Secret Vistas –
By Glynn Wilson –

SHENANDOAH, Va. – Now hold your horses. Hang on to your hat.

Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat. Hit pause for a minute.

This summer has been a whirlwind of activity since we left the D.C. Metro Area in June, heading for the hills and sensing the summer heat and trouble on the way.

So this past weekend, we had to meet up in Front Royal, Virginia for an off the grid camping trip for a few days to the cool, high elevations of Shenandoah National Park. There’s no better place in the East to escape the summer heat, ramped up these days by the changing climate due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels for energy and transportation.

Sometimes a trip can hit two birds with one stone. Some things are cheaper in Virginia than Maryland. Although no matter how much I tried, I could not get more photographs of the two ravens patrolling the skies over the Mathews Arm Campground. I’ve been seeing them there for years. Good to know they are still there. Every day.

Meanwhile, after a brief party Saturday night, my good friend Brooks Boliek and I got up at the crack of dawn on Sunday, so he could ride a bicycle for 80 miles in the mountains. I know. That sounds crazy.

But he was not alone. A couple of other members of the Proteus Velo Club joined in.

It was only a training ride. Sometimes they ride 100 miles or more, in Gran Fondo events. Once Brooks even placed third in his age category, in a race around Deep Creek Lake.

I drove the SAG truck, a vehicle that follows behind bicyclists to pick up those who drop out or experience trouble along the route. In our case, I follow along with the cyclists on their route with a GPS map, in case someone has a flat tire or needs more food or water.

It’s beautiful country, so I enjoy the drive. About half this ride goes up Skyline Drive from Front Royal to Thornton Gap. Then it’s a wild, curvy downhill to the Shenandoah Valley, then across on the back roads to the George Washington National Forest, culminating in a long, steep climb up Massanutten Mountain before circling back to the Front Royal entrance to the national park.

I met them at the top of the mountain with fresh peaches and plums picked up along the way at a local farmers market fruit and vegetable stand (see photo above).

The guy also gave us a couple of overripe cantaloups, with a few bites worth eating back at the campground.

After the ride, we all met up at the Apple House bar for nourishment and libations. Then Brooks and I had a party in the campsite at the top of the hill in Mathews Arm Campground. Just so you know, Brooks and I share a friendship that goes back about 40 years. We worked together in the mid-1980s in the newsroom of The Decatur Daily newspaper in North Alabama. We’ve remained friends ever since.

This is the scene before the cyclists made it up the hill on Massanutten Mountain.

More views of Skyline Drive, with the morning clouds above and down below in the valley.

Black Bear Curve

Of course no visit to Shenandoah would be complete without a stop at Black Bear Curve, where the Appalachian Trail crosses, and sometimes you actually see a bear. Or at least I did my first time there 10 years ago.

Related: Secret Vistas: A Day Trip to Shenandoah to Focus the Mind

Down on the Farm

Back in July, when I was scrambling to find campsites in the Catoctin Mountains in Maryland to escape the summer heat, I met a farmer in the valley who let me camp for free on the weekends in exchange for some help picking the summer organic vegetables.

(I planned a longer story about this, but got sidetracked when President Joe Biden announced that he would step aside after all and endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris to run in his place. The excitement was so great around the country that I announced I was coming back from retiring on the farm to cover one more campaign).

But here are some scenes from the farm, next to a horse rescue ranch.

Side Trip to Gettysburg

The week before our trip to Shenandoah, reired National Park Service Ranger John Reid from Baltimore came to visit in the Catoctin Mountains, and we took the scenic tour of the area, looked at some property for sale, and then headed north across the Mason-Dixon Line into Pennsylvania for a visit to Gettysburg National Park. (I may have more to say about this trip and story as time allows. For now here are a few photos from that trip).