It started as an easy, slow day. I had buckwheat pancakes and, appropriately, an egg over-easy for breakfast. Marcus and I were in the Shenandoah for the weekend. We had driven to Luray, VA, a short two hour drive from DC after work on a Friday, and checked into the Skyland Resort. That's "resort" with quotations, but not in a bad way.
Skyland Resort was first founded in 1888 by some rich kid, named George Pollock Jr. The resort, managed by the National Park Service, sits at the highest point on Skyline Drive, the road that runs the length of the Shenandoah Valley. Our hotel room was vintage cool, offering rooms reminiscent of 1958, decorated in orange and brown hues, with pictures of deer in gold frames hanging over each bed. (Think wood paneling). Yes, the room was outdated, but that was part of the charm; it was clean, warm, and the lodge had a dining room that served surprisingly solid food for a tourist area. There were no TVs or telephones in the rooms at Skyland Resort.
Who needs them? Saturday morning, I opened the door of our $116 room (a bargain) and here's what I saw: purple mountain majesty.
Wait. Where was I? Oh yeah. It was a slow, relaxing day until Marcus and I, at the suggestion of ultrarunner girl, a tweep I know from twitter, decided we would hike a trail called Devil's Little Stairs. I should have known by the name that the trail was not for me.
Devil's Little Stairs is a 4.7 mile hike. Sounds reasonable, right? It's not. Over the first 1.8 miles you gain 1500 feet in elevation. Here's the kicker: because of where we were on Skyline Drive, it made sense for us to walk down the staircase (about 1.7 miles), and then walk back up the mountain (about 3 miles). We thought it we be moderately strenuous walking down and then a tough, long walk up. We were wrong. Walking down Devil's stairs was very difficult, sorta like walking down a spiral staircase made out of jagged, loose glass, with banana peels every few feet.
It took us three hours, almost, to walk down. I discovered muscles that I never knew I had. When we got to the bottom, I was exhausted, mentally and physically. By that time, it was 3:20, only a few hours until sundown. But our hike was far from over. We had to walk 3 miles back up a steep mountain. Marcus mentioned that we would have to increase the pace if we were going to make it back before dark. I looked at him, gasped for air, and in a panicked voice, while whipping out my iphone, screamed: we need to call a ranger. I imagined a helicopter ride back to my car. That was the only way I would get back to my car before dark.
Marcus calmed me down, found me a walking stick, handed me a ham sandwich he had in his bag, and we were on our way. Since the loop back was on a fire road (gravel, but a road nonetheless), it was easier than the staircase. Yes, it was all up hill mountain. I was totally done, until we started to see deer along the way. That was nice. We saw three all together.
It was the end of the day for them too, and they had come out to eat. Between the deer and some silly Q&A games that Marcus spearheaded, I somehow wrapped my head around walking up the mountain. (Ok, maybe it was an exaggeration to say that he saved my life, but he did motivate me up the mountain). We arrived at our car just as the sun set.
We got back to the lodge at 6:00 pm. Tired and hungry, we showered and walked to the restaurant. For dinner, I had kobe beef bolognese with garlic bread, which was warm and comforting. The sauce had fennel seeds and hearty tomatoes, and the rigatoni was cooked al dente. Even better, it was well-earned, making it the perfect meal. After dinner and a few glasses of wine, we fell asleep at 8:30. Yup. On our weekend away we fell asleep before we usually eat dinner on a Saturday night.
I had a lovely time in the Shenandoah. I highly recommend a visit to Skyland Resort, and I would even do Devil's Stairs again. Only next time, I'll drive the extra miles, walk up the staircase and then down the mountain.
Skyland Resort has hundreds of rooms scattered around the mountain. We stayed in the pinnacles building, which offered awesome views and a short walk to the restaurant and bar (which offers nightly entertainment we would have attended had it not been for the serious exhaustion after our hike).
