Misty Mountain Camp Resort (Adults) Trip, Charlottesville, VA - Day 2

On Friday morning, we woke up and got ready for our hike on RipRap Trail.

Originally, we were going to hike the circuit; a total of 9.8 miles. Jessica has been having some medical issues that made us reconsider the 9.8 miles for her. The weekend before, I had my first tri of the season and my inner quad was not feeling good. So... there went the 9.8 mile hike for me too. We decided the 3.4 mile out & back to Chimney Rock would be a better option.

Around 10:30, we headed towards Shenandoah National Park. It was surprisingly close to the campgrounds (5 miles or so).

Once in the park, we headed to mile marker 90 to the parking lot to start our journey. We put on sunscreen & bug spray and started up the trail.

RipRap Trail hits the Appalachian Trail and follows it for the first little bit. There's a left turn off the AT and then you're on RipRap for the rest of your journey. This trail isn't too hard, some sections of up & down, but also a good number of flats.

A little bit of an incline, but not too bad

Clearing along the path

The guys leading us

We reached a viewpoint that we took note of the rocks (for lunch potential!); we thought this was Calvery Rocks. Looking at the map now, I'm not so sure it was.

As we continued on, we hit what we thought was Chimney Rock.

Jessica & I were getting hungry, so we decided it was time to get the guys to turn around to the viewpoint to have lunch.

Lunch with a view!

Jon on the rocks

RH sitting on the rocks

Where we actually ate lunch

Ready to get moving again

After lunch, we headed back to the parking lot. Most of the trail was downhill on the way to the viewpoint, so we were in for an uphill hike on the way back. It wasn't too steep, so that was good. We only saw one other person on the trail and it was on our way back.

Headed back

Once we got back to the parking lot, we saw another group getting ready to head out on their hike. We piled back into the car and decided to stop at a couple of overlook areas and to keep the windows down as we drove out of the park.

The second overlook area we stopped at, we didn't get any pictures. Some bug decided to go down Jon's shirt and bit his back. Jon was driving, so we pulled over and got him treated (with bug bite stuff).

All of that taken care of, we decided to find a grocery store in the area since we needed a few things. After a quick stop to Kroger, we headed back to the campground. Jon & I were in charge of dinner for tonight. I decided we were having pesto shrimp, asparagus, and maple balsamic quinoa salad. I prepped dinner and RH & Jessica came over as I was cooking dinner on the grill. (Somehow there are no pictures of this!)

We lingered a bit over dinner and then got ready for the Lewis Black show. We got into town a little early and had Sweet Frog. RH & Jessica had never had it before. After Sweet Frog, we headed to the Paramount Theater and waited in line for a bit for the doors to open. We were a little surprised that they weren't opened 30 min before the show, but no big deal!

I wasn't too sure what to expect, but I enjoyed it. At some point, it started to rain. After the show, we headed back to the campground for the night and prepped for our winery tour the next day!