Thornton River Trail
Summer 2003

This trail is one of the easiest trails to hike in the park and that was why we chose it. Since my good friend Joe Goucher and I hadn't been hiking in several years and we were taking two twelve year olds with us...a difficult hike was the last thing we needed.

Because of the extremely wet spring the river was running higher, much higher, than I'd ever seen it in my 20+ years of hiking in Shenandoah. There were points where the trail crossed the river that required wading thigh deep. Moreover the trail itself was often a small stream. But even with the wet conditions...we had a very enjoyable weekend in God's creation.

If there was anything negative about the trip, it was the lack of seeing much wildlife other than Deer which always abound in Shenandoah. That was in stark contrast to the last time I was on this trail when my wife and I encountered not one, not two, but three bears within the space of about 15 minutes. On that occasion I found myself looking out the door of our tent into the face of male Bear...with about only about 18 inches separating us. Fortunately, he was more interested in pursuing the female and her cub who had passed through our camp about ten minutes earlier. But that's another trip, another story.

Here are some photos of the trip: