Emily and I spent our weekend camping at Big Meadows in Shenandoah. Each day had a point where it rained, but overall the trip was relaxing, fun, and adventurous. The rain was good too because we didn’t know you had to/or could make reservations at Big Meadows, which meant we didn’t know where we were staying on Saturday night because they were booked full. Luckily, space opened once the rain started so we were able to stay at the campground.
I was surprised at how cold it was. I know it’s fall now, but the weather was much more like winter. Each night lead to a low in the low 30′s, and each day was only about 50 or so. Very surprising, and something I’ll need to plan for next time.
I was able to start a matchless fire on Sunday night, something that might sound hard to do on the face of it but little do you know I actually found a fire pit that someone had recently cooked on with charcoal. Placing my wood on top with some kindling soon started a great fire for cooking. Food always tastes better when you’re camping and this time was no exception.
I packed my climbing shoes with the rest of our camping gear and scoped things out the first day, looking for some good climbs. There is a great 50 foot rock face about 1.25 miles (or a 35 minute normal paced hike) north of the Big Meadows Amphitheater going north along the Appalachian Trail. After seeing it the first day and snapping some pictures, Emily and I took some rope, my new hammock, and some other gear to spend the day on these new-found rocks. There are some great climbing routes there and I’m really hoping I can convince some climbing friends to come back there and backpack/camp there with me to check things out further.
I was surprised that you were getting such cool temperatures at night. I’m impressed by the matchless fire and I suspect it was handy for warmth purposes as well.
I would be up/eager to do some exploration of the area during a future adventure.
How would you rate the climbs?
There was a ton of climbing routes there. I was sticking to some easier stuff, simply because the ground below (if you have to fall) is really jagged and rocky. I found one particularly good climb which I was able to take sideways, and with my meager climbing experience I’d rate it about 5-8.