally figure out where we go on a day-by-day basis and thus rarely make reservations, this posed a serious problem for us.  Jody thought up a brilliant but evil plan: stay in a state or national park that had no-reservation camping, and arrive early enough in the week to beat the holiday campers.  So, we went up into Shenandoah National Park, whose southern border is just North of Waynesboro.  While on our way out of Charlottesville and Monticello, we stopped at a good Organic food store, similar to Lazy Acres, called Whole Foods.  It was about 2:00 PM, and none of us had eaten since breakfast, so we were shopping hungry.  Mistake number 1.  Mistake number 2 was letting the girls have their own shopping cart, which they filled with indispensables like ice cream cones and frozen waffles.  When the damage was finally tallied, we had way too much food to store in our pantry and fridge, and had ponied up $450.  We actually became somewhat of an attraction there at Whole Foods -- apparently not many families showed up in line with 2 baskets full of food costing as much as a small used car.  But, we had lots of really good food, most of it organic (including $19 worth of parmesan cheese imported from somewhere near Bratislava).

There are 3 campgrounds in the Shenandoah.  Our first choice was not open, and our second choice did not have as pleasant an ambience as we would have liked, so we went for the third, Big Meadows, arriving near 7 PM.  We found a choice spot and settled in, hunkering down for the long weekend.  When Jody went up to register, she came back with dire news: of the 3 campgrounds, the other 2 were first-come-first-served; this one took reservations, and they were sold out starting Friday.  We could stay for only 2 nights.  The bright spot here was that our first choice campground was to open on Friday, and we were assured that if we waited at the gates Friday morning, we would get in.  To top things off, I broke off one of the trailer keys inside the lock, and discovered that I either did not bring or have lost the duplicate set.  Sigh.

I consoled myself that night by playing a bit on the cedar flute that Jody had given me for my birthday.  It is a beautiful, haunting instrument that is wonderously easy to play.  During that evening, we had deer just wander in to our camp, give us a calm looking over, and continue slowly on.  We heard that since there were no natural predators on adult deer here, and no hunting was ever allowed in this national park, the deer population was about twice what it really should be.  Deer were everywhere, and turned out to be very helpful to our situation.

Below is a picture of our savior.  Jody was walking in the small wood behind our campsite, and nearly stepped on her.  Curled up as she was, she could have fit on a dinner plate -- that's how small she was.  No matter how close we got, she did not move.  She was breathing, and followed us with her eyes, but refused to move a muscle.  Thinking that she might be injured or sick, we reported finding her to the rangers, who assured us that newborn deer behaved exactly as we described.  The camp host and ranger came over to have a look, and estimated that she was most likely born that morning.  

She framed our entire day.  We waited about for her mom to show up, which she did periodically -- just to check up on her, but not to nurse.  She would get up and move around a little on her very wobbly legs, and then lay back down, mostly in the same spot.

Rangers came by all morning to check on her, and we spent most of our time outside, watching, sometimes chatting with the various visitors who came by.  Around midday, the camp host came over to let us know that, because of a forecast for rain, they had had enough cancellations over the coming weekend to let us stay until Tuesday.  He even gave me a ride to the registration office in his little golf cart, to insure that we would get one of the newly-available sites.  The prior day we had been 6th on the waiting list; apparently our care, interest and concern for the wildlife that had been born in our 'backyard' had propelled us to the top of the list.  We gratefully accepted.

Their mother came over and nursed them both for quite a while.  Then a third fawn appeared, and appeared to nurse from the same mom.   No wonder the mom looked so thin, despite the lushness of the setting.

Finally, after the youngsters were sated, she took them away.  Apparently our 'backyard' was only the spot that she had chosen to park them for the day while she foraged nearby.  She did not take them far -- just farther into the small woods.  If you looked for her, you could still see her.

On one of the subsequent days, we took the first of several day hikes.  We chose to day hike instead of backpack for two reasons: first, rain and thunderstorm were forecast for the entire weekend in this region of the country; and second, Shenandoah National Park is reported to have a black bear population density higher than almost anywhere else in the country: one per square mile.  So, day hikes it was.  Our first target was Lewis Falls, a walk of about 4 miles roundtrip, about half of which was on the Appalachian Trail.  We packed water, lunch and raingear, and headed off, using a trail map provided by the park.

