Trip to Luray, End of May 2002


This recounts the tale of my trip to the vicinity of Luray Virginia. I went with Kris, Marie, and Jason. The trip was fairly uneventful, and by Saturday evening we made it to Skyline Drive

We then went to the Matthew's Arm Campground in Shenadoah National Park. After promising to keep our food away from the bear, we went and set up camp.

My camera was acting up this trip, so the pictures are ugly and fuzzy, but here you can see a very crazy view of the girl's tent. The guy's tent was of course much better but somehow cropped out of the picture.
Ghost Tents
Marie and Jason bravely attempted to get a fire going, despite the fact that the only wood we could find was soaking wet.
To Build A Fire
And then, success! I'd like to think I did more than kibitz. The fire was enough to cook by, but very smoky and was always destroying my eyes whenever I tried to tend to it.
FIRE!
In this picture the tiny figures at the top of the ridge are space aliens come to kidnap us... or else it's Marie and Kris trying to find more firewood before nightfall, I forget which.
Slave Labor
That night it was super-super-freezing and I was wearing all the clothes I brought for the trip. Luckily my sleepingbag was warm. The next morning we were awoken by the natural sounds of the neighboring party's car-alarm going off at 7am. We woke soon after, packed up, and hiked off in search of a mythical waterfall.
waterfall
This is Overall Falls, or at least I think that was the name. Anyway we had to go take a closer look. I took the easy but long way through the trees. Marie took the more direct let-me-climb-down-a-super-sheer-cliff-to-my-death approach.
death defying Marie
The falls were quite nice.
Raging Torrent
Here you can see Marie, Kris, and Jason standing still so quickly they are blurred with excitement! Or maybe I need to be more careful w my poor camera.
Fuzzy People
Of course the hike had been downhill, so we had to climb back up to the top to get to the car.

We had to then be sure to stop at some overlooks. For some reason they look squished in this one...
SQUISHED
We then got horribly lost trying to find a church thanks to a forgotten "business" on the directions, but the kind people at Luray United Methodist Church were very accomodating, and many good hymns were sung.

We ate lunch by a sunny stream in Luray, Then it was off to Luray Caverns despite the best attempts of the VA Highway department to confuse me with suddenly ending lanes and confusing signage.

The caverns were beautiful, but soon it was time to go. And thus the fun trip to Luray was ended, but not before braving the horrors that are the Capital beltway.

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