I awoke to a perfect morning, clear and high 60’s.  Ranger and I walked up past the horse stable area, seeing goldfinches and bluebirds along the way.

By the time we had breakfast and cleaned up and were ready to head out for a hike, it was heating up.  We took the River Trail again, an easy flat walk, and again found lots of birds, including yellow warblers in the trees along the river.  We walked beyond where we had left off on Monday afternoon and picked up the Culler Trail within sight of the park boundary.  Much of this was out in the sun, and it was hot.  Ranger managed to cool off in a large puddle/tiny pond resulting from a small brook running through the meadow to the river. 

 

 Actually the above photo was taken of him swimming in the Shenandoah River---a nice way to cool off.

After 2 ½ hours of walking we returned for lunch and some quiet reading time.  It got hotter and hotter, and we finally retreated to the RV and turned on the air-conditioning. (Ah, camping!)  It had gotten to 94 inside, and a thermometer set outside went up to 97. 

We met a couple from a few sites down who are from Midlothian, and they are avid bird-watchers.  They came up near our site to watch and photograph the Baltimore orioles on their nest.  They recommended that while in Maine, we stop in Ellsworth at the Stanwood Bird Sanctuary (“Bird’s Acre”) for some great birding.  They also commented that they had come to Shenandoah River last May and returned this year, just because the birding is unusually good. 

A warm shower to rinse off the day’s sweat sure felt good, and it finally cooled off nicely for sleeping.