Three Turks and a Moormans plus a Discovery

Monday, Sept. 24, I had a thoroughly delightful set of hikes in the South District.  I parked in Turk Gap (after MP 94) and hiked out and back the Turk Gap Trail, up and back Turk Mountain Trail, and down the AT to Jarman Gap where I picked up the South Fork of the Moorman River Fire Road and returned to my car by way of my old friend the Turk Run Trail.

Turk Gap Trail, being an old woods road, was uneventful.  I saw no signs of the pools of the Crimora Mine just beyond the end of the trail.  Although public access is disallowed on the bottom end, there are roads just beyond the Park boundary and somebody gets to take their horses on this trail (as evidenced by horse dung).

Turk Mountain was a joy.  Here's a picture of Turk Mt. from the Skyline Drive pullout.

From the Turk Gap parking lot, the summit is only 1.1 miles.  First you go up the AT a bit in a southbound direction, then the Turk Mountain Trail takes off to the right.  It slopes down then up, going across lots of rockslides with terrific views to the left back toward the main range of the Shenandoahs. 

After slabbing up the mountain, you reach the rocky top of Turk Mountain with fantastic views west and north as well as east back to the main body of the Shenandoahs.

View from Turk Mt.

View from Turk Mt.

View back toward Shenandoahs from Turk Mt.

Because I had gotten a late start, I ate my lunch there admiring the view.

After descending via the same trail back to the AT, I turned southbound and hiked as far as Jarman Gap.  For quite a while before the Gap, the trail parallels the South Fork of the Moorman River, gradually descending to the junction with the Fire Road (S. Fk. Moormans River).  To complete the Fire Road I hiked the 0.2 mi. up to Jarman Gap and back othen hiked down the trail as far as the Turk Run Trail.  Although it is called a fire road, there are many downed trees in this section that would undoubtedly impair any emergency vehicles.  The sections close to the stream were just as enchanting as the rest of the Moormans River trails I hiked last week.

Once again, I hiked up the Turk Run Trail to return to my car.

Then I drove over the Loft Mountain Campground to spend the night.  After setting up my tent, I decided that I had some energy to burn so I hiked the Frazier Discovery Trail from the Loft Mt. Wayside.  I'm used to flat boring nature trails and was surprised and delighted to find that the FDT goes up really steeply, by some really cool rock formations

Rock formations on Frazier Discovery Trail

to an absolutely incredible view from the rocky outcropping where the trail joins the AT.

Overlook from Frazier Discovery Trail

Overlook from Frazier Discovery Trail

Overlook from Frazier Discovery Trail

Overlook from Frazier Discovery Trail

Then I took the steep descent back to the wayside and returned to my tent for the night.

Total miles for the day:  13.9
Total miles that count toward the 500:  5.6
New or completed trails:  4

I realized there is 0.1 mile of double counting on the 1.3 mile Frazier Discovery Trail and will change my database accordingl.  I also found there was confusion between the map and the guidebook about the Moormans River trails/road/fire road.  I've changed it to one "trail" of 9.5 miles as indicated in the guidebook instead of 3 trails.