9 hrs, 16 kms

This segment is of my Superhike is a 2 day hike, so after a chilly night sleeping in my car, I get an early start on down the road . Right south of Middletown I take a detour to check out a "plantation"--which turns out to be little more than an old house on a knoll and barn--but it is nice to get off the highway and enjoy the idyllic country roads.

There are, of course, Civil War markers all along the way. Here was fought the Battle of Cedar Creek towards the end of the war, the Confederates launched an attack on Union forces, defeating them and taking a lot of supplies--only to be defeated by Union reinforcements led by Sheridan shortly after.

You will notice that streets and highways are named after the Southern generals, Lee, Jackson, Early and NOT the Union generals. Not surprised. This area was the breadbasket of the Confederacy and Sheridan's attacks included "scorched earth" tactics which meant destroying crops, homes--just about everything.

Strangely, the Shenadoah Valley, despite its historic importance doesn't feel like much of a breadbasket today--mostly pastures and clumps of forest ... little of the mass farming I saw up in the Cumberland Valley and Gettysburg area.

I reach the town of Strausburg, which has a low key feel--few big mansions here. It does have a trusting, neighborly feel where kids can leave their bicycles on the front lawn and the local bookstore has an "honor system" There's a bookshelf on the front porch, you just take a book and leave money in a box!

I saw something like this further up the valley, a little glassed in cart with jars of honey on a front lawn and a money box... you just take a jar of honey and leave your money! I guess there's still an old fashioned neighborly trust that folks have for each other.

In Strausburg there's a museum with a replica of a railroad engine that was taken by the Confederates in the "Great Train Raid" early on in the Civil War. No, they didn't drive the trains down the tracks--they took them off the tracks and hauled them with horses 20 miles on a dirt road! Quite an impressive accomplishment.

(Postnote: I later check this out and find that some historians question this account)