I trust easily.
Except for when it comes to Anita whom I trust blindly.
It is a trust very well placed.
We both are good daughters to mother nature and we are going to visit her today.
Anita says it is considered to be a strenuous level hike.
She says I can do it.
I believe her.
Surprising how our optimism hasn’t gotten us into any serious trouble so far.
So off we go to hike Old Rag in Shenandoah National Park Virginia. It takes around 3 hours to drive there from DC – totally worth it!
This countryside is taking my breath away.
Normally seeing a cockroach would have me embedded in the ceiling via my nails, teeth chattering, but there was no ceiling and the woods were so mesmerizing and my mood so happy that I even took a photo of it and complimented it on its color. Yuk! (My only phobia.)
This is like the appetizer of what is to come.
In addition to beautiful mother nature I also get to meet beautiful people. Anita has become pretty close friends with a few of the people she met through her meetup.com crew.
This is Suzi. In Anita’s words she ‘wears an invisible super-woman cape over her invisible angel wings’ and is the type of girl who will drive for 7 hours to pick up a friend in distress and she will do it with a smile, genuinely happy to help. True story! Read all about it here on Anita’s blog. We need more Suzi’s in this world, many, many of them.
That’s a mini-frog by the way.
The rest of the gang. Nature-lovers are just so chilled and wonderful. Mike waves at us and is our hike leader for the day. He really makes us feel very safe and is ready with a helping hand any time we can’t haul our butts over a particularly tricky rock. Literally. Without touching our butts (in case there is any confusion).
Michelle, wearing the blue & purple top and sweet smile, is another close friend of Anita’s and we all get to spend some quality girl-time together giggling and talking about things girls like to talk about.
The hike starts off nice and easy. Many little superstars are hiding from the spotlight.
I have been briefed by lovely Anita on what this hike is going to be like and why it is considered strenuous. It is basically a very long hike and also encompasses something called ‘scrambling’ which means you hoist yourself over rocks using your arms, legs and whetever else you can use to get on top of that rock (in my case it was my butt! Who woulda thought it would make such a good anchor?!!).
So scrambling is like the capricious, demanding, diva sister of climbing.
My first experiences with it.
Nature’s stairs.
Teamwork! Absolutely loving Suzi and Michelle.
Mini break. I must say I was quite impressed with my rookie self for being able to keep up with the girls.
Anny and I are carrying on with childhood habits and have bought the same hiking boots from REI. This reminds us of the time when we were kids and went shopping separately and came home to find out we had bought the exact same thing. We still often have big parallel lines in our private lives too helping us to laugh (perpetually) as well as cry (rarely) at the same time. Blessiiinggggg! Veeeeer 🙂
Note to self: not all animals are cuddle-friendly.
We are hours into the hike now. There is a huge crack between two rocks the we all have to jump over. You don’t need to be a stuntman to do this but the crack seems to go right until the centre of the earth and my overactive imagination can swear she can see the core of the earth all red and molten, bubbly lava, fiery mouth open waiting to melt and devour me. I freak out and am really, really scared… until Anita says, ‘Look, this is what you do’ *skip* It looks so simple that I feel really silly and skip along right after her. I do get some cuddles on the other side and life is peaceful again.
Fully armed in case of danger.
Yipppeeeeee! I did it!!!
View from the summit.
It’s good when some things are not over when you think they are (think break-ups).
Then there are some things that are kinda over but not really and it is kinda cool but kinda scary too and this is more that kind of a situation. What goes up must come down: We will watch the sunset from the peak and then have to go all the way back down again in the dark. Yes, dark!
My fearless Amazonian sister Anita.
Just as we are almost finished a white being appears out of nowhere. It looks like a proper, white fairy and is fluttering all around us like something out of a Disney cartoon and finally lands on the ground and plays dead. We get to take some photos. It is such a delightful little sight. We discover that this is a luna moth and actually is a rare moth to come across. How lucky!
Looks green here but was a translucent, airy, white color when in flight.
Our night ends in i-hop.
We earned this, every single calorie! Yes, we did!
Note: Not all of the photos are mine: some are Anita’s and some I took from the meetups website.