Tulip Tree Cabin

This weekend we stayed at another PATC cabin: Tulip Tree. Tulip Tree stole the show, making our previous cabin stays seem so primitive. Perspective, folks. This cabin was like a home in the woods without the amenities. I plan to place an offer on the not-for-sale property. Tulip Tree was built over the course of eight years by weekend volunteers. So if my offer is unsuccessful, perhaps said volunteers will be interested in an eight year build-cation in Montana?

Friday night, after arriving late, we explored the cabin a bit and then crashed. And somehow we slept until 10 am the next morning. That would make back-to-back 12-hour slumbers for me. My body is beat! The rest of our crew arrived an hour later. We scarfed down a quick lunch and began hiking. We wanted to reach Victoria Falls, webbing trails into a loop for this purpose. Turns out, I’m not great at estimating distance; our 11-mile hike ended up being more than 16 miles. Details. The waterfall wasn’t even great. It was decent for Virginia, nothing I’d normally hike 16 miles to see though. Again, details. I planned our direction based on the river, meaning we hiked along the river the entire way home. And it was stunning! And vocal! And kept my spirits high! Had our velocity not increased to beat dark on our return, my companions might have appreciated the water as well.

Eight hours later, we were back at the cabin. Boyfriend was dying (i.e., feeling the effects exercise has on a sedentary lifestyle). And the rest of my crew was furiously fighting tics. We found 64* in total, yuck. I filtered water and cooked dinner. Oddly, none of us were particularly hungry until the s’mores were presented. Forget the burritos I prepared!

Though Sunday was rough, rougher for some – Boyfriend was in immense agony, suffering from Old Man pains; A.J.S. claimed her knees has disintegrated; and, thankfully, our truffle-making friend, visiting from Boston, had fewer complaints. To my dismay, we took it easy for the day on Arrowhead Lake. We were able to reminisce about the bear we saw on our hike! This marks the second bear I have seen in Shenandoah National Park (and did not photograph). And this time it felt real because we were hiking in the backcountry, not sitting in a bear jam. Along with the bear, we came across a box turtle, a bunch of beetles, tons of centipedes, a grub, a snake, and spiders galore. It’s wild out there!

If Shenandoah wasn’t quite so far away, it would be a much more relaxing getaway.

*As this marks the second post in a row where tics have been mentioned – yay outdoors! – let me inform you as to the severity of Lyme disease (i.e., tics) in Virginia. This ain’t no joking matter. In 2012, the Center for Disease Control stated, 95% of Lyme disease cases were reported from 13 states including Virginia. And the tic population has only increased in Virginia since the release of this statistic. Danger.