Signal Knob the Day After A Spring Snowstorm

 Yesterday, we had a spring storm that started out with gross, cold rain. It quickly changed over to snow. It didn't amount to much in the DC area and, even in the mountains, it wasn't expected to be more than a couple of inches. That meant snowshoeing was out. This weekend is also time change, which meant that we would have to drag ourselves out of bed earlier than usual, too. We ultimately decided to do a hike we hadn't done in several years: Signal Knob. The hike starts in a large parking lot that often fills near Elizabeth Furnace in the Massanutten area. 

When we pulled in, there was one other car in the parking lot. Not a bad start. It was 16 degrees with the promise of temperatures rising to near 40. The trail was covered with an inch or two of snow and the steady climb was a welcome way to warm cold fingers. There were a few tracks on the trail, which ended at the first campsite. Someone had clearly been up either camping or just enjoying a campfire the night before. It would have been chilly night to be out! After that, we were the first people on the trail today. We saw and heard our first Pine Warblers of the year, which was a welcome sign that spring is coming! 

At Signal Knob, we found a relatively sheltered spot to eat some lunch. There was more of a breeze that was ideal and it was still pretty cold. At this point, we were kind of marveling that we hadn't seen anyone so far. When we've done this hike, in the past, we've backtracked from Signal Knob to the Meneka Peak Trail and hiked south on that to catch the Tuscarora. This time, we decided to continue on the Massanutten Trail and connect with the Tuscarora in the valley below to the west. While this meant an extra climb, the distance was the same and it kept us out of the wind on the ridge. The hike down to the Tuscarora Trail went quickly on the road. From there it is steep climb back up to the top of the ridge. We quickly shed the layers we had put on at lunch.

From the junction with the Meneka Peak Trail back to the car is four winding miles. By this time, most of the snow had melted off of the trail and there were definitely some muddy patches. It was a pleasant walk down, though and we saw no one until we reached the parking lot. It was a really good day. All said and done, 10 miles.

The view northwest from Signal Knob

Leaves frozen into the ice on the Massanutten Trail near the junction with the Tuscarora

A relatively poor photo of a lenticular cloud west of us. I forgot the battery for my good camera, so all I had was my cell phone.

Bird tracks in the snow

The Tuscarora Trail below Meneka Peak

Perfect blue sky

A bird nest from last year. It looks like it might be a Red-Eye Vireo nest.

Hike to Emerald Pond

 We did the Emerald Pond hike in the Massanutten area today. It is a little over 8 miles and is a lollipop, so there is a little loop at the end, but there's some out-and-back as well. The hike starts from the abandoned Massanutten Visitor Center on Highway 211. I couldn't find any reference online as to when it closed. There is an article in the Washington Post from 1989 that references it being open, but other than that, there is little information on it. 

In any case, after a short descent, the trail climbs steeply for a bit more than a mile to a really nice overlook of the Shenandoah Valley to the west. We took a brief break there and then continued south on the Bird Knob/Massanutten Trail. From the overlook, there is probably another two miles of very gentle climbing and then a slow descent towards Bird Knob. About a mile after the overlook, the Massanutten Trail splits off to the left. We stayed on the Bird Knob Trail. The trail passed through lots of pine groves and mountain laurel, nice and green in the middle of winter. We came out into a meadow with a tiny frozen pond at the end of the Bird Knob Trail. From there, we descended to Emerald pond, which is, indeed, clear and and green. After a bit of confusion about which way to go, we headed up the hill to the Massanutten Trail, which follows a forest road for a few miles. We passed a lot of large Allegheny Mound Ant mounds, but I neglected to take pictures of them. At the junction with Bird Knob, we retraced our steps to the car.

A White Breasted Nuthatch near the overlook. 

The Shenandoah Valley from the Overlook

The tiny frozen pond

Emerald Pond

The overlook on our way down.

Stricklers Knob

Saturday, Michael and I finally got out after what seemed like months of rain only on the weekends (ok, maybe a month of rainy weekends). I don't mind hiking in the rain in the summer, but I'm not a big fan of cold rain. We intended to do the Stricklers Knob-Duncan Knob loop, which is about 10 miles. Michael had never done it before and it has been a number of years since I've been on those trails. We arrived to find the road gated about three miles before the Scothorn trailhead. We talked for a few minutes about driving to Kennedy Peak, but we weren't really interested in spending more time in the car. After consulting the map, we could walk up the road 3/4 of a mile and pick up the Massanutten Trail. From there, we would be able to hike to Stricklers Knob. Once there, we could decide whether to return the way we came or hike straight down the mountain and walk back on the road.

 The trail started out with a pretty walk along the ridgetop. Once we turned a corner, we could see Strickler's Knob and it was right there across the hollow beside us below. Unfortunately, we had to descend very steeply all the way down to the bottom of that valley and then hike back up it before we would get there. All the way down into the valley we listened to someone's hunting dogs baying.

 A campsite on the Massanutten Trail at the bottom of the valley.

Four miles later, we made it to Scothorn Gap and were well on our way to Stricklers Knob. The trail passes through a fire scar.

 The trail out to Stricklers Knob turns into a rock scramble for the last two hundred yards or so. A pair of black vultures were fairly annoyed to be disturbed by us. They would flap their wings and fly a few yards away, only to land directly in the next spot we were hiking to.

 A closer view of one of the vultures (I have a decent zoom lens). They finally flew off and we proceeded out to the knob.

 The view east from Stricklers Knob.

 There is another cliff just northeast of Stricklers Knob that actually has a bit better view. I took this panorama from there. That is the Shenandoah River in middle of the photo.

 The cairn marking the path out to Stricklers Knob. At this point, we decided we didn't need to see the bottom of that valley again, so we hiked down the Scothorn Gap Trail to the road.

 We had a pleasant three mile road walk back  to the car.

The temperature was nearly 50 degrees, which was a nice change from our string of rainy, cold weekends.

Gerhard Shelter Loop - Great North Mountain

The Great North Mountain area, which is west of Front Royal on the Virginia/West Virginia border is an area I often overlook it when planning hikes. I'm not sure why that is because there are some really nice hikes there. We've hiked a lot of the trails in the area over the years, but the Gerhard Shelter loop was an exception. It fit the bill for Sunday, meeting two criteria: we had never been there and it included a small part of the Tuscarora Trail. We are trying to hike more of the non-road portions of that route (unfortunately, there are still many miles of road walking on it).

We started under cloudy skies. The trail immediately climbs away from Waites Run Road and switchbacks up a ridge for a couple of miles. As we climbed, the patches of snow turned into an inch or so covering the trail. By the time we made the top of the ridge, ice covered all of the tree limbs and mountain laurel leaves. The mountain laurel drooped over the trail under the weight of all of the ice. When we hiked through it, it sounded like we were pushing through beaded curtains. At the very top of the ridge, we were treated to a stunning view of the mountains to the east and West Virginia to our left.

We stopped for lunch at Gerhard Shelter, a nice small shelter on top of the ridge. The only downside of camping there is the closest water source is over half a mile down a very steep trail. After lunch, we hiked down the steep trail to reach a forest road which took us to the Vance Cove Trail. Eventually, we came out onto Waites Run Road to complete the loop. It was a lovely hike even with a significant amount of forest road walking. We saw one group of backbackers high up on the ridge.

The Tuscarora Trail on the way in the switchbacks that made up the first couple of miles of the hike.

Ice on mountain laurel leaves.

A cool fungus on a log.

The view to the east from the top of the ridge.

The Tuscarora Trail on the top of the ridge.

Michael finishing his lunch in Gerhard Shelter.

The forest road near the bottom of the valley

Racoon tracks in the snow on the road.

Rabbit tracks.

Waites Run near the end of the hike.

Anther view of Waites Run.

A cool lichen on a rock.

Browns Hollow Loop: Flowers and Waterfalls

Michael, a friend, and I took a break from cycling this weekend to get out for a nice, long hike. We went out to the south part of Massanutten Mountain in the George Washington National Forest. It was an absolutely beautiful day. We started seeing early spring wildflowers right away. The hike started at the erstwhile Massanutten Visitor Center. We followed an old nature trail down to the Browns Hollow Trail, which slowly climbed up to a saddle between Short Horse Mountain and Big Mountain. Along the way, we saw several very nice waterfalls. We had lunch at the foot of one that was nearly 20 feet high. Since the trail was quite a ways above the creek, it was an interesting scramble down to the falls.

