Front Royal, VA (USA)

[hiking on AT again - woke up a later than I wanted to (0800) but got on the road quickly - used I-495 and I-66 to get out to Front Royal (used VA-55 to enter town) - wanted to get food but all the restaurants were really crowded by the time I got there (1000) - entered Shenandoah National Park (fee free day) and drove to the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center - later parked at mile marker 15.9 (where Mollie and I had taken a nature hike with a park ranger (see SEP 2013) - hopped on my bike and rode back to the north - lots of southbound bicycle riders waved to me (I guess that is a thing for serious riders...) - locked up my bike at Compton Gap (mile marker 10.4) and hiked all the way down to the Floyd Shelter (1100) - it was farther than I thought it would be... - ran into several day hikers on both sides of Skyline Drive - weather was great! - trail was mostly smooth, with only a few areas where rocks were tough - however, what had made the bike ride easy (downhill) made the hike back to the car (mile marker 15.9) pretty hard - it was almost all uphill - saw some amazing views from the high ridge and trail brought me really close to them - after passing Compton Gap again, I didn't see almost anyone for the rest of the hike - I did meet up (again - I'd seen them near Floyd Shelter when I was NOBO) with two SOBO through hikers (guys from Georgia) - I shadowed them for several miles before they stopped to adjust their huge backpacks - I kept going and arrived at my car around 1500 - had originally planned to do more, but was very sore and tired - drove back out of the park and made it home without too much trouble (I-66 and Fairfax County Parkway) - picked up Chinese food for dinner - when I arrived at the house, I saw Bob for the first time in a week... - 8.7 miles for day Total / 159.02 miles Grand Total.]