A publication of the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives
We arrive at Civitan Park in Ewing, Va., at 10 a.m. on a Saturday. Including ours, five cars wait for their drivers to return from hiking to the Sand Cave in the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park.
In the summer of 2020, Cole Jensen’s friend, Matt Sullivan, approached him with an idea: He wanted to visit every state park in Virginia.
Black Girls Hike RVA aims to hold between one and two hikes each month, for a total of between 12 and 14 each year. Local hikes, like the one I join, usually consist of between 10 and 25 participants and normally last about two hours, covering a distance not longer than five miles.
A whitewater rafting adventure starts in Harpers Ferry and involves two rivers, three states and a lot of paddling.
Saturday mornings are made for sleeping in, slow wakeups and relaxing, unless it’s Dirty Lion Mud Run Saturday and you’re either a Dahlgren Lions Club Lion or a runner.
As soon as we cross the bridge from the mainland, I sense a change. The land seems flatter, the trees shorter, the sky broader. I have never been to this part of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and my friends Ashley, Stephanie, Sarah and I have been looking forward to this trip with an anticipation akin to a child’s at Christmas.
At the last count in 2021, more than 300 elk roamed the makeshift plains of the flat-topped mountain. The success has been so complete that it is often referred to as Appalachia’s Greatest Conservation Story.
