New Year's Day on Big Schloss

We spent New Year's Eve with two friends at a cabin near Strassburg, Virginia. After a night of good food, cards, and hilarity, the four of us were a bit slow to get around on New Year's morning. We made it to the Big Schloss Cutoff trailhead around 12:30. For the first of January, we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was sunny and in the 40s.

Our intent was to hike both Big Schloss and Tibbet Knob as an out and back, which would mean finishing in the dark. We made good time hiking up the cutoff trail to the top of the ridge, where we ate a little bit of lunch. From the junction with the Mill Mountain Trail, we turned south and hiked to the top of Big Schloss. There were a few people on top of the outcrop, including a group of five or six mountain bikers. We found a nice spot in the sun and took a break for food and pictures. Since we had a long way to go, we soon returned to the Mill Mountain Trail and continued south, towards Wolf Gap. After a brief climb up a small peak on the ridgeline, the trail makes a short, but steep descent to Wolf Gap Campground.

At that point, it was almost 4 p.m. Tibbet Knob would have added three miles, round trip, to our hike and we had about 90 minutes of sunlight left. We opted to turn back. On the way back to the car, we got a couple of nice views of the sunset and of Big Schloss in the fading light. Even with that, the last hour of our hike was in the dark. A great start to the New Year: 10.5 miles of good hiking.

The Big Schloss Cutoff Trail at the junction with the Mill Mountain Trail.

Looking south down the Trout Run Valley. Tibbett Knob is the peak just to the left of center in the photo.

Bootshot from Big Schloss.

Our friends and Michael on Big Schloss.

The wooden bridge on top of Big Schloss. I can't imagine the logistics of getting the materials up to the top of the outcrop, let alone building it.

Distance sign at the Wolf Gap trailhead.

Looking east at sundown.

Big Schloss from the south.

Lichens on a rock outcrop.

The Mill Mountain Trail at sunset.

A Short Hike with a Funny Name: Big Schloss

We got out for a quick hike on Sunday.  We went out to Big Schloss hoping to find orchids to photograph.  We didn't find any, but we did have a nice, short seven mile hike and we saw lots of other wildflowers.  We started out in pretty steady, warm rain, but the weather improved as the day went on.  By the time we were on top of the outcrop that is Big Schloss, we even had a little bit of blue sky.

Pictures (click to enlarge):

 A bright, interesting fungus on the Big Schloss Cutoff Trail.  This might be Hygrophorus miniatus as they are pretty small (~1 inch tall or so)

 By the time we arrived at the top of the ridge, we were hiking in the clouds.  This is the junction with the Mill Mountain Trail.

Helianthus divaricatus (Woodland Sunflower) blooming in a clearing.

Aquilegia canadensis (Wild Columbine).  I was a little surprised to see these blooming.  I have usually seen them blooming in June.

 The new bridge at Big Schloss in the cloud

 Suddenly, the clouds parted and we had a glimpse of blue sky over West Virginia.

 Looking south along the cliffs.

 The clearing sky and Trout Run valley below

 A really cool caterpillar.  I have no idea what species this is.

 Another interesting fungus.

I think this is Clavulinopsis fusiformis (Yellow Spindle Coral fungus).

Solitude and Sinkholes on Tibbet Knob and Long Mountain Trail

This week's hike was in stark contrast to the frigid temperatures and snow of last week.  Yesterday, unless we were directly in the wind, it was warm enough to hike in short sleeves.  We did see patches of snow here and there and a little bit of ice on the way up to Tibbet Knob, but nothing large scale.  After leaving car on Trout Run Road at the north end of our hike, we started hiking from Wolf Gap.  Once across the road, the trail immediately begins the 1.5 mile climb to Tibbet Knob.  We had several hazy views of Mansanutten and Shenandoah National Park to the east.  The valleys were filled with smoke or haze and the mountains blue in the distance.  Near the top of Tibbet Knob, the trail is in the shadows and was covered by ice in several places, but nothing too difficult to work around. We paused at the top to enjoy the view up the Trout Run Valley and of Big Schloss.

On the way down the backside we met a family hiking the opposite direction, the only other hikers we would see all day.  We took a lunch break near the parking lot on road 681 and enjoyed the warm sunlight.  The 2.5 mile road walk on this hike didn't really excite me, but it passed pleasantly and quickly.  We joked about developing a back roads litter bingo game based on the unfortunate number of cans and bottles we saw along the road.  After 2.5 miles, we took a right on the Long Mountain Trail, which does not, actually, travel along Long Mountain.  It does, however, follow the valley below it. 

