Central District 3 days of hiking

July 10, 2012

Got a late start because I stopped by the Walmart in Ruckersville to get an access permit for the Rapidan Wildlife Management Area.  I may never need it but at least I can’t be fined. 

Hiked up and back on all trails today.  Started with the Entry Run Trail (2.4 mi.by guidebook; 2.5 by mileposts).  What an excellent trail … well built, well-maintained!   

Here are some terrific rock steps in the trail

It climbs up fairly steeply, but with many switchbacks, to the Pocosin Fire Road.  Almost half way up is an old cemetary with some stones completely unmarked and others in quite good shape.

En route I stopped at the wonderful Rosser-Lamb Cabin which looks terrific. 

It was surrounded by huge black swallowtail butterflies. 

  The Pocosin Fire Road is in lousy shape (above).  I’m not sure what gives with these “fire roads” but the Pocosin Fire Rd. is not in any condition to serve as an emergency access or as a hiking path.  It has high weeds and branches/trees across the roadbed.  It looked to be much clearer beyond the gate at the Park boundary.  I walked down to the gate on the east (0.7 mi. by the guidebook; 0.6 by the milepost) then retraced my steps and continued on to the Pocosin Hollow Trail (0.5 mi) to the Pocosin Trail (aka Pocosin Horse Trail) (0.2 mi. further).  At the junction was a dilapidated house and the foundation, chimney and stairs to another house.  I wonder what is the story.   

Continuing on the Pocosin Trail I first descended, crossed some water courses, then ascended to the South River Fire Road. (1.5 or 1.6 mi.to Fire Rd.), another dysfunctional fire road, at least until the junction with the S. River Falls loop trail (1.1 miles).  Weeds grew all over the place and I was concerned about ticks in the long grass.  As a sweet surprise, I was able to pick some early blackberries and many raspberries.  YUM!   

I walked as far as the junction with the South River Falls loop passing some late columbines

then I retraced my steps to the base of the Entry Run Trail.  The only people I saw were two people coming up the S. River Falls trail and one guy coming up the S. River FR while I walked down.  Back on the Pocosin Fire Road between Pocosin Hollow and Entry Run Trails I saw a young bear, who took off like a streak of lightening when he saw me.  Because I got to the Entry Run trailhead a little early, I decided to stroll up to John’s Rest, another PATC rental cabin (also, because I heard flowing water).  John’s Rest is a wonderful little cabin 

and right by the cabin someone had dammed up the stream and made a nice pool so I took a dip.  Heavenly!  I hadn’t been that hot (certainly not as hot as last week) but the dip felt superb.  

After my dip, I hightailed it up to the Park because Artunus and I planned to stay at Skyland.  Due to my membership in the Shenandoah Park Trust I got 50% off on the room rate (plus 20% of meals from Shenandoah National Park Association membership)!  Those memberships paid for themselves many times over.  The first thing I noticed in Skyland was the exquisite smell of the milkweeds.  Overpowering!  Before dinner, we took the trail to Bushy Head and Miller’s Head (1.6 mi. RT).  What a spectacular view from Miller’s Head!  I I I hadn’t even heard of it before.   

Saw some great butterflies that day

We had a great time at Skyland.  Saw an adolescent bear sauntering through the parking lot on the way to dinner.

Total mileage for day:   14.4 miles; 7.2 miles new side trails; 2 complete new side trails and 2 partials. 

Wednesday, July 11.  Artunus departed for his job and I decided to tackle a couple more fire roads.  I am baffled by this term “fire road”.  Some of them are clearly ready to be used in case of emergency and others are completely neglected.  The first fire trail, Red Gate, was cleared and obviously well-used.  Once US gov’t vehicle passed me while I was descending.  Although I’m not wild about fire roads, this one was a breeze to walk along and I managed to hike the 9.6 miles (RT) in 2 ½ hours.  Then, after a short trip to Big Meadows for a NPS Passport Stamp and some refreshments, I continued back to Skyland.  First I hiked the Nature Trail aka Stony Man Trail aka Appalachian Trail, repeating a leg so that I could also hike the Stony Man Horse Trail (1.9 miles total).  An excellent Nature Trail guide is available at the start of the NT.  Then I hiked down the Furnace Spring Trail (0.5 mi.) to the Skyland Fire Road (referred to erroneously in the Furnace Spring trail description as the Old Skyland Road Trail).   The Skyland Fire Road is one of those in a diisused and overgrown state.  In fact this one was so overgrown and unpleasant that it took me more time to hike 6.4 miles on it than it took me to hike the 9.6 on the Red Gate Fire Road.  Aside from a few foxgloves along the way, the trail was not noteworthy.   

It’s a shame that, given its historical role in Skyland (it was used, apparently, to carry early visitors up to the Skyland Resort), the Skyland Fire Road is not maintained and there are no educational signs.  The bottom third of the trail was virtually weed free but the top was bad. After getting back to Skyland I walked back to my car on the road.

Total miles for the day:  18.9 of which 9.5 new side trail miles.  5 new trails.  Note to file:  I need to reduce the number of trails (and possibly trail miles) in the inventory due to the overlap of trails with two and sometimes three names for the very same trail.  

On Thursday, July 12 I started out with good intentions.  Having eliminated the White Oak Canyon Fire Road from my list (because it is overlapping with the Skyland-Big Meadows Horse Trail which I will hike at a future point), I started out the day with the "Story of the Forest Trail" in Big Meadows (of which only a small portion is actually trail, the rest being the sidewalk from the Big Meadows Lodge down to the Wayside) and then I connected to the Lewis Falls Trail.  As I approached the Falls, I spotted yet another bear who dashed away as soon as it heard me.  The falls looked quite good.

Down below the falls the death and destruction caused by the wooly adelgid was obvious

After getting off the Lewis Falls trail I had intended to hike the Tanner Ridge Administrative Road but as I passed the gate and noticed a 20 mph speed limit sign I lost heart.  I just couldn't bring myself to walk on a regular road even though it is listed on the map as a trail.  So I walked down the road as far as the Tanner Ridge Horse Trail and followed it back to Big Meadows passing thistles along the way.  

Then I walked up and back on the sidewalk to complete the route of the Story of the Forest Trail described in the book and returned to my car (4.5 miles total).  

Then I proceeded to the South River Falls Loop, stopping en route to walk the last missing bit of the Pocosin Fire Road (between the parking lot and the AT).  Although there were a number of cars in the S. River Picnic area, after passing one group of visitors on the way to the falls, I saw no one else the entire time.  The falls are beautiful.

I did take the trail all the way to the bottom of the falls and was rewarded with a refreshing dip in the pool there.  Even though I was soaking wet, the walk back up the hill was hot.  Instead of taking the official loop, I continued on up the S. River Fire Road (thereby completing it) and crossed over to what sounded like a neat trail ... the Dry Run Falls Fire Road.  Feh!  Another unmaintained fire road.  I started down the fire road hoping it wouldn't be too bad but eventually it deteriorated in swathes of high weeds.  At that point I was fed up with overgrown fire roads and returned to the car.  Total 4.9 for that bit of walking.  Then (hope springs eternal), I went to the Meadow School Trail and hiked that out and back.  It had been maintained but still had a bunch of vegetation on it.   Some day I hope to rehike it as part of a circuit with the Powell Mt. Trail but the latter is currently inaccesible from Skyline Drive due to construction on the Hazeltop Ridge Overlook.
Total for Thursday:  12.4 miles; of which 10.9 unique new trail and 7 new trails completed.