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.
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.
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.