Over the weekend we went out to the Shenandoah mountains for an overnight hike, chosen from what has become our indispensable Shenandoah hiking Bible: Day and Overnight Hikes in Shenandoah National Park, by Johnny Molloy. Molloy also publishes a similar guide to many other parks throughout the country, and we've been really happy with this one.
This time we selected the Lewis Spring Falls Loop in the Central District of the park, which is further south than we usually travel. It's a 3.6-mile loop, rated two stars (out of four) for difficulty, and four stars for scenery. We'd agree wholeheartedly with both of these assessments; with our packs and camping gear on, it seemed to strike just the right balance of exertion and enjoyment (as opposed to other hikes, which may have erred heavily on the side of strenuous for the less physically adventurous of us), and the views were lovely. It also gave two stars for solitude, but that seemed a little generous to us; the trail runs right near some of the main lodges, and was in fact pretty crowded on Saturday morning.
This time we selected the Lewis Spring Falls Loop in the Central District of the park, which is further south than we usually travel. It's a 3.6-mile loop, rated two stars (out of four) for difficulty, and four stars for scenery. We'd agree wholeheartedly with both of these assessments; with our packs and camping gear on, it seemed to strike just the right balance of exertion and enjoyment (as opposed to other hikes, which may have erred heavily on the side of strenuous for the less physically adventurous of us), and the views were lovely. It also gave two stars for solitude, but that seemed a little generous to us; the trail runs right near some of the main lodges, and was in fact pretty crowded on Saturday morning.
Friday night, we got to the park just before sunset and hiked about half the loop before dusk started to fall and we needed to pitch our tent. By necessity, we wound up making camp in the woods just a few hundred feet behind a lodge. We were able to string up our food to keep it safe from animals and enjoyed a good (if somewhat hard and rocky) night's sleep. The temperature got pretty cool as the night wore on, but laced up in our sleeping bags with long sleeves and pants on, we stayed comfortable. Since we'd been in a hurry to get out of town and hadn't had the ingredients for a properly balanced dried soup, we picked up a can of Jyoti Natural Foods Mattar Paneer (which is delicious, nutritions, and has a beautifully simple ingredient list with no artificial ingredients or preservatives) and packed some basmati rice. Both cooked up beautifully over the campstove and made just the right amount to fill us up without leaving any leftovers. We packed the can out in a ziploc bag and so it made barely any waste, either.
For morning, we cooked bulgur and coffee. We had been able to find a little box of shelf-stable organic milk, apparently ultra-pasteurized, and a welcome addition to our cereal and our coffee. (Between two cans of mattar paneer and two boxes of milk, I think we spent about $8 on trail food, which is about what you'd spend on one heavily processed and preservative-laden prepared dried entree.) We packed up camp and hiked out, and by the time we got to the car, a couple of hours had passed and we were ready to eat our second can of mattar paneer.
From there we drove southwest to Polyface Farms, an enterprise we'd been introduced to through Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and which we were both dying to see. More on that (with pictures) in a later post!
Just setting out into the cool evening air
Us and a scenic view
Just what it looks like: a little black bear!
Less frightening wildlife
On the trail and in love 
Beautiful panorama of the sunset at Blackrock, overlooking Page Valley
All kinds of good scenery in this one
Matt, tucked into his sleeping bag in our tent
Lewis Falls
Me in the woods
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