Deers, Skunks, and Bears, Oh My!

I spent this past weekend in the great wilderness of Shenandoah National Park. My friends and I began talking about it as soon as the signs of winter began to give way to spring some months ago. After so much coordination, a group of 11 all set off this weekend to a campsite located on a ridge in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

When we arrived in the late afternoon, we found ourselves inside some low level clouds - the remnants of the rain system that moved through all day last friday. It was some of the thickest fog I have ever seen. The visibility was down to about 10 feet I'd say at some points. I found it pretty cool and creepy but it quickly changed to annoying because everything was wet and cold and there was no way to start a campfire. The only logical thing to do then was jump into my sleeping bag and get the bottle of rum.

The fog lingered into saturday morning but once the sun gained some elevation, it finally burned off and things began to dry. We had ourselves a hearty breakfast and then went on a five mile hike through the woods in search of an 80+ foot waterfall. The trek was really great. I saw a deer with her fawn, a cool looking millipede and I even came across a black bear. It turns out that if a bear sees you, it doesn't mean he will automatically attack you. That is a good thing to know. After our hike, we returned back to our campsite and got a fire going finally. Now we could cook!

Saturday night was pretty memorable. We all ate our dinners, made up of sausage, potato salad, and baked potatoes, with flashlights. the only problem was that there wasn't enough light to go around so I had to keep flashing my light to people trying serve their plates and even find their mouths! For dessert we had smores and this curious new camping food I was introduced to called "mountain pies." Basically, in a really simplified description, you put a sandwich (any fillings you want) in an iron press that encloses the sandwich inside it completely and shove it in the fire which toasts and fuses the sides of the "pie" together.

Once we all had our fill, most people went to bed leaving myself and Emily where we decided to stay up for a little while longer. At around 1am, a tiny friend came to pay us a visit. It was a skunk! By the time I noticed his presence it was too late to run. I reverted to the survival tips I learned from watching Jurassic Park when dealing with a T-Rex and instructed Emily to "not move a muscle" despite the little stinker being 3 feet from my chair. We ended up surviving the encounter and soon went to bed where I recalled laying there reflecting on how much wildlife and nature I was exposed to that day. I then shut my eyes and went to bed a little sad that the next morning meant I had to leave and get back to the city with all of its pavement and lack of deers, skunks, and bears.