Shenandoah Weekend Recap Part 2

Hey friends – I’m back to share part 2 of our weekend adventures in the mountains of Virginia. :) If you missed yesterday’s post, read that first: Shenandoah Weekend Recap Part 1.

When I last left off it was Saturday morning and Matt and I were enjoying a late breakfast at our cabin. After we ate, we got suited up for a hike, said farewell to our new friend Boots, and headed out the door!

We swung by a café in the town of Luray for lattes to go and then headed on to Shenandoah National Park, which was a short 20-ish minute drive. It was nice being so close – usually we stay a bit farther away!

While driving, I leafed through our Hiking Shenandoah National Park book and picked out a hike for us to do. It was a gorgeous day – randomly in the low 60’s! We decided on the Byrd’s Nest #4 Loop, which was a new-to-us 2.4 mile loop that had some random offshoots we could add on for extra distance. Perfect!

We had the trail more or less to ourselves – we only saw two other people the whole time we were out there. It was so nice to spend the afternoon in nature – there’s nothing I love more than being out on the trails on a nice day with Matt. The soft dirt underfoot, the whisper of the wind in the trees, the comforting repetition of putting one foot in front of the other over and over and over again – there’s no app for any of that, my friends. A few times we stopped and stood still and just listened to the complete silence, breathing the fresh air in deeply. The trails are so calming and peaceful to me in a way that I rarely find in everyday life, outside of maybe my morning runs. It’s why I love them so much.

After an hour or so of hiking, we stopped for lunch – leftover homemade pizza from the night before. Cold pizza = the best.

Plus some carrots for crunch. :)

Most of this hike was on the Appalachian Trail, which is always cool – I love thinking of all the weary feet that have hit the trails before us, making their way all the way north or south.

When we made it back to the car a few hours later we drive to a nearby overlook because the clouds had settled in low, cozying up to the mountains in a beautiful way. It looked almost like snow in person.

We were originally planning on going out to dinner on Saturday night, but we had had so much fun cooking and relaxing at our cabin the night before we decided it would be more fun to do that again! We hit a nearby grocery store on the way back to get provisions for a taco night, then headed back to the cabin and hit the hot tub for awhile before getting down to work! We brought a couple mini single-serve bottles of Prosecco for me to enjoy – yum! Matt was in the mood for red wine but I wanted something more refreshing and light to go with the Mexican feast.

Ready to eat, plus the last of the kale salad from the night before! We stuffed the taco shells with ground chicken cooked with taco seasoning, avocado, fresh tomato, cilantro, sharp cheddar, and a little hot sauce. :)

Matt used forks to hold his tacos upright – genius!

Sunday morning was another low key, relaxing morning. I was up a little before Matt so I snacked on a banana muffin and read for awhile with my tea while waiting for him to wake up.

Boots kept me company too – lol!

We made a similar breakfast to the one we had the day before – another veggie/egg scramble with sliced strawberries and bananas. The only difference was we added the rest of the previous night’s avocado to the eggs, plus some basil leftover from our pizza making!

After a little more hot tub relaxing we packed up and headed out for another hiking adventure on the way home to DC! It was really foggy/gray out but we wanted to get in a short jaunt before making our way home.

By the time we made it in the park, the fog had gotten crazy! It was actually really cool – so spooky looking. Crazy, right?

Since we knew we wouldn’t have any nice overlook views, we decided on a short hike, Lands Run Falls trail, that took us down to a pretty waterfall. We figured short was good in case it started raining! It was only about 2 miles round trip (we went a little past the falls).

We had pretty much the entire park, as well as this trail, to ourselves – not exactly the type of weather that inspires people to get out and hike! But we thought it was really cool – so mysterious and quiet. Here’s our “it’s kind of spooky but also awesome out here” face:

When we made it to the falls we stopped for lunch – the last of our leftover pizza! This was such great hiking fuel – we’ll have to remember this for next time. We threw the rest of the leftover pepperoni on top – couldn’t let it go to waste!

We were sad to say goodbye to the Shenandoahs – but we’ll be back soon, I’m sure. We never stay away for too long!

Until next time, Virginia mountains – we miss you already!

What’s the weirdest weather you’ve gone hiking in?