Don and I had a wonderful couple of weeks on our anniversary and staycation. We didn't stay home, though! We spontaniously decided to take a trip up to the BlueRidge and the Shenandoah and stayed at Skyland, our home away from home about four times a year. We got a beautiful room with a king sized bed overlooking the valley. We really love it up there. I'm really excited about what I was able to do!
Throughout our time raising the boys up until my knees got bad and I got lupus, Don and I used to hike White Oak Canyon trail, usually with a baby in a backpack on me and at least one on Don's shoulders. We would bring sandwiches for lunch, hike down to the waterfalls and back up. Well, in the past several years...more than 10, Don and the boys have had to make that hike without me! Well, Tuesday I told Don I wanted to try that hike. I don't think either of us thought I would make it all the way down to the first falls, because we decided since we had just eaten breakfast and I had had coffee and water that we didn't need to carry water or a snack! Well the trip to the first falls is straight down the mountain, with some pretty steep climbing in places. I did great, and we even played on some rocks and waded in the first waterfall. We actually hiked a bit past the first falls but decided it was too steep for us to go any further. Don decided we would rock "hop" across the stream instead of going back over the bridge like "normal" 50 something year old people would do. I tenatively agreed, SO he threw my tennis shoes across the stream and said, "NOW you're committed!" (He's always trying to help me challenge myself!) SO I was the first into the ice cold stream....and the walking surface choices were....REALLY slimey slippery rocks on which to balance on my very tired knees....and sharp gravel! I started out on the slippery rocks and quickly switched to sharp gravel. Luckily I had my walking stick we found at the trail head! Once we were across and I assured Don that he wouldn't be getting his hands on my shoes again any time soon, I climbed on the rocks looking for a better view of the upper falls from just above it while Don hiked up a horse trail to investigate what ended up being a ranger's truck with an igloo cooler on the back, and a water bottle with a hole in it. Don filled up the water bottle and dranks some and brought some back to me.....told me to get off the rocks and drink some water. As soon as I drank the water we started back up the trail, and I realized my blood sugar was getting low....and the road kept going and going. We were looking around for blackberries but didn't see any, although people were picking them up the road from where we were.
It was over 2 miles back to the top--straight up, and about 3/4 of the way up I just couldn't go on anymore. My knees weren't the problem...my blood sugar had gotten too low and I was really dehydrated. I sat down on a rock and Don was going to run the rest of the way up to get me an apple when we heard a BIG noise in the woods, so he wouldn't leave me...and I didn't want to be left in case a bear thought I looked like an easy meal! So I stumbled the rest of the way up the path, and made it to the car, ate an apple and an oatmeal cookie and drank a bunch of water and started feeling better. That night we listened to a really good singer and had dinner and then watched the Olympics in the lounge, and the next morning I felt great. SO we decided to hike up Hawksbill (Upper Hawksbill) Mountain which is the highest mountain on the drive, but only a 2 mile round trip hike. I was fine going up and coming down, because I had hydrated and eaten before hiking, but I must have gotten more dehydrated than I realized the day before, because when we got in the car after hiking up, climbing on the rocks at the summit and hiking down, I got very dizzy again and also nauseous. Don stopped and got me come candy, but that just made it worse and we had to get out of the mountains, because the curvy roads were making me sick. We had planned to go through Front Royal and have lunch, but we just went home and I managed not to get sick or pass out in the car. By the time we got home I just wanted to lie down, so we went straight home, and I fell down trying to lie down on the couch. Don helped me upstairs and I tried taking a shower--in case I had to go to the ER, and after that I was just so tired, I went to sleep. The next day I couldn't walk without being dizzy, but I was slowly getting better because Don was giving me bananas and potassium salt in water, and by Sat. afternoon, I was back to normal. Saturday afternoon we walked at Meadowlarke and yesterday after church we ate lunch with our son and his fiance and some friends and then went to our friends' TR and Cynthia's house and swam for a long time. I feel completely back to normal, but I'm not going anywhere with out water and maybe diluted Gatorade. I still feel a great sense of accomplishment that I can hike such long and challenging trails again! I'm really thankful, because Don and the boys and I have great memories of hiking in the Blue Ridge. The boys have been backpacking twice a year together since they were in high school. Maybe I'll practice carrying a backpack....at least I'd be sure to have water and a snack! I'll post about the rest of our "staycation" later.
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