With three days left before our arrival, I’m starting to plan in earnest. A quick check shows that the weather forecast for Wednesday shows a high of 95. Hang on, wait… what? Let me look at that again.

The weather forecast for Wednesday shows a high of 95.

Oh. I see. Somehow in my mind, “95 degrees” is not synonymous with “excellent hiking weather.” We will need to plan accordingly.

Full disclosure: We aren’t going to be there Wednesday. But when I started this post, that was the forecast for Thursday, when we ARE going to be there, so the thought process was the same. It’s also a great reminder that weather is subject to change at any time and weather forecasting is only accurate to a point.

But anyway, the forecast of 95 made me text my mom and say,

It’s going to be blisteringly hot at Shenandoah. I vote we do Sunrise, Sunset, and Siestas.

Which, if you think about it, is a great strategy for hiking no matter what the weather. I’m both an early riser and a night owl. I’ve never seen a sunrise I was sad about. Everybody loves a good sunset, but a good sunrise is pretty priceless. I’m also a novice hiker and currently not in the best shape of my life, so keeping it light to start is probably a good idea anyway.

I’ll start by looking for short hikes with the perfect view:exertion ratio, where the view gets a high rating and the exertion level is moderate. My mom is in way better shape than I am, but neither of us is going to want to do a 4-hour hike in 90-degree weather. That would tank the exertion:fun ratio.

There’s always the possibility that it will be overcast or rainy, in which case the sunrise/sunset could be underwhelming or unviewable. We’ll just do what we are best at, which is making it up as we go and making the best of whatever Nature puts in front of us. Above all, we will enjoy being together away from the busy-ness of our everyday lives.