shenandoah camping

Last weekend we went camping with my parents at Loft Mountain in Shenandoah National Park. Normally we only go to the northern part of Shenandoah because it is closer so I was excited to go to the other end. It was Lenny's first time camping and he was pretty good, by which I mean he was not much worse than he is at home, except for the first night, when he was not tired at all and alternated between biting us and trying to chew his way out of the tent all night.

I knew something was going to be wrong with our campsite because it was the only reservable one that was not reserved already. It was just that it is not level so you slide down the mountain all night, and also it is not that big because most of it is taken up by shrubberies full of ticks and spiders.

On Saturday it was a little rainy. We did the Big Run Loop trail which is 5.8 miles and 1100 ft elevation change and it elicited massive amounts of whining from the hike participants. We only saw a couple people until the connection with the Appalachian Trail where there were many skinny young people with scraggley beards.

"Check the map again because I am tired and so I feel that the hike should be over now so we must be going the wrong way."

Lenny has no complaints.

On Sunday it was nicer and we did the Rose River Falls Loop. I didn't think it was that much easier but there was much less complaining. It was rather crowded though and every now and then you would look back and see a pack of toddlers dressed in LL Bean fleeces hurtling towards you.

Here are some more pictures.

the state bird of virginia

Today we went to Shenandoah National Park which is only a little over one hour away. It was 63 degrees. Everyone at work is always going on about how many ticks there are here and how last year everyone got lyme disease and how on the first warm day you can literally see the foliage writhing with ticks. Anyways we just did a little hike and halfway through I looked down at Oscar and there was a big giant tick sitting right in the middle of his head. Then in the car I saw a little tiny one running across his white stripe on his head. Then we went home and I gave him a bath and there were ticks floating in the water. Then he sat next to me on the couch and there was a tick on his neck! There are so many ticks! And you can only see Oscar's ticks when they are in his white parts and he is 80% made up of black parts! It is so vile. I guess they are living in the carpets now. Do people just get used to this or what?