Shenandoah Revival...
One of the special things about Shenandoah National Park is that a lot of the park is designated as 'wilderness". What many folks don't understand is that is a designation, by Congress, not a true description. In fact, since Europeans arrived in North America, Shenandoah has been utilized, extensively, for its natural resources. The park has been timbered, for charcoal mostly, several times over. Its mountaintops and hollows are dappled with the remnants of ancient orchards, homesteads, farms, churches, schools, roads, mines, quarries... you name it.
The Wilderness Act of 1964 was designed to protect certain lands in order to " secure for present and future generations the benefits of wilderness"
(Wilderness, upper-case W, being defined as " an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain")
Lying within an easy drive of many of the large metropolitan centers of the East, from Philadelphia, PA to Norfolk/VA Beach, VA , it is often easy to forget that much of the park is "wilderness".. any visitor to Old Rag on a weekend day can easily forget they are on land that is (partly) designated wilderness .... as they wait in line with hundreds, if not thousands, of fellow adventurers to move up, over, thru and under choke points and obstacles on there trail...
In fact, that close proximity to the urban East is partly why it was felt necessary to create nearby wilderness....
...However, that's not the point of this entry.
As many are homebound due to COVID-19, we are using this opportunity to renew our blogging. Our previous blog "Shenandoah Breeze" was fun and a great outlet for our expressions .. until it wasn't. In 2016, we became too busy teaching, guiding and communicating in person, to keep up the blog. It became a monument to "too little time, too much to do", and fell by the wayside.... until March 2020!
March 2020 started with a bang!
Our schedule for our guiding activities, our outdoor skills classes and our corporate development programs (our parent company, Teamlink) was very close to full, thru December. The level of international guests visitation was the highest in the 28 year history of the company. Our plans were complete to teach, again this year, the NPS Basic Technical Rescue course at the New River Gorge .. (our 12th time) ...
... and then COVID-19 brought it all to a sudden stop.
We love adventure. Climbing, paddling, cascading, hiking, skiing, orienteering... it's all physical, it's all exciting... it's all good! We love guiding adventures!
But as business trickled away, what we realized most of all is that we miss the opportunity to facilitate the feeling of connection between our guests and the natural world... with adventure being only one medium thru which we make that connection... in everything we do, a portion of time is dedicated to opening that connection between the natural world and our guests.
Realizing that many of our guests are quarantined in their homes, in urban and suburban regions, and that our office door opens, literally, to a 10,000 acre, public, mountain preserve, We have decided to develop a series of blog posts with the idea of providing a bit of outdoor education and awareness... "virtual interpretive hikes" if you will.
So we dug thru our old files and soon came to the realization that we had lost access to our old blog... which is fine... starting over fresh is always good for the creative soul!
So, what you are reading is our all new "Shenandoah Breezes"
Topics will include all those things we love to explore: Cultural traces, plants and flowers (as we move thru the weeks and seasons), animal signs and interpretation... and just general points of interest.
We hope you will follow along!
The Wilderness Act of 1964 was designed to protect certain lands in order to " secure for present and future generations the benefits of wilderness"
(Wilderness, upper-case W, being defined as " an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain")
Lying within an easy drive of many of the large metropolitan centers of the East, from Philadelphia, PA to Norfolk/VA Beach, VA , it is often easy to forget that much of the park is "wilderness".. any visitor to Old Rag on a weekend day can easily forget they are on land that is (partly) designated wilderness .... as they wait in line with hundreds, if not thousands, of fellow adventurers to move up, over, thru and under choke points and obstacles on there trail...
In fact, that close proximity to the urban East is partly why it was felt necessary to create nearby wilderness....
...However, that's not the point of this entry.
As many are homebound due to COVID-19, we are using this opportunity to renew our blogging. Our previous blog "Shenandoah Breeze" was fun and a great outlet for our expressions .. until it wasn't. In 2016, we became too busy teaching, guiding and communicating in person, to keep up the blog. It became a monument to "too little time, too much to do", and fell by the wayside.... until March 2020!
March 2020 started with a bang!
Our schedule for our guiding activities, our outdoor skills classes and our corporate development programs (our parent company, Teamlink) was very close to full, thru December. The level of international guests visitation was the highest in the 28 year history of the company. Our plans were complete to teach, again this year, the NPS Basic Technical Rescue course at the New River Gorge .. (our 12th time) ...
... and then COVID-19 brought it all to a sudden stop.
We love adventure. Climbing, paddling, cascading, hiking, skiing, orienteering... it's all physical, it's all exciting... it's all good! We love guiding adventures!
But as business trickled away, what we realized most of all is that we miss the opportunity to facilitate the feeling of connection between our guests and the natural world... with adventure being only one medium thru which we make that connection... in everything we do, a portion of time is dedicated to opening that connection between the natural world and our guests.
Realizing that many of our guests are quarantined in their homes, in urban and suburban regions, and that our office door opens, literally, to a 10,000 acre, public, mountain preserve, We have decided to develop a series of blog posts with the idea of providing a bit of outdoor education and awareness... "virtual interpretive hikes" if you will.
So we dug thru our old files and soon came to the realization that we had lost access to our old blog... which is fine... starting over fresh is always good for the creative soul!
So, what you are reading is our all new "Shenandoah Breezes"
Topics will include all those things we love to explore: Cultural traces, plants and flowers (as we move thru the weeks and seasons), animal signs and interpretation... and just general points of interest.
We hope you will follow along!
Look forward to your insights and more first hand information about the Shenandoah.
ReplyDeleteI’m looking forward to reading your blog....was wondering what you must be up to during this shut down.
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ReplyDeleteHi Andy. I grew up in the Catskills and life took me abroad and then to CA. I lived in the burbs for years and finally got back to hiking when I moved from NoCA to NoVA in 2002. But, during that time, after some other major changes in my life, I picked up my hikers and starting driving out here a few times a month to hike and then started doing some short backpacking adventures. I love the Appalachians and Shenandoah. Life changed for me, again. Got laid off and couldn't compete for the jobs I was getting great pay for. My nest became empty and my dog, Riley passed away. He was a great hiking buddy. So after failing to find work that paid what I was accustomed to and a long trip back to CA (I have a kid on each coast), I came back here, stayed a with friend, came back to the park, saw a place to rent 3 years ago 6 miles from Thornton Gap and I couldn't be happier. I look forward to your blog and learning more about the natural world at Shenandoah. I hope to see in the park again, in the near future hopefully. Be well.
ReplyDelete