Tell someone your going on a 3 day canoe trip through the backwoods of virginia and you’re just asking for ”Deliverance” jokes to be made. But this is exactly the plan my friend Josh Gumiela and I cooked up a week ago. He was to drive out and meet me in Montebello VA and we were going to head up to Luray VA to rent a canoe for a multi-day float trip on the shenandoah river.
The plan came together this past saturday. I hiked down to montebello after two miserable days of rain and cold in the woods. Everything i owned was wet. My single pair of socks, boots, tent, sleeping bag, and even my maps and guidebook. I arrived in montebello just after the sun came out and headed to mine and josh’s meeting point, the dutch haus b&b. The place was an absolute gem, run by a texan couple named lois and earl. Each day, they offer hikers a free lunch between the hours of 11 and 1. I arrived within that window and was fed a giant juicy double cheeseburger, homemade macaroni and cheese, an ear of corn, and some cake. Josh wasn’t going to arrive for another few hours so lois was kind enough to let me hang around until he did. I managed to dry all of my gear off on her lawn, which was a relief. She said to me, ‘’since you’re hanging around, you might as well take a shower. It’s getting ripe in here!” I cleaned up, then hung out with felow hikers Ronin, Eagle, and Copperhead until Josh arrived.
After making the 12 hour drive from carbondale IL, he and i jumped right back in the car and headed up to luray. We enjoyed a meal at a local mexican dive, caught a motel room at luray caverns and headed out in the morning to the downriver outfitters in bentonville. We ended up renting a canoe and a kayak to make sure we had room for both of us, our gear and our 48 budweisers. We hit the river at about 9am celebrating the trip’s start by cracking open a round of buds, which eventually turned into about 5 each by noon. Let me tell you, the sun, paddling, and beer combine in a giant punch that can really knock someone out. I think i might’ve had a hangover by about 2pm.
Anyway, we moseyd our way down the river all day until finding a little campsite on the bank 13 miles from our starting point. We promptly jumped in the river’s 80 degree waters for a little rejuvination. Josh and i were both zombified that night and we both turned in fairly early.
The next day promised to be a little more scenic, as it went through significantly more national forest land than private property, as we’d seen the day before. We also had 2 class-2 rapids ahead of us, compton rapids and ”the ledge.” We spent quite a bit of time at compton, because we portaged the kayak back upstream so both josh and i could run the rapids again. It was a blast. after compton we broke for lunch and a swim before heading on downstream. ”The Ledge” proved to be not all that tough, though i can see how one might tip their canoe if they weren’t careful. In the late afternoon, the sky started to turn dark and the sounds of thunder began. We were definitely going to be dumped on by one of those ubiquitous summer afternoon storms. The rain started off fairly hard and each time i would comment on how i didnt think it would get any worse or that it might be letting up, the storm seemed to say, ”oh yeah? Well try this.” and the rain would come down even harder or wind would kick up. It soon became clear that we were in a dangerous situation as the lightning kept striking closer and closer. At one point, josh suggested we move closer to shore, rather than paddling in the middle of the wide river. Soon thereafter, we saw lightning and instantly heard an incredible crash of thunder. Both he and i hauled ass to the bank, pulled up our craft and crouched down. We were beached there for about 10 minutes, with several very close strikes. Luckily, there was a ridge a bit behind us that we assumed was taking the hits. In reality, we probably were fairly well protected. The storm finally let up and we paddled down the river, eventually landing back at the outfitters.
We decided to cut the third day off of our float trip an instead spend some time in luray at the world-famous luray caverns. I’m not sure it wad quite worth the 20 dollar admission fee, but Josh and I, both being organ geeks, were excited to hear their ‘’stalacpipe organ,” an organ that plays the stalactites by hammering small rubber mallets to different lengths of rocks. The organ performance on the tour was pretty short, but josh managed to score a cd of stalacpipe organ sounds at the gift shop. Very cool.
With more thunderstorms continuing throughout the day, we decided to rent a little cabin on the river to finish out our final night. The place was a quaint two room cabin rented by the local outfitter. We sprnt the rainy evening grilling chicken and corn, chewing the fat, drinking some beers and playing music for each other. It was a very nice end to a few days spent with a good friend.
Josh headed home today and i headed up to front royal va, just north of shenandoah national park. I’ll be continuing on from here, skipping the park. I’ll be at the mental half-way point in harpers ferry west virginia in three days and the actual halfway point of 1086.5 in a little under two weeks! Woo-hoo!
Here’s to getting out of the longest state on the trail….
