Memorial Day weekend we figured we could get out to the Shenandoah National Forest for a few days of camping. It turned out to be great weather, so lots of people had the same idea. Dozens of motorcyclists, bikers and other drivers came out to take in the sights along the valley. We got some advice from one of the rangers and headed down Jeremy's Run just south of Mathew's Arm.
It was a decent hike in, fairly easy because it was a gradual decline, which we did realize until hiking back up the steady slope. We had done about 8 or 9 stream crossings - imagine hopscotch on stones accross a creek, no giant river or anything - when we found a nice little campsite right by the stream where we could hook up the hamock and relax. Harvey loved it, he got to meet great and approve everyone passing by who wanted to cross the stream by us.
Everything went great until right after breakfast on our first morning when a park ranger stopped by and gave us a $50 ticket with a nice little $25 processing fee for camping in the park without a free reservation. We'd been here a number of times before and been fine without one. But it figures we'd see a ranger on a busy holiday weekend, so lesson learned.
As the day went on we realized our spot was actually kind of buggy. Jill had already been pulling tics off of Harvey and we found out that the only spot we could get any good sun was on an ant infested log in the middle of the stream.
We just weren't feeling it so we decided to break camp and call it a $75 one night stay. The rain that met us on our trek back up the stream confirmed our decision, so we got back to our car & headed for home.
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