Shenandoah National Park

If you want to see bears and deer in the wild…go to Shenandoah National Park in June. The berries are ripe and the wildlife was out! The 105 mile hike thru the park took a week and throughout the week we saw 7 bears and so many deer I count keep count. Finally my first time ever seeing a bear on a hike. It only took about 1000 miles. The first bear sighting was 2 cubs in a tree but no momma bear in sight; and I was sure to look for her. A couple of days later my dad and I came upon a bear walking directly in the trail and we proceeded to walk with it. He never minded us. We were surly keeping a close eye on him and make sure we didn't get to close. After about 15 minutes of hiking with him he decided to get off the trail. Also, the deers in the park seemed so tame I was able to get up extremely close for some pics and kinda had hopes of petting one but they never let that happen.The other thing that made the hike thru the park such a different experience was that every 30 miles or so the park service has what they call "waysides", these are cafes… and they're pretty much directly on the trail! To a hungry hiker these are like a oasis. Cold drinks, burgers and fries are great fuel for the hike. You'd be surprised how much farther you can hike towards the end of the day for a "normal" meal. The entire time through the park I avoided cooking my normal rice or pasta meals. After hiking with a 14" pizza on my back a while ago I've figured that I can probably carry almost anything out for some hours. And if I get another person that tells me I should be living off the land more and eating squires and grub for dinner.. I'm gonna flip. I don't know if its a joke but thats just dumb and no one does that. I will eat some fresh berries though and I came up on a apple tree the other day:) Anyways, I LOVED the Shenandoahs. Enjoy the pics:)

(click to enlarge)