Jones Run/Doyles River

I had done hike on Jones Run/Doyles River on 25th July 2015 . It is located in Virginia State near Shenandoah National Park on Skyline Drive.
Hike Location
Name: Jones Run/Doyles River
Distance: 104 miles from Richmond(approx)
Total hiking distance: 6.6 miles(approx).
Altitude: 2800 ft.
Hike Team: Gnaneshwar, Rajtilak, Shubhendu, Sujay, Vaibhav and me.
Hiking Experience: We (Gnaneshwar, Vaibhav and me) started from our place around 6:15 am. Reached Sujay's place, picked him and started for our destination around 6:35 am. Rajtilak picked Shubhendu and started for destination in another car. We stopped at Starbucks for morning coffee around 7:40 am. Had coffee and left for destination around 8:03 am. We reached Browns Gap Parking spot, from where we need to start our hike, around 8:47 am. We waited for other two at the parking spot. There was no other car at the parking apart from ours. We had breakfast. In sometime the other two arrived and we started our hike around 9:43 am. We did a thorough analysis to decide from which side to start the hike using the maps we had taken before the start of the hike. We started our hike on Appalachian Trail(A.T.) North, white blazed.The trail was on other side of Skyline Drive from parking. Climate was very hot and no breeze.

We started hiking. The trail was narrow and covered by huge trees on both sides providing shade and have not felt the sun heat initially. It was downhill. we were a very enthusiastic team and kept on going down the hill with great excitement. The trail lead us to the middle of the jungle and it was passing along the side of the river stream. There was not much water in the stream and there were no signs of rainfall on the previous day. We kept on climbing down the hill and there were many small waterfalls along the way. There was little sunshine through the gap of trees, no breeze and climate is very hot and could feel the heat as we hiked further. There were stones, roots of huge trees along the path. We soon reached an intersection where we took left onto Jones river trail, blue blazed. The trail was narrow and lead us much deeper in the jungle. As we hikes further we saw large waterfalls on the other side of the trail. They were the largest waterfalls in the Shenandoah region. But with less water they did not seem attractive. The steep of the trail increased gradually.

At the first waterfall where we crossed the stream, the uphill started. The trail was very steep and  and filled with big stones. Soon we reached other set of waterfalls. The steep increased abruptly from the waterfalls until we reached the top of the waterfalls. Once we reached the last view of waterfalls the slope was gradual and continued our hike. We crossed two footbridges along the way and soon reached an intersection where we took left onto Yellow blazed fire road trail. The trail was very wide and seems like a pathway to the waterfalls for vehicles. We walked on the trail for an hour with little shade by the trees  alongside of the trail. On the way we met many people who were coming to visit the waterfalls. We reached our parking spot around 12:25 pm and it was full of cars. We had our lunch in the shade of trees near to parking area and left for home around 1:15 pm. Reached home around 3:00 pm. It was very nice memorable hike and had great company. All is Well.

                      

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Lake George

We went to Lake George from 3rd July to 6th Julylocated at North of New York

Brief Summary
Place : Lake George
Location : New York
Distance : 250 miles from Jersey City and 600 miles from Richmond approx
Group: 4 members.
Transport : BMW (black)
Duration: 3 days.

Set Off
We have planned to go to New Jersey for the long weekend but have not finalized where to go from there. We took BMW rental Car from Enterprise around 2:30 pm on 3rd July. It was 3 series black BMW. Ravi, Rohit and me started to New Jersey(Jersey City) around 6:30 pm. It was drizzling by the time we left and there was not much traffic on the I-95. We have not packed any food or water with us. It started raining heavily as we drove further. We halted at Maryland Plaza for restroom and food break around 9:20 pm. Had some burrito and resumed our journey around 9:52 pm. We reached Jersey City (Indian Street) around 12:20 am. Had dinner at Paratha Junction. Around 1:30 am we dropped Rohit and then picked Venkatesh and from Bhimesh's place and went to Venkatesh house and took rest for the night. We reached his place by 2:10 am. We then decided to go to Lake George and regarding booking of hotel will do on Saturday morning and slept by 2:30 am. On Saturday morning around 8:00 am we have booked room at Conways Motel around 27 miles from Lake George. We have booked the room, but we know nothing about the place and if there are any activities to do there. We started from home around 9:30 am after having milk and bread. Picked up Bhimesh and left. The climate was sunny and there was not much traffic on the road. As we are approaching Lake George, it was raining heavily. we were exploring all the options on what to do like to eat first or check in the motel first or go to Lake George first.

Finally we have decided to go Motel first and look for food options over there. By the time we reached the motel around 2:20 pm climate was very pleasant and no rain. It was one of the best climate we had ever experienced. The area is so calm and quiet with nice beautiful Loona lake and motel is adjacent to the lake and covered with huge trees on one side. The room was very decent and big enough for 4 persons and the owner of the Motel took good care of us. We then went in search of food and found one Chinese restaurant and had food there at around 2:50 pm. Food was ok and cant expect better than that in such area. We returned to Motel, got freshen up and went to nearby Loona Marina around 4:55 pm to see if we can do any water sport activities. All the sports were closed for that day and they informed that only Kayaks were available for Sunday Morning. We then left to Lake George. It was 25 mins distance from our Motel. Reached Lake George around 5:30 pm and parked our BMW very near to the lake. Lake George has a beach and there were large Cruises on the shore taking the passengers for rides and there were other water sports like para sailing. We boarded one of the cruise and had a ride for 1 hour. We were done with the ride around 7:20 pm. We then roamed around the beach. Decided to have dinner and there was one Indian restaurant on the beach. The food was very disappointing. After dinner we waited there to watch the fireworks. We stood on the shore for half an hour watching the preparation for the fireworks.

Around 9:30 the fireworks started. They were spectacular and huge crowd gathered to watch the fireworks. Around 9:55 pm the fireworks were done and we returned to car. We then left to our Motel amidst huge crowd. Reached our motel by 10:30 pm. We then played cards until 12:10 am and then slept. Sunday morning got up around 7:00 am , went for a walk around the lake. It was very pleasant in the morning with fresh grass and plants along the side of the lake. We then got ready had breakfast(donuts and home made cake by Motel Owner) and left for Kayaking around 9:10 am. We took one Kayak for each and started Kayaking around 9:30 am. We booked them for 4 hours. It was a very huge lake and we kayaked all through the lake and had few races as well. They were other people doing various sports like jetsky, boating, tubing, water skewing. It was amazing watching other boats and doing Kayaking at same time. The depth of lake is around 20 feet all along except few areas where it is 30 feet. We reached the harbour where we started Kayaking around 1:10 pm. We then had our lunch at Subway around 1:30 pm and then started our way back to Jersey City. This time there was lot of traffic and we reached Jersey City(Indian Street) around 8:00 pm. Had our dinner at Dosa House(Thali). Felt very nice, after two days had some good food. We dropped Bhimesh, Venkatesh and around 10:10 pm we started to Richmond. We have got traffic only during one of the toll gate and reached Richmond around 3:20 am. Overall the trip was amazing and wonderful. All is Well.

                         

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