Shenandoah Solo

Stretching more than a hundred miles along the Blue Ridge Mountains of western Virginia, Shenandoah mountains offer an expanse of wooden hollows, breezy summits and waterfalls. Shenandoah mountains had been on my bucket list in an attempt to check off all the places mentioned in my favorite song “County Roads” by John Denver.

One Summer, as craving to get outside and go camping reached its peak, I picked a long weekend and convinced some friends to join along. Just one night before our camping trip, while browsing Netflix, we came across a cute movie “Backcountry” based on a real life camping story of a couple. We thought to ourselves “Wow, that would be a fun movie to watch right before a camping trip”. After watching a bear break into a tent and gruesomely eat the boyfriend alive in the movie, my friends got horrified and bailed out from the trip (jk, something else came up). Now here I was, debating if I should just do the trip anyways.

I have explored and traveled a lot of places but had never done a solo trip before. I am very much a social person, so I always wondered if I would enjoy traveling solo, or if I would hate it to the core. This was my time to test it out. Next morning, I prepped my backpack, loaded my Jeep with gear and set out to explore the Shenandoah Mountains 450 miles away.

After a 10-hour scenic drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, I was finally in the heart of Shenandoah Valley. I think most points of interest in Shenandoah were along the 105-mile skyline drive that runs north and south through the park. The world-famous Appalachian Trail travels right through the heart of these mountains. I quickly formed a rough plan in my head.

Overall, though, the park’s visual charms and terrain combine to create a backpacking experience easier than that found on other sections of the AT. It’s the perfect place to dip your toe into the wilderness. I grabbed my backpack and began hiking a random trail to catch the sunset. I soon lost track of time and spent the next few hours laying on a rock, star gazing and lost in admiring the milky way. Once it got really dark and quiet, it hit me that I was out here all alone. I started hiking back towards my Jeep hoping to drive to a campground.

At 12:30am, an hour into the hike, I realized I had taken a wrong trail and now I was on the 2200-mile Appalachian Trail. I was totally lost and had no idea about how to get back to my Jeep. I found a decent flat spot and set up my tent. Midway through the night, eeriness crept in, the sounds of an owl nearby spooked me out. Slowly, the scenes from the movie that we watched a night before started flashing in my head. I kept my eyes closed, held a pocket-knife tight in my hand and waited for the sun to come out.

After a sleepless night, I back-tracked my way and found the right trail that lead me back to my Jeep.I continues exploring the rolling hills of Virginia, which were my absolute favorite. I drove on random dirt roads and meadows, feeling like a free beast! I tested out my Jeep’s capability and even drove through the forest, dodging trees and bushes.

NAVIGATION TIP: Cell phone service is spotty in the park so pay attention to the mile markers and know your destination marks OR enter your destination in google maps and start the navigation while you have signal.

I continued driving north on the Skyline Drive. I stopped at some viewpoints along the way and did a short hike at Hawksbill Summit—the park’s highest point at 4,051 feet. Despite the elevation gain, the trail is not as difficult as one might expect.

I was craving to do a more challenging hike that day. Old Rag is Shenandoah's most popular and most dangerous hike. The number of blogs and websites about this hike attests to its popularity. The number of search and rescue missions each year attests to its danger. I knew this was the one for me.

It is a challenging 10 mile hike, but when you make it about 3/4 of the way up, you will then have some rock scrambling that makes your pace a little slower. There are a lot of switchbacks, but the trails are still at a steep grade. The descent, which is a longer distance than the ascent, is a much more gradual grade, ending on a fire trail.

When hiking Old Rag Mountain, each time you think you’ve reached the summit – you haven’t! This mountain has several false summits. You’ll know that you’ve reached the Old Rag Summit when you see the Old Rag Mountain brown elevation sign. As I sat up on the summit eating my sandwich, I heard a scream. To my shock, someone from a group had fallen off the cliff. There were many people to help, so I waited for a bit, then continued my decent. An hour into my hike, I saw a rescue helicopter making its way to the summit.

I was drained out after the hike ended up setting tent and calling it a day. Next morning, I drove north to Luray Caverns. I was specially excited for this since I had never been to a cavern before. I had learned about stalactites and stalagmites in high school, but never seen one in real life. Luray Caverns is the largest (and most popular) caverns in Eastern America. Tours lead guests through towering stone formations and there’s even the world’s only “Stalactite Organ”, which produces varying tones by tapping stalactites which is unheard of.

After a thorough solo trip, I eventually decided it was time to head back home. On my drive back, I compared in my head If I liked solo traveling more than traveling with another person or a group.

I realized there were some advantages of travelling solo. It honestly felt a bit freeing to not be on a schedule with anyone else, and I could be flexible in whatever I wanted to do. Priorities change, personalities mature, minds open, self-confidence increases; ideals and opinions alter, and I think you improve as a person. Being outside of your comfort zone and having no-one to figure things out for you forces you to develop.

However, throughout the trip, I felt something was missing. To me, sharing the experience creates something to reminisce about. Going through something so incredible with another person, or a group of people, only serves to enhance the experience through the memories created. But someday, I’d definitely love to give solo traveling another shot!

“Happiness is only real when shared” - Christopher McCandless