At 6:45 this morning I met up with my Yosemite teammates, Ellen, Carey and Katie, at the Vienna metro station so that we could carpool to Fridley Gap in George Washington National Forest. Just when we got on the road, the sky opened up and it proceeded to pour down rain for the duration of our drive. Because it was unsafe to drive the speed limit, our 2 to 2-1/2 hour drive to the town of Shenandoah took us nearly 3 hours (and we weren’t the last ones to get there). We arrived safely at the Fridley Gap trailhead, donned our raingear and headed up the trail. After less than half a mile, we came to a fast-running stream where the only way to cross was to jump in and walk across in water higher than the tops of our boots. Some of our teammates were already headed back to the parking lot because they encountered a second stream rapidly increasing in volume, and one person had slipped and fallen (but thankfully didn’t injure herself too badly). We did the math and realized that after 5 hours of steady rain, both streams would be even more difficult to cross on the way back. Our little team made a quick decision to pass on this hike, but since we had driven so long to get out there we still wanted to do a hike somewhere. I realized that Mary’s Rock (the hike from last weekend) was only 40 minutes away (and on the way home), so we opted to go there instead.

The four of us drove to Shenandoah National Park, and by the time we got there the rain had stopped, but was replaced by an eerie dense fog. We slowly and carefully navigated our way to the Panorama parking area and found the trailhead. Last weekend we hiked the trail that approached Mary’s Rock from the south. This time we started from the north, which was somewhat shorter, but much, much steeper. Basically, we hiked for nearly 2 hours straight up.  We briefly snacked at the summit and then it took about an hour to come back down the same path. On the way down, the fog had started to clear and we noticed a lot of neat trees and rock formations that had been hidden from view on the way up. Check out pictures here.

We were all glad that we were able to do a hike today and not catch pneumonia or hurt ourselves in the process. On the way back we stopped by Sunnyside Farms in Sperryville for organic burgers and sandwiches (and some well deserved chocolate!) before heading back to NoVa. I am so thankful that I have found such a great crew to hike and share this whole experience with. Not to mention that Ellen makes the absolute BEST oatmeal raisin cookies I have ever had. J