What Goes Up Must Come Down

But WHY did it have to be so steep and rocky?!

On Sunday Dude and I went hiking the White Oak Canyon/Cedar Run in Shenandoah. This is a 7.9 mile hike described as 4 out of 5 stars in difficulty. And it deseved every one of those stars. Here's the map, and the elevation profile:




We parked at the marked parking lot and headed to the right. It was a steady very manageable uphill with beautiful waterfalls to look at. About an hour in we stopped and had lunch. All very relaxing. We got to the spot just above the 3rd camara (where the trail splits to the yellow trail) in about 1 1/2 hours (including lunch). We thought it would take longer to get there so we looked at our topo map (this nicely labled map was safe in the car) and decided the fire trail was a short cut and OBVIOUSLY we should continue up the mountain. Here's what we did - instead of cutting across the mountain, we did the added pink line until it reconnected then followed the trail to the steep downhill (part of map with one camara).



The added pink part wasn't too bad. More pretty waterfalls, we saw a family of deer. Again, steady uphill or traversing the mountain. We came out on Skyline Drive and had to walk along the road a bit until we got back to the original trail. Then the hell began.

To those of you new to reading topo maps, where it gets to be a dark green color, that's the topo lines VERY close together which means STEEP. DOWNHILL. ON NARROW PATHS. WITH BOULDERS, ROOTS, LEAVES, and GRAVEL.

I'm sure there was pretty scenary but I was too busy tripping over roots and rocks and trying to watch every step I took. Did I mention we are now about 4 hours into the hike (when we thought we should be finishing)? I was out of water and didn't want to drink all of Dude's so I soldiered on. Downhills are worse on the knees so my tendon was screaming and poor Dude was practically dragging his bum leg down the mountain.

After 6 1/2 hours we finally made it back to the car. Tired, hungry, and a little scratched up.

All in all, a great day hiking! But two days later I'm more sore then after running a marathon, which by the way, took less time.

I'd do this hike again with some changes: I'd start by going left and climbing the steep part with fresh legs. I'd have a bigger Camelback. But most importantly, I'd follow the trail.