We descended for a couple of miles to the junction with the Trout Pond Trail.  This is where things got interesting.  After passing that, we noticed that we had crossed a couple of good-sized creeks that looked like they should empty into a good-sized stream just to our left (west) at the bottom of they valley.  Strangely, the lowest part of the valley looked perfectly dry.  We had noticed a few sinkholes along the way, several of them quite large.  When we got to the next stream, which also had a good-sized flow, Michael went to its mouth to investigate.  All of the water in the stream disappeared into the ground about 100 yards before it reached the bottom of the valley, which was filled with sinkholes.  It was pretty impressive to stand in the middle of the dry streambed and look upstream at small waterfalls flowing over the rocks.  I did try to take pictures of where the stream disappeared, but none of them captured it very well.

From there, we continued up the valley, crossing an impressive rock field.  I don't think anyone hikes that section of trail very often since the leaves weren't even broken up from foot traffic.  Eventually, we began the climb up over the ridge.  At some point the trail became a logging road and our pace picked up considerably.  After crossing the high point of the ridge, we descended to Trout Run.  There are beautiful cliffs on the left bank of Trout Run.  We reached the car at dusk.

This was a great hike, with lots of variety.  All said and done, we hiked 13.3 miles.  With the long road walk after Tibbet Knob and the logging roads near the end of the hike, it would be brutal in July and August.

Pictures (click to enlarge):

 Michael on top of Tibbet Knob.

 Bootshot looking north towards Big Schloss from Tibbet Knob.

 The trail south from Tibbet Knob

 Fungus and lichens on a tree.

 Mossy trail south of Tibbet Knob.

 A small waterfall.

 A decaying maple leaf in a creek.

 Bubbles in a stream.

 Knots in a downed tree.

 A small waterfall in the sun.

A puffball fungus.  I'm not sure which kind.

Colostoma cinnabarina (Stalked Puffballs).

Trout Run at the end of the hike.

Twelve Miles in the Snow - Big Schloss

Hunting season is over, so yesterday we ventured out to the George Washington National Forest to hike Big Schloss.  The thermometer in our friend's car said it was 12 degrees at the Front Royal Park and Ride where we met her.  Luckily, the road to the trailhead, although covered in packed snow in places, was passable.  By the time we got there, the temperature had risen to a balmy 16 degrees.  It wasn't windy, though, at least down in the valley and the sun was shining, so it promised to be a beautiful hike.

We headed up the steep side of the trail first.  It is a quick moderately steep 2.3 miles from the parking area to saddle where the Big Schloss Cutoff trail meets the Mill Mountain Trail.  Where the trail left the road, there was very little snow on it, as we climbed, the snow became patchy.  By the time we got to the trail junction, the snow was about a foot deep.  This section was in the sun and out of the wind, so it was nice and warm (relatively).

We headed south on the Mill Mountain Trail for a mile to the Big Schloss spur trail.  There were two-foot deep snow drifts on this section and we were a little more exposed to the wind, both of which made the going a little bit slower.  We actually had to break out the face masks on this section.  Fortunately, someone else had postholed the trail before we got there, making a little easier work for us.  We wished we had brought our snowshoes at this point, since there was definitely enough snow for them.  They would not have been too heavy to strap to our packs and carry up.

We were the first people to hike up the spur trail to the top of Big Schloss since the last snowfall (Thursday 1/7/10).  There were, however, lots of tracks:  rabbits, deer, birds, and mice.  We paused for lunch in a sheltered spot out of the wind before heading up to the top.  It was beautiful as always up there, but the wind on top was super cold, so we didn't linger long.  The air was clear enough to get a good view of Mansanutten and Shenandoah to the east.

From the summit of Big Schloss, we returned north along the Mill Mountain trail, passing the junction with the Big Schloss Cutoff trail after a mile. Almost two miles past the junction, we arrived at Sandy Spring.  It is a beautiful little spring and stream that crosses the trail.  The stream, although flowing, had feathery ice crystals scattered over it.  A side stream was completely frozen over.  The trail continued to slowly climb from there, to the top of Mill Mountain.  The snow got deeper again as we descended from Mill Mountain to the Tuscarora Trail. 

The Tuscarora Trail only had one set of snowshoe tracks on it, which made the walking fairly challenging.  We only had a half mile to hike on it before the next junction, but it was probably the toughest single stretch of the hike.  Soon enough, we arrived at the Little Stony Creek Trail and began the 3.5 mile descent back to the car.  We took a short break in the sun at Sugar Knob Cabin.  Little Stony Creek Trail had a lot of very icy sections covered by a thin dusting of snow.  The microspikes I received as a Christmas gift made this part of the hike much easier.

Photos:

Hiking up the Big Schloss Cutoff Trail.

Hiking through the snow on the Mill Mountain Trail towards Big Schloss.

Looking north from the summit of Big Schloss.  The Mill Mountain Trail runs along the crest of the ridge.

Looking east from the summit of Big Schloss.  In the middle distance is Mansanutten Mountain.  In the far distance is the ridge of Shenandoah National Park.

A rabbit track near the trail.

The stream below Sandy Spring.

Feathery ice crystals in the stream at Sandy Spring.

Microspikes.