Shenandoah National Park Day 2

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Woke up at 6 and drove north on the Skyline Drive. Stopped for breakfast at Big Meadows then drove further to Little Stony Man parking lot where we were supposed to meet our climbing guide, Andy Nichols, at 9. The pin he emailed me was for a different lot, but we found him. We hiked a half a mile to a cliff and learned how to climb. On our hike we were on a bit of the AT and learned about some plants and hiking tips. The cliff was 125’ and overlooked the valley. Andy explained about safety, equipment, showed us how to set up the rope.

Max was a natural climber and climbed to the top. Andy encouraged him to keep climbing when he gets home. Maggie did great and also climbed to the top. Rick also climbed to the top. I climbed about ¾ of the way. We all did much better than expected and enjoyed ourselves. Rick got bloodied in a small fall on his 2^nd climb.

Andy is the owner of Shenandoah Mountain Guides. He grew up in the area, served in the Navy, trained Navy Seals, served in Desert Storm, is in charge of search & rescue at SNP and is a professor at 5 or 6 universities! He is a scout leader and outdoorsman extraordinaire!

We showered, had dinner, Furreals and Max and I lost at Euchre once more. (We did win one game out of four on this trip). We had a fire and s’mores, then off to bed. Drove home on Sunday.

One theme of the vacation is that we saw numerous butterflies at every park!!

Another great National Park vacation under our belts! I hear Alaska might be our next trip!!!

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Comments

[Mary Ann Price]

enjoyed seeing pictures.
Liked the behind picture. Don;t think I'd want to climb. Hiking, but not climbing. glad you had a good trip after all, and looking forward to the Alaska pictures.