We really lucked out on the beautiful weather today – high of 70 degrees and sunny skies over Shenandoah. I expected this to be the most difficult and grueling hike yet, as we steeply descended 4.5 miles from Skyline Drive into White Oak Canyon, then proceeded to hike 4.5 miles back up to the top over the course of 8 hours. The way down (at least for me) was no problem. My teammates with bad knees, however, did not fair so well. They were looking forward to the uphill climb to take the pressure off their joints, but unfortunately, that’s when my back started hurting.

If you didn’t already know, I injured my back this past November while on vacation in Puerto Rico. I lifted my VERY heavy suitcase and twisted to pull it onto a curb, and I herniated a disc in my lower back. I did physical therapy for a month or so, re-injured it, then had to do more PT to increase my core strength. Since then, I have kept up my exercises and haven’t experienced many problems until last week. I was traveling for work, and I think I exacerbated the injury when I lifted my carry-on suitcase into the overhead bin. I saw my chiropractor yesterday, and I felt like I was okay to do this hike. After being on my feet for several hours with extra weight in my backpack, my lower back started aching (well, it’s more like a stabbing, shooting pain) for the last 3 miles of the hike. I took some ibuprofen, which helped a lot, but all I really wanted to do was lay down.

Fortunately, there were dozens of waterfalls along the trail where we could take breaks for food or photo ops on the way uphill, so that broke up our ascent very nicely. We stopped for lunch around 1:00 at the bottom of a 60-foot waterfall. I changed from my hiking boots into my water shoes to cool off my feet. Later, at another waterfall, our hike leader, Jon, stripped down to his bathing suit and actually climbed into the freezing cold falls and slid down. I will have to try this when the weather is a little hotter and I don’t mind an ice-cold dip.

There weren’t as many interesting flowers, butterflies or snakes as last week, but we must have seen about a hundred black and red millipedes all along the trail. On the way up, the tall canyon rock walls seemed to just drip with water. At one point, the water sprayed over the side of the wall and created a sort of “shower” that you could stand under to cool off. At the halfway point up the White Oak trail, we followed a short side trail that led us to a view of another waterfall and what appeared to be a 100-foot rock cliff. Jon told us we were about to hike up there, and sure enough, not 5 minutes later we were at the top of the cliff, looking down on the trail’s largest waterfall with a 90-foot drop.

The photographs of the waterfalls all kind of run together, but I posted the ones I thought were the prettiest. This is a large album with over 50 pictures, but there are some good ones. Check them out here.

As I said, I expected this to be our most challenging hike yet, but I really felt like last week’s hike at Jeremy’s Run was even more difficult because of the steep mile at the end. After these last two hikes, I feel that I am definitely prepared for what I will encounter at Yosemite next month!