We greeted the chilly morning in Green Bank with steaming cups of hot chocolate.
After a drive across the state line to arrive back in Virginia, we made it to Big Meadows campground in Shenandoah National Park. Our plan for today was hiking and that is what we did.
We hiked straight from our campsite to the Shenandoah Visitors Centre along a short section of the famous Appalachian Trail.
At the Visitors Centre, we learned more about the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as this was the first park where they were put to work. We have seen evidence of CCC work all over the US and the enormous and long lasting impact of this government program on park infrastructure across the whole country.
We also learned about the history of the park. Mostly about how the US government, first under Hoover and then under Roosevelt, had to buy back tracks of land from hundreds of private landowners in order to establish the park. This was a very different origin story than the national parks in the West so was especially interesting. The Visitors Centre displayed some of the contracts between the government and the mountain folk to compensate them for their property and homes. In general, the landowners got much less money than they had asked for. There were also testimonies of landowners who refused to leave voluntarily and so were evicted.
The boys picked up their Junior Ranger booklets and the we headed out to hike a loop around the Dark Hollows Trail and along the Rose River (so named because the river runs through what used to be Rowe’s farmstead). It was our first big hike in a long time since we were not constrained by the heat. We hiked 13 km and 500 m of elevation in just under four hours. We walked beside a babbling brook, saw two waterfalls, and the very cool (and very poisonous) caterpillar of the lo moth. Thank goodness we didn’t accidentally touch it since it has highly venomous spikes.
We were very ready for dinner upon our return to the campground and feasted on grilled red fish and pineapple with a side of baked potato. After dinner, we attended the evening Park Ranger talk, which was an overview of the history of park with lots of old photographs.
We then (finally!) were lucky enough to attend a Ranger-led Star Party. We have tried on at least five separate occasions in five different parks across the US to attend stargazing events and have been foiled each time. Tonight, though, was our night! The clouds and weather cooperated and the rangers used a laser pointer to show us the Milky Way and lots of constellations (the swan, the lyre, the big and little bears, the scorpion, and more) as we reclined on blankets on a section of mowed meadow. We learned that Scorpio’s tail is also Maui’s hook (from Moana). Too cool! This is the same constellation that boasts Antares so there was lots going on in this part of the sky.
The Ranger told us stories from Greek Mythology about the origins of Bootes, where the constellation represents a winemaker who was placed in the sky by Bacchus to avoid being killed his neighbours who mistook the hangover caused by overconsumption of his wine for the effects of poison (a bit of an overreaction to a hangover if you ask me).
We also learned the story of how Zeus made a deal with Cycnus, a grieving friend of Phaeton (the mischievous son of the Helios who pulled the sun into the sky each day with his chariot), to change him into a swan so he could pull Phaeton from the bottom of the sea after he was zapped by Zeus’ lightning bolt for stealing Helios’ chariot and then into the swan constellation Cygnus.
Finally, we had the opportunity to look through a telescope to see the Ring Nebulae which looked like a green ring in the sky, this nebulae is not visible with the naked eye so it was very neat to see.
It was a busy and very active day. We should all sleep really well tonight.
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