WhiteBlaze Pages 2024
A Complete Appalachian Trail Guidebook.
AVAILABLE NOW. $4 for interactive PDF(smartphone version)
Read more here WhiteBlaze Pages Store

Results 1 to 12 of 12
  1. #1
    Registered User Fat Man Walking's Avatar
    Join Date
    08-11-2004
    Location
    Jackson, MS
    Age
    68
    Posts
    111
    Images
    25

    Default Was wondering......

    I will be traveling through the park this summer and was trying to plan my food situation. I plan on eating at the waysides and camp stores but was wondering about the following:

    Is there much of a selection of food at Lewis Mt Campground? Wayside type food? Mountain House/Alpine Type food?

    What about at Thorton Gap/Panorama? Good enough for a couple of candy bars to get to Elkwallow Wayside? Is there a blackberry milk shake there?

    Thanks
    "Like the confluence of two streams, dreams & reality are joined, flowing as one. I know how lucky I am." - Cody GA-ME 2010

  2. #2

    Default SNP food...

    Quote Originally Posted by Fat Man Walking View Post
    I will be traveling through the park this summer and was trying to plan my food situation. I plan on eating at the waysides and camp stores but was wondering about the following:

    Is there much of a selection of food at Lewis Mt Campground? Wayside type food? Mountain House/Alpine Type food?

    What about at Thorton Gap/Panorama? Good enough for a couple of candy bars to get to Elkwallow Wayside? Is there a blackberry milk shake there?

    Thanks
    The restaurants and stores in the Shenandoah are IMO both overpriced. Instead of resupplying there, I'd suggest hitting a major supermarket in Waynesboro, and waiting til you get out of the park for any major purchases. (Go ahead and get one lunch at a restaurant wayside.)

    Think of it as an act of trail patriotism; if sellers of overpriced services find few takers, their prices are likely to come down, closer to something reasonable.

  3. #3

    Default

    Thorton Gap/Panorama - there is nothing but water and a rest room there these days

    Lewis Mt. Campstore - doesn't have much - think of it as resupply at a poor convience store - I think that they do have some food that you can microwave at the store to eat like a hamburger - it has been a couple years since I was in there however and they might have improved - you can however get a shower there if that is of interest

    I sort of agree with MS - Aramark (the SNP vendor) prices are rather high and generally a rip off for what you get when it comes to food

  4. #4
    Hiker bigcranky's Avatar
    Join Date
    10-22-2002
    Location
    Winston-Salem, NC
    Age
    61
    Posts
    7,937
    Images
    296

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Hog On Ice View Post
    Thorton Gap/Panorama - there is nothing but water and a rest room there these days
    Yeah, but we sure appreciated the cold water out of their faucet on one very hot June day. Soaked my head, my feet, and drank a couple of gallons. Add a king size Snickers bar for pure heaven.

    Yes, food in SNP is overpriced. It's a national park. Get used to it. You can buy camp food and snacks at the various waysides and camp stores. I don't recall backpacking-type freeze dried meals anywhere (though I wasn't looking for them). They had stuff that car campers want -- chips, cold drinks, hot dogs, canned food, candy bars, ice, that sort of thing. We bought snack food, but that was about it.

    I really liked stopping in for a meal at the restaurants. (So shoot me, I like food.) The cafe at Big Meadows, out by Skyline Drive, has great breakfast -- good coffee, great pancakes with blackberry syrup. Oh, and good grits, too.

    We also splurged on a cabin at Skyland. That was nice, but dinner in their restaurant sucked -- bad food overpriced. Breakfast the next morning was better.

    We're trying to talk our daughter into hitting Shenandoah this summer, after she graduates from high school. Might work out. Nice place for a hike, especially if you can avoid weekends.
    Ken B
    'Big Cranky'
    Our Long Trail journal

  5. #5
    AT 4000+, LT, FHT, ALT Blissful's Avatar
    Join Date
    07-14-2005
    Location
    Virginia, 10 miles from the AT near SNP
    Age
    61
    Posts
    10,470
    Journal Entries
    1
    Images
    171

    Default

    Last I heard blackberry milkshake was still at Elkwallow. But my hamburger there was awful.

    Panorama is closed. No food.







    Hiking Blog
    AT NOBO and SOBO, LT, FHT, ALT
    Shenandoah NP Ridgerunner, Author, Speaker


  6. #6

    Default

    Last summer I stopped by the Lewis Mtn. campstore. Not a huge selection of foods for backpackers, but they did have the Mountain House meals and one could make do for a couple of days.

  7. #7

    Default

    Some of the blackberry shakes in the park are just made with syrup instead of blackberry ice cream. Ask before buying. The fast food served in the park is very mediocre and overpriced.

  8. #8
    Registered User unl1988's Avatar
    Join Date
    08-25-2005
    Location
    North Carolina
    Posts
    80

    Default

    My blackberry shake experience was not that good. Me and my ex came off the trail anticipating blackberry shakes, when we watched the lady making them - instead of using a scoop of fresh blackberries or frozen, she used blackberry syrup from a bottle. Kind of a let down, but we drank them anyway.

    There were a couple of restaraunts as I recall, one nice sit down one and a couple of fast food sort. There were also convinience store type stores that had quick eat items, and a few camping sorts of food. Definately not backpacking sort of food. Could you live on it? yes, just don't expect much outside of what you would find in a truckstop convinience store.

  9. #9
    Registered User
    Join Date
    11-20-2002
    Location
    Damascus, Virginia
    Age
    65
    Posts
    31,349

    Default

    that's how they've always been made

  10. #10
    NICE MARMOT!!! DAKS's Avatar
    Join Date
    09-16-2007
    Location
    Colorado Springs, Colorado
    Age
    48
    Posts
    368
    Images
    15

    Default

    a good selection of mtn. house meals at big meadows campstore. was just there this past weekend. they also had polar pure tablets, a few closed cell foam pads, shower shoes etc. a pretty decent selection really. they also have a pretty good selection of groceries in my opinion. last fall i noticed that they had boxed wine too(single serving size)! very nice!

  11. #11
    I'm worth a million in prizes astrogirl's Avatar
    Join Date
    03-13-2004
    Location
    Front Royal, VA
    Posts
    271
    Images
    6

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by minnesotasmith View Post
    Think of it as an act of trail patriotism; if sellers of overpriced services find few takers, their prices are likely to come down, closer to something reasonable.
    Fat chance.

    That might be true if it were a free market in the SNP, but it very much is not. All the concessions have been granted to Aramark by the Dept of the Interior, and they need compete with no one and never will.
    -----------------------------------------------
    obstacles are found everywhere, and in taking them, we nourish ourselves.
    http://astrogirl.com/blog/Backpacking

  12. #12
    Registered User Fat Man Walking's Avatar
    Join Date
    08-11-2004
    Location
    Jackson, MS
    Age
    68
    Posts
    111
    Images
    25

    Default I'd like to report a hijacking!!!!!

    Everyone has an opinion.

    In this thread, that I asked two specific questions:
    1) What's the food selection for non-grill food like at the Lewis Mountain Camp store?
    2) Is there enough of a selection at the Panorama/Thorton's Gap for me to get a couple of candy bars for a snack?

    has turned into a discussion of the free enterprise system in the United States, recipes for Blackberry Milkshakes, and prices at the campstores where there is a captive market. Well Duhhhhhhh.......

    If you answered my question, Thanks. But if you took it upon yourself to change the direction of this, then shame on you. Geezz......
    "Like the confluence of two streams, dreams & reality are joined, flowing as one. I know how lucky I am." - Cody GA-ME 2010

++ New Posts ++

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •