Pass Mountain: We hiked from Thornton Gap in Shenandoah National Park on the Appalachian Trail to the junction with the Thornton River Trail. It was a 13 mile out and back that covered some short sections of trail that we hadn't done before. On the way back, we picked up a few short side loops just to make it interesting. The hike was nice, the weather wasn't spectacular. It was overcast most of the day and about halfway back to the car, a thunderstorm caught us and we got drenched. It was still better than staying home, but it did mean I didn't take as many pictures as usual.
We spent the last weekend in June working on Old Rag. It was hot - well above 90 degrees. We spent a lot of time explaining to people that, no, two 20 ounce bottles of water was not sufficient. I realized something while we were listening to the park respond to a number of reports of heat-related illness among hikers in other parts of the park that weekend: We are very fortunate that people have to hike up first on Old Rag. In most of the rest of the park, people hike down the mountain first and can quickly hike beyond their ability to walk back up. Especially when it is 98 degrees out. On Old Rag, people who start feeling bad because of the heat can sit in the shade for a bit and then just walk back down to their car.
In spite of the heat, it was a really nice weekend spent outside. Lots of flowers were blooming. We camped out. The temperature even dropped to something fairly comfortable overnight.
