Shenandoah

So I have kind of mixed feelings on the matter of the Shenandoah National Park.

Day1: Started off great! nice cool morning, met some cool people, etc. There were 2 water sources. One at 8 miles in and one at 9 miles in. I was skipping right along "in the zone" and all and passed the first water source. So thinking the second was the first, I passed that one by intending to get water at the latest possible place for the next 10 mile dry stretch. Bad choice. The sun started blazing and the trees became more sparse. I kept sweating like crazy. For a while. I definitely was severely dehydrated by the time I rolled in to the shelter where there was a little spring. Luckily Dewlap and Rainer were there and had just filled up their water and offered me some. I put a liter of water away while i was filling mine up. Oh was it delicious! I swear to never say "water is over-rated" ever again. It isn't. But yeah, that was rough. In case you're wondering, when you get dehydrated your brain doesn't function quite right- you get disoriented, paranoid, then apathetic. It's an interesting process I don't recommend to anyone.

Day 2: Came nose to nose with a Bear. I was walking down the trail, still a bit dehydrated (even after downing 3 liters the night before and 2 more at breakfast) and "in the zone", when I heard a twig snap in the woods. Now you hear lots of twigs snap in the woods while you're hiking the trail, but this one felt different. It snapped me out of my daze and right on the side of the trail not more than 5 feet away was a full sized black bear. It just looked at me. Then went back to eating berries. I backed off and waited for LJ to come up. He came and suggested we just walk by (considering the brush was way too thick to bushwack a wide berth) . And of course I was in front. I walked first with LJ right on my heels, or so I though. I locked eyes with the bear as I went past. What an interesting feeling! I got a safe distance away and stopped. LJ was back on the other side of the bear looking pretty nervous. Having seen me make it, he started his attempt. When it didn't do anything to him, he decided it would be a good photo opportunity. He grabbed his camera and brought it around for the photoshoot and that bear turned around like LJ was a matador holding his red flag. You should have seen the Englishman run! Point of the story: I saw a bear, and bears are not supposed to be so comfortable with humans.

So there is some beautiful scenery in the Shenandoahs. The Mountain Laural is out like crazy. If you're going to do a weekend trip it's great. Anything more than that and you're criss-crossing roads, staring down bear, etc.