Big Meadows Lodge

Today the AT brought us right beneath our window at the Big Meadows Lodge. Our room is about 200 feet behind us while we took this picture standing on the trail. This makes it closer to the trail than many shelters, and it includes air conditioning,  hot and unlimited showers (We still made it quick to preserve water.  Thanks for the reminder in the bathroom, Park Service!), fresh linens, soft beds, and hot meals prepared 3 times a day. Not a bad trailside experience if you're willing to pay.
Put another way for non-hikers, it's like staying at Disney's Wilderness Lodge but the wildlife outside your balcony window is actually wild and includes deer, bear, owls, racoons, skunks, squirrels, chipmunks, vultures,  hawks, and hikers!

Some views are better than others

Hightop Mountain in the morning clouds.

The rain stopped.

We got a break in the weather this afternoon, and the hiking/cycling went well. Started with a great downhill thrill ride on Skyline Drive.  I don't think our bikes had ever gone that fast!

Five minutes later...

Turns out the storm came through rather quickly and full of fury as soon as I posted our launch message! So we rather quickly changed plans, raced to restow the bikes and got back in the Jeep only soaked rather than submerged. We decided crashing our bikes in the rain careening down Skyline Drive wouldn't be the right way to start our trip. Pray for good weather soon!

Off to begin our hiking and cycling adventure!

We'll ride our bikes from our destination trailhead to our starting trailhead at Powell Gap today and slack pack back. Get the Jeep, retrieve the bikes, head to the lodge and repeat. Should be a great way to finish off the AT through Shenendoah.
The ranger just said a big storm might be coming tgrough, but today is a short day given our arrival late last night so we might as well get a few miles in...

Allentown Hiking Club Shelter

Stopping at the AHC shelter tonight after a drive from NYC and a relatively short hike. Too far to make it to the next shelter and the fog/rain make this dry and clean location a good place to stop. Kudos to the Allentown Hiking Club for building and keeping the shelter clean functional.
Back to Shenendoah later this month with Farsight, but knocking down a few miles here in the Keystone State for the next few days.

Black Rock Summit

Thousands of years ago, the Shenendoah Mountains were a huge cliff next to a beach! These giant sandstone rocks were probably tumbled down the cliff during the last ice age. Great info from a Park Service geologist I met at the top.