The Slow Road.....

Sunday May 5th

So my casual ride to the start of the Skyline Drive, worked out a bit further as before I knew it I had entered the Shenandoah National Park and was on the Skyline Drive. 

 It was a section of road I hadn’t even seen on a map until a couple of days before.  It turns out it is 100 miles of high mountain twisty road with some gorgeous views:

The only problem with the route is that the speed limit is a whopping 35 mph!! So to do the 100 miles will take easily 3 hours as the traffic was actually doing the speed limit.  So 50 miles in I stopped at the first available campground Big Meadow, as it was getting cold and windy.

I quickly set up camp and had dinner in a record 30 minutes!  Since it was still earlyish I decided to take a walk to the lodge/gift store.  Word of advice, never set off alone down a path you don’t know just before dusk!!!  Might seem obvious to the more outdoorsy types....

Well between my map reading skills, their map writing skills, and the lack of trail markings, after about 30 minutes I still hadn’t made it to the gift shop so realized I was on the wrong path and had to head back.  One of the other reasons not to head out by yourself, let alone bears, is the possibility of hurting yourself.

I did a really good job of trying to sprain my ankle, and eventually had to hobble back.  Speaking of bears, I have seen one.  In the median, if you can believe it, between two high speed freeways, so obviously didn't have time to take a picture...!!  Also saw lots of deer at the camp site.