HIking at Riprap Hollow .... and the "After Hike".

A couple of weeks ago, the Friday hiking group 

headed north to Shenandoah National Park for a hike 

along the Riprap Hollow Trail.

We started out on the Appalachian Trail for about a half a mile 

before turning onto RipRap.

When we got to this huge slide of ..... 

yes, you guessed it:  riprap rock, 

it became clear how the trail got its name. 

Fortunately we were only passing next to the loose rock,

not walking ON it!  

At the first overlook, we had to do some creative scrambling to figure out how 

to get everyone into a photo...

But we succeeded

and no one slid to their death! 

Chimney Rocks Vista was glorious.

The views went on for miles both toward the north....

 ...
and there were more distant views 

to be seen by swiveling on my rocky perch and looking to the west.  

 We didn't do the whole circuit hike which would have been around 9 miles,

instead opting for an out and back that was much faster, 

because we were itching to get to Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton VA.

We'd worked up an appetite and the food was delicious!