After reaching the top of the saddle, we then lost nearly all of the elevation we gained, only to have to re-climb it on the Roaring Brook Trail. Several steep switchbacks put us on top of Big Mountain, where we had views through the trees. The we descended to the bottom of the next valley to the Massanutten Trail. The Massanutten Trail follows a gravel road in that section. No shade and a steady climb made for a surprisingly warm climb for a spring day. Since it was April, it was pleasant, but it would be a miserable climb in July or August because of the lack of shade.

Eventually, the trail returned to the woods and we were rewarded with a beautiful overlook to the west, only about 1.5 miles from the car. We noted the fact that, in spite of the proximity to the road, there was very little trash and no graffiti. When we finally left the overlook and continued on our way, we found out why. It is, indeed, only about 1.5 miles from the road, but it is a tough, steep, rocky climb. We didn't mind, since we only had to hike down it.

Massanutten is one of the unnoticed areas to hike around here. We saw one group of backpackers and one lone hiker. It was a really pleasant hike that I definitely would do again.

These Viola pedata (Birds Foot Violets) were right along the trail.

We startled an Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus). Eastern Fence Lizards blend in with tree bark really well. Click to enlarge.

 A fiddlehead along the trail.

This is the 20-foot waterfall, although it doesn't look like it in this picture. It was tough to get an angle that showed the scale.

 A butterfly (I don't know the species) on Mountain Laurel on top of Big Mountain.

The Massanutten Trail follows this gravel road for a few miles. At this point, we were fairly high, so the trees hadn't begun to leaf out. Everything is several weeks behind where it has been in the last few years. I've been out this time of year and the entire canopy had grown in, but this year, it was basically still winter up here.

 The craziest thing we saw along the trail were these massive ant hills. You can see my hiking pole in the bottom of the photo for a little bit of scale. This thing was easily four or five feet in diameter and two feet high. There were ants everywhere.

 A close-up of the ants (you'll have to enlarge the picture to see all of the ants).

 A bootshot from the overlook. This is looking west towards Great North Mountain.

 Michael at the overlook.

 Uvularia puberla (Mountain Bellwort). This one was a new species to me.

Allium tricoccum (Ramps). We saw these along the way as well, which was a big surprise, since I generally associate them with higher elevations. Any guesses? I'll post the answer later this week.

Little North Mountain in the Rain

Little North Mountain is a wonderful, often overlooked, mid-length hike in the Great North Mountain area of the George Washington National Forest. It is overshadowed by its flashier neighbors, Big Schloss and Tibbet Knob. Finding the trailhead is a little bit of a test of map-reading skills. The hike starts at a nondescript pullout on rural highway southwest of Strassburg, Virginia. The pullout is easy to miss. There are no signs, and worse yet, there is a larger pullout literally around the next corner.

Six of us (eight, if you include the dogs) set out under gray skies. At first, the Tea Hollow Trail (really, an old roadbed) is easy to follow and has the appearance of having been maintained sometime in the last fifty years. The road follows Cove Run up the valley, towards the saddle between Tea and Little North Mountains. About half a mile in, there is a dirt berm across the roadbed and beyond that, it sort of all falls apart. The road bed is easy enough to keep track of, but there are a lot of blowdowns. A lot. If anyone has carried a saw into Tea Hollow in the last twenty years, they certainly didn't use it to clear the path. This isn't anything new. It looks exactly the same as it did two years ago. Then there is the greenbriar, that tears at pantlegs and skin. All of this is before the official bushwhack starts, three miles into the hike. I actually enjoy picking my way through all of that. It sort of adds to the adventure. The person who had to weave his dog's leash through each of the blowdowns didn't enjoy that part of the hike quite as much.

The road eventually just disappears and we were left to hike up the valley. It is a simple enough bushwhack, because one basically just has to follow Cove Run. The spring has a pretty little pool surrounded by moss-covered rocks. Nearby, we picked up the path up to the ridge. I think this path exists for Tuscarora Trail hikers who need to find water.

Just as we arrived on the ridge and the Tuscarora Trail, it started to rain. The temperature dropped steadily and the wind picked up. We also started to run into remnants of snow on the trail. We knew the front was coming in, so we were prepared, but I have to say, high 30s and rain aren't my favorite hiking conditions. The hike along the top of Little North Mountain was pleasant and easy. The clouds had rolled in, so we didn't get any views, but it is a nice hike anyway.

This is the hike if you are looking for solitude. We didn't see anyone else all day. The only downside of the hike is the mile walk back to the