The walking was surprisingly easy; we got to the half way point, at a view point called Blackrock, so quickly that we were surprised.  Below is a photo taken by Joya there.  The weather in the background looks much nicer than it was: dark clouds sprinkling rain on us were the norm for the whole hike.

We reached the falls after descending 1000 feet down a stream bed.  They were modest but very pretty falls -- almost delicate.

On all of our walks through Eastern woods, we would encounter millipedes making their way across the trail.  Often they were huge -- 6 or 8 inches -- so large that they made noise as they moved.  Below is one specimen, with Jody's thumb shown to give you an idea of scale.

The all-uphill walk back to camp warmed us well, which we good since the weather had turned; we now had a whipping wind and periodic rain, although not enough that we had to put on raingear.  Once back to camp, though, it really came down.

Sunsets produced beautiful cloudscapes.  This photo does not really do justice to the weather scenes we encountered.  Often, a lovely sunny moment would be instantly replaced by near darkness and rain.  The clouds seemed to race across the sky.

We later took another hike, this time to Dark Hollow Falls.  This was a bit shorter, just shy of 4 miles total.  This walk was also easy, even though it too included some steep descents.  I guess any walk is easy when you are used to carrying 50 or 60 pounds on your back while hiking.

Here we are at the bottom of Dark Hollow Falls, enjoying the view.  The ambience was very busy, though -- there were about a hundred Junior Girls Scouts scurrying about, leaping from rock to rock, chatting, and trying to net trout fingerlings.  This was Sunday of Memorial Day weekend -- we expected to have company.

 Photo courtesy of Joya, obviously.

These falls were also lovely.  I think the best part about a waterfall is the sound.  I just sat and listened to the water for a long time.

We were finally at our last day in the park, had not seen any bears at all, and were quite dissappointed -- you might say it was unbearable, if you were of a punny bent.

We had become friends with the campground host during our week stay.  He came by and took us to see 2 more wildlife offspring: a junco nest with 3 baby birds in it, and a red shouldered hawk's nest, also with 2 babies, although these were very large babies, already as big as a small chicken.  This was very fun, but really only wet our appetite -- we wanted bear.  The host told us to go out to a certain location and watch, as he had seen a bear crossing this spot on several occasions.  We waited almost an hour, until nearly sunset, never seeing more than lots of deer.  We determined to go bear-hunting in our car, and did so, with limited hopes for success.  On the way, Joya shot this sunset photo.

Very close to full dark, while driving 5 miles per hour on skyline drive, Jordan spotted her right next to the road, but hidden: a mother bear and FOUR cubs.  It was amazing.  The cubs were as small as puppies, and skibbled up a tree at the slightest disturbance.  They spent a lot of time skibbling up and down trees as we watched.  Our watching signaled other drivers to stop and look, some noisily and intrusively.  The mama bear did not appreciate all the commotion, and took her brood back into the woods.  The other cars all left.  We figured out that she was trying to get her family across the road, and predicted where she would try to do so again -- successfully.  This time, whenever another car came by, we all looked the other way (at the sunset), and no one stopped to drive her off.  Ironically, we may have actually been thwarting her: she finally stepped onto the shoulder of the road and waited.  A car came by, saw her, and stopped, lights on, illuminating her brightly.  This seemed to be what she was waiting for: she then carefully and slowly crossed the road.  A few seconds later, the first cub shot across, and a bit later the second.  The third and forth crossed nearly together, but all of them were moving as fast as they could across this exposed and well-lit surface.  Safely across, she took them deep into the woods on the other side.

Sadly, no photos of this experience show any bears.  Most are solid black, with perhaps a pair or two of bear eyes gleaming back -- it was simply too dark.

However, the following day, in the location that our friend the camp host had said, we saw this fella (at least, we called him a 'he').   We discovered him as were were leaving camp.  We watched him for 10 minutes or so as he ambled along parallel to the road, about 30 yards into the woods.  That made 6 bears total!  We were all ecstatic.

May 29 - Harper's Ferry