Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Corbin Run

This weekend Gill, myself, Rebecca Phalen and Alyssa Godesky went for a run in the middle district of the Shenandoah National Park. We started a few miles from Skyland, a beautiful mountain resort with a great horseback riding program. The run was about 3 hours, straight down the mountain, and straight back up.

About 5 minutes into the run, we saw a very large coyote on the trail, which was totally unimpressed by our presence: we were definitely more excited to see him than he was to see us. Coyotes in this area look more like large labradors, and that's because many are coyote/wolf hybrid: I am not making this up, and actually read it on National Geographic.
The highlight of the run was definitely Corbin Cabin. George Corbin built the cabin at the beginning of the 1900, and lived there before that area was the Shenandoah National Park. Gill and I see evidence of old homesites all over the Park, from old chimneys, to stone walls, to isolated tombstones.  George's wife, Nee, died in childbirth, and is now believed to haunt the cabin and the woods.  Here is more information on the Corbin cabin.
On the way up from Nicholson Hollow (the trail where the Corbin cabin is located), we reached the Blue Ridge Parkway right below Stony Man. On the way back to the car on the Appalachian Trail, we enjoyed incredible views of the Western Valley.
The loop was technical because of all the leaves, but the climbs were intense, and I was done by the end.
I tried the new Clif gels and LOVED them: the chocolate is incredible. I am glad they changed to maltodextrin, as the gels hit my system much quicker.
George Corbin, Corbin Cabin, the coyote/wolf and the Western Valley
              











2 comments: