Virginia | In Retrospect

Summer thus far.

It seems as if adventures often begin with an unexpected disaster. In May prior to heading to Baltimore I accidentally broke a large standing growing box in the back yard and had to do an emergency transplant into the ground. Then in June prior to heading out on a camping trip with The Boss and the dog my large Aloe fell off its stand and I planted it in a new pot.

It’s doing fine.

Nonetheless, we had no excuse to dodge the camping trip. For years I vowed I would never camp. I never felt that setting up camp, cooking over campfire, cleaning dishes next to camp fire, and all of the work that was involved ever counted as true relaxation. It doesn’t really – it’s work and it tires you out. However, I came to realize that it’s the same as enjoying time in the kitchen or time at home, but with a bit more creativity involved in planning it while away. So, now we camp.

We decided to try out the concept of camping with our dog – just the two of us.

So we loaded up Meraz into the car for her longest ride since she retired from racing 5 1/2 years ago along with all of our gear and headed out to Shenandoah National Park.

Meraz was not nearly as excited by the scenic overlooks on Skyline Drive as we were and we’ve been out there dozens of times.

By. Late afternoon we were set up at Big Meadows Campground. So, let’s see. How did we pack…. We did bring a bit extra, we always do. We brought our larger tent, a six person model. We brought the dog’s large ploof bed assuming she would be happy resting on it inside or out and would otherwise stand around whining; this was accurate. I brought a camp stove and a camp grill and used both – the stove to boil water for coffee and to make rice and the grill to toast bagels. Three crates of cooking gear and food; a cooler full of food including salmon for dinner the first night and shrimp for the second night. Salad for lunch (with grilled salmon). Two sleeping bags, zipped together, plus pads. Spoiler alert – we’re planning to upgrade to thicker pads.

Meraz enjoyed the experience.

Better than we did. No pictures inside though.

One of the reasons I head to the mountains to go hiking but when I’m not alone to some degree I’m reliant on what the others want to do. In this case, though, I’m happy to say I got a decent amount of hiking in. Around Big Meadows there’s a fair amount of trails and a decent amount to see and the Appalachain Trail passes by the campground as well. We took Meraz for more walks than she does at home – normally she walks maybe a mile and a half a day but by my count she did about four miles our first day when we set up camp and then eight miles the next day.

While The Boss was doing a fairly long run on Saturday Morning Meraz and I walked two miles out to the actual Big Meadow where we had a view of the valley and cell signal to check messages.

Then we took her hiking in the woods to look at her own kind – deer. When she sees them in the neighborhood at home she acts as if we’re being invaded and growls and wants to chase them off but in the forest that isn’t her own turf she just looks.

We spent the afternoon relaxing, napping, and reading at the campground. And then I made paella over a campfire.

I’ve always wanted to do this. I’ve done it over a grill but not over a campfire.

And there was a lovely sunset from the lodge.

Two weeks later I headed out for a solo camping trip at Loft Mountain. I planned this relatively speaking on the spur of the moment. I had a three day weekend for Juneteenth with Juneteenth being on a Friday. As it was a long weekend I wanted to spend a whole day hiking. However, the weather had other plans. We had a forecast for three days of high temperatures – too hot for hiking in the afternoon, even at altitude – so I decided to get a spot at Loft Mountain, take the afternoon off work, drive out during the heat of the day and spend the night.

Since I was solo I took the “small car,” arriving around 3:30 in the afternoon to a very buggy campsite. I set up my tent as quickly as possible while dousing myself with Off and headed out on a hike.

My destination was Doyles River Falls about 2 1/2 miles walk from the campground and probably 1500 feet descent. As you can see it was relatively dry. I’m not certain if the lower falls had more water as I stopped at the upper falls. I did not carry water as I was hoping to go down and back relatively quickly but that may have been a bad mood because I felt very woozy and dehydrated on return (remember, it was fairly hot – upper 80s at the top of the mountain when I was setting up camp).

That night I lit a fire purely for ambiance.

So, here is how I will describe the two campgrounds.

Big Meadows seems to get more vacationers whereas Loft Mountain, per the ranger, gets more regulars – people from relatively close by who come to the mountain frequently. Big Meadows has more to see but Loft Mountain certainly has plenty of trails. At Big Meadows the showers and firewood are certainly in the campground but at Loft Mountain it was perhaps a mile walk to the showers (spoiler alert – I drove as I was hot and tired). Big Meadows you can buy firewood up until 8pm; at Loft Mountain you must buy it by 6pm. I actually shared half my bundle with neighbors as it was too hot to use all of it and they were hunting around in the forest looking for dry wood because they had no firewood.

Overall, I enjoyed resting in Loft Mountain better and I think I appreciate it better as an adult but I am not so certain I would take my kids there. I have reservations for the dog, my kids, and I at Big Meadows in 2 1/2 weeks.

Anyway, I slept a few hours at Loft Mountain but not much. It was easier than getting up at 5am and driving out to the mountains, but not by much. I would probably do it again.

I had originally planned to hike over these ridges by Skyline Drive but they had a lot of exposed trail. After my overheating experience I decided to do a different hike instead.

I chose to hike the Big Run Loop starting before 7am on June 20. The weather was great relatively speaking – about 74 humid degrees when I started out and perhaps about 82 when I finished a few hours later.

There were a lot of spectacular narrow trails on this loop. The reward was the solitude and the distance. Most of the trail is neither on the AT or on a genuine tributary so I saw nobody until I returned to the ridge.

Eventually you find your way back up to the ridge and follow the AT for a bit crossing Skyline Drive and passing an overlook.

As it was still early I decided to drive ten miles down the road and do another short hike.

This is where I hiked. As you can see this was not on June 20th of this year. I took this photo at the end of September two years ago during a break in a rainstorm when the whole ridge was covered by clouds and fog. This photo was taken at Blackrock Summit. Hiking to Blackrock is a short walk with a round trip of less than two miles. The day I was there in 2024 was quite peaceful with nobody else around but obviously there was nothing to see but rocks.

This time the view was spectacular.

This is in my opinion one of the best views in Shenandoah and I was happy I did it. If I had driven from home that morning I likely would not have had time or energy in the heat.

I made friends with a couple of bucks finishing out my hike.

I have a couple of good friends here in Arlington who have a timeshare out at Massanutten Resort. They’re great – but not because they have a timeshare at Massanutten. I met them about a decade ago through my friend Joe because Joe met them once every week or two for a game night. I learned about his game nights at one point and said, “You should invite me.” After some hemming and hawing, eventually I became an invitee – and a regular. So, to this day I play games with Pat and Jim.

Carcassonne is probably our most frequently played game because it only takes about 40 minutes and it doesn’t require an even number of players and we often play it adjacent to a longer game. But anyway. This isn’t about games. This is about Massanutten, and visiting the Shenandoah Valley.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned but will do so frequently now – I am a hiker. I am a hiker because I enjoy being outdoors. I grew up on a farm so it is merely natural. Whenever I can I escape the city to head west to the mountains to hike. There are other outdoor activities I don’t care much about, like hunting (I am not a hunter), fishing (I don’t have the patience to deal with fishing lines and fish hooks or cleaning fish), four wheeling and motor sports. I’m okay at camping, preferably not with a backpack, but I enjoy a walk in the woods.

So I go hiking.

I live in Arlington, Virginia, half a dozen miles from the U.S. Capitol. End result, it is not good for hiking here. For what it’s worth, I do know people who dispute this. “You can hike on the Potomac Heritage Trail” or “I like to hike in Rock Creek Park” is what I hear. To me, no, even if you find the rugged spots if you’re hiking virtually in someone’s back yard hearing the hum of the freeway and hearing planes landing at National Airport you are not hiking.

Sometimes I cheat and head to Lake Acotink Park. Okay, that’s almost-hiking. Huntley Meadows Park? Too flat and level. Not hiking, even if there are a ton of bird watchers.

A proper hike requires you to bring water and snacks and climb a mountain or head down into a valley to chase waterfalls.

Anyway, one of the reasons, other than friendship, I head to Massanutten when my friends are there is to go hiking.

But this post is not about hiking. I didn’t go hiking when I visited Pat and Jim this time around.

This time I headed out from work the day after I returned from Baltimore and stopped at the local Walmart. Let’s just say that my tech-oriented mind had not slowed down yet and the locals in Luray, Virginia, kept bumping into me with their shopping carts.

I did eventually slow down when I arrived at this cluster of timeshare duplexes. My friends always play a game when they arrive. There is a trick to getting the best spot. You always want views of the mountains, but usually you have a choice between sunset and sunrise. This time they lucked out. They were able to get both.

When they visit Massanutten usually they stay for two or three weeks. They don’t go in the middle of summer as it’s too hot and they go there to be outside. They never go in the middle of winter either for the same reason. Their goal is to go when they can golf and go see live music, and it seems as if every other winery and brewery in that part of the Shenandoah Valley has live music.

Elkton Brewing Co. is probably my favorite place to go for beer out there. It’s really low key and laid back – very small town – unlike a lot of places where they built to handle 200 or 300 or 400 people. When weather is nice they set up a band on the porch; when weather is not nice they set up a band inside. And Woodfiredco has a pizza truck in their lot for Friday nights like this.

The thing about Elkton is there’s a busy freight rail line running through town so about every sixth song has a CSX locomotive running through it. This particular Friday night was no exception.

Nonetheless the band soldiered on, acoustic guitar with tenor singer playing along in a style I like to call “winery music.” They did a stunning rendition of Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie.”

And then an hour later we were at Base Camp, a thousand feet higher and a thousand feet cooler listening to a band called Gypsy Town playing a much better rendition of Valerie. You can find both on my instagram – robnorwood is my handle there.

I actually enjoy the vibe better at Elkton Brewery, even with the trains going past. The beer is better too. Base Camp has a much more extensive menu (Elkton Brewery only has the pizza truck) but the funny thing is you can never find something you like at Base Camp and when it’s busy the service is excruciatingly painful.

But there are always deer in the evening. And sometimes raccoons.

So, the thing about heading out to Massanutten for the weekend is my friends keep a pretty serious schedule when they are out of town. I try to not exhaust myself on the weekend; if I go for a morning hike or a run or something, then an afternoon at a winery or two for live music followed by an evening at Elkton or Cave Creek, it gets to be a bit much. And this time I had been out of town for a few days before so I paced myself. Saturday morning I went for a walk and then we had a leisurely breakfast playing games before heading to Lavender Farm.

I know Lavender Farm has an official name but this is how we know it. They have llamas, or alpacas I cannot tell, and a small petting zoo, and they also grow a lot of lavender. Some of it they put in wine.

One time I had a wine tasting here, but never again. They have a handful of good white wines (in Virginia you can never go wrong with Viognier) and one good red wine (Cabernet Franc I think, same rule applies). And they have some decent beer.

But we came here to see Shane Click.

This isn’t Shane. This is me. Shane gives out these sexy glasses at his gig and encourages people to wear them. When you tip him he pauses in his singing to say, “Thanks you sexy beast!”

Shane knows what songs to play regardless of whether you request something but it’s more fun if you make a request. For me he played, “God is Great, Beer is Good, Rob is Crazy.”

Eventually the show ended and as I had been away for parts of five days at that point I drove the two hours home to Arlington for the night.

Another successful visit to the Shenandoah Valley.

A tail of two camping trips

Early June at Massanutten