Shenandoah National Park

Loft Mountain Campground

After leaving Williamsburg, VA, I made the three hour drive up to the Loft Mountain Campground inside Shenandoah National Park. This campground was unusual in that while it was fairly large and had over 200 sites, it was not setup well for RVs as most sites had the camp side stuff like picnic tables, fire pits, and bear proof food storage on the wrong side for RVs. While not the end of the world since most of my time was not spent at the camp site, it was still inconvenient. Three nights with zero hookups was the longest I’ve done that, and I think it went pretty well (at least from a no hookups perspective), so that was a good experience. I knew water wouldn’t be a problem, as I can pretty easily do three or four nights without refilling the fresh or dumping the other thanks, but I wasn’t sure how well the battery would hold up since it was a very shaded site, so I didn’t think I would get much help from the solar panels. Fortunately a lot of the leaves had started to fall, so I was able to at least recharge the battery a bit every day. Assuming the same amount of sun I got while I was there, I could probably have gone six or seven days before needing to worry about breaking out the generator. There was also very little cell service at the campground, I would occasionally get enough service for some texts to come in, but it was pretty difficult to send them. It did give me a good chance to try out the recent iMessage feature that allows sending messages via satellite, it was pretty cool to see that work. Fortunately the weather was just about perfect, mid 70s during the day down to low 40s at night, so no AC necessary. The sites were nice and secluded though, and it was pretty convenient being in the park as it can take a long time just to drive to some trailheads from the entrances. A large benefit of being in the park and not having electricity at the campground was the great night time sky viewing. Not the greatest picture since I didn’t have a tripod or anywhere to stabilize my phone against, but it gives you some idea of what I was able to see.

Frazier Discovery Trail

Tuesday morning I got up and did two hikes, first the Frazier Discovery Trail, which was located very near the campground. At only 1.5 miles and 500 feet of elevation, it was just a little taste of the hikes to come. The timing couldn’t be much better for seeing the leaves change color, just a little unfortunate that it was been pretty dry here this summer so the colors are a tiny bit muted. Still beautiful though!

Turk Mountain

While this hike was only 2.5 miles round trip, at 800 feet of elevation gain it got the blood flowing really good and had me concerned about some of the longer hikes I was interested in, since this was rated “easiest” by the NPS. The view from the top of Turk Mountain was definitely worth it though.

Trailer repairs

Unfortunately my trailer has had some more issues recently. One of the blackout shades no longer stays down by itself (using a chip clip to hold it down), the hinge for the fridge and freezer is bent so the freezer door doesn’t stay locked, which is especially a problem when driving (using tape to hold the freezer door shut in transit), something has really slowed down the flow of water when hooked up to a city connection (currently filling my fresh tank and using the water pump), and finally, when I woke up Wednesday morning and turned on the water pump and heater, the hot water side of the bathroom faucet started leaking (no workarounds). Because RVs are pretty notoriously built as cheap and quickly as possible, a lot of them don’t use standard PEX for plumbing everywhere, and this is one of the places that it is not used, so repairing is not as easy as re-crimping with a new PEX crimp ring. To make matters even worse, the nearest hardware store that had the parts I needed was over an hour away! I won’t complain (as much) about the 20 minute drive from my house to a hardware store next time. I was able to get a fix in place, but supposedly it won’t last very long, but hopefully it can at least last long enough to get me home and I can order the parts for a more permanent fix. It really bummed me out because it cost me most of the day by the time I drove far enough to get cell service so I could look up how to fix it, and stopping at three (the camp store which I knew was a long shot, an Ace which I thought would have what I needed, an RV repair place which I was sure would have what I needed, and finally a Lowe’s) other stores on the way hoping that one of them happened to have what I needed, and finally getting back and making the repair.

Spacious Skies Shenandoah

Thursday was a moving day. When I was planning this trip I initially thought it might be silly going only 33 miles north, but I think it was a good decision to be able to more easily access hikes on the north side of the park. Plus it was also nice to get to a site with full hookups. The camp sites are pretty narrow but nice, and there is a huge play area in the middle of the campground with a jumping pillow for kids. I also had to refill one of my propane tanks, as I had burned through almost an entire tank in a week since I was having to use heat at night and had to use propane for my water heater for a good chunk of the week.

Skyline Drive

My parents also came to Shenandoah for the weekend, so Friday we were going to meet up to drive the whole Skyline Drive, a 105 mile road at the crest of the mountains through the park. Unfortunately when I woke up Friday morning, the cold water side of my bathroom sink faucet was leaking! Fortunately I had the foresight to buy two of everything I needed when I fixed the hot water side of the faucet, and I had some idea of what I was doing, so it was much quicker to fix. It’s interesting to me that these connections made it almost three years, and they both start leaking within a few days of each other.

Back to Skyline Drive, with only a 35 MPH speed limit and dozens of scenic overlooks, we drastically underestimated the amount of time it would take to drive the whole road while stopping at every overlook. We couldn’t have picked a better weekend for weather and seeing the leaves change though! After about four hours, we had only made it about two thirds of the way through before we had to turn around to make sure we were back in time for our dinner plans. Dad has a cousin who lives only about 20 minutes from where Mom and Dad were staying, and they were kind enough to invite us over for dinner. Always nice to spend time with family, especially in a smaller group than a Raap family reunion.

Whiteoak Falls

Saturday morning I got up and did the Whiteoak Falls hike. Even though I thought I was getting to the park pretty early, there was already a long entrance line (about 30 minutes to get in) and a lot of the overlooks and trailheads were filling up. Fortunately I made it to the trailhead for the trail I had picked and there was still plenty of parking available. About an hour and 2.4 miles later, there was a very nice payoff. The bad news was the hike to the falls was all downhill, which meant the whole way back would be uphill, over 1,000 feet of uphill! I had been a little worried about this hike because it was rated moderate by the NPS, but I think it was easier than Turk Mountain. While it was constantly uphill, there were very few sections that were steep which made it feel more manageable. It also helped that most of the trail ran by the stream that fed the falls, so there was plenty of mini falls and rapids to look at along the way.

That afternoon we had hoped to go to a fairly close NPS site called Belle Plantation, but unfortunately it was closed for a private event, so instead I did some laundry, grocery shopping, and writing up this post.