{"id":765,"date":"2014-08-18T10:46:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T17:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/?p=765"},"modified":"2014-09-02T17:30:11","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T00:30:11","slug":"goal-1-hike-a-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/?p=765","title":{"rendered":"Goal #1 :: Hike a Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the rest of my trip is any bit as satisfying as Shenandoah I couldn’t ask any more.<\/p>\n

After my first night of backwoods camping, I decided I needed to find a proper campsite so I could make a fire. \u00a0After speaking with a friendly park ranger at Skyland, the highest summit of the Skyline Parkway, I called ahead and found plenty of vacancies at Big Meadow. \u00a0I quickly setup my tent on site A23, a tent-only area, to avoid the hustle & bust of the RV families that populate much of these campsites. \u00a0Figuring that my hike would place me back at camp after all the shops would be closed, I walked down to the shower\/supply area to buy some firewood (it had been raining and the maps state ‘no wood gathering’ at Big Meadow). \u00a0A pleasant lady, Donna, greated me with a grin and walked me to the area to pick out a cord of wood. \u00a0Her arthritic hands fumbled with the split wood, but I happily stepped in and gripped one of the bigger bundles she was eager to dig out for me. \u00a0As we walked back to her office, I crossed behind her, changing sides to walk with my wood carrying shoulder away from her. \u00a0“Where’d you go?” she chuckled. \u00a0“I’m blind in one eye, so I lose people.” \u00a0Her blind eye was a lighter grey-blue than her strong eye. \u00a0It was charming in a Bowie way. \u00a0I bought some quarters for the coin-operated showers – a prize I’d save for after a strenuous hike.<\/p>\n

\"Matt,<\/a>

Matt, one of the rangers at Shenandoah<\/p><\/div>\n

Before driving to the Hawksbill trail head, I ran into Matt Gordon, the ranger I’d met while checking into the site. \u00a0After a a minute or two, it came up that I was headed to Asheville, NC. \u00a0Matt lived in Asheville for two years, and he generously listed a few must-see places to see live bands, eat tacos and healthy noms, as well as recommendations for two breweries (more about that when I get there!). \u00a0I showed him the loop I planned to walk; an 8.2 mile loop in White Oak Canyon peppered with waterfalls. \u00a0It was already getting late, but he assured me I’d have time to do it. \u00a0Enough talking, start walkin.<\/p>\n

#1 Hike a Mountain<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Lower<\/a>

Lower Whiteoak Falls<\/p><\/div>\n

My hike kicked off at 2:30pm from Hawkbill parking area. \u00a0I packed my headlamp, since I knew starting so late would mean I’d do the last leg of the hike in the dark. \u00a0I met a few friendly hikers, mostly locals who had hiked the trail many times before. \u00a0[note: I have to get back on the road since I’m at a Starbucks half way to Asheville.] \u00a0I’ll mention Whit’s friendly advice shortly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If the rest of my trip is any bit as satisfying as Shenandoah I couldn’t ask any more. After my first night of backwoods camping, I decided I needed to find a proper campsite so I could make a fire. \u00a0After speaking with a friendly park ranger at Skyland, the highest summit of the Skyline […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[226],"tags":[255,254,240,244,242,246,253,252,234,235,243,251,245,237,239,236,250,249,247,248,241,238],"class_list":["post-765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-south","tag-bear","tag-bill","tag-canyon","tag-cedar","tag-cliff","tag-falls","tag-hawks","tag-hawksbill","tag-hike","tag-hiking","tag-jump","tag-line","tag-lower","tag-mountain","tag-oak","tag-shenandoah","tag-sky","tag-skyline","tag-upper","tag-virginia","tag-waterfall","tag-white"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=765"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":848,"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions\/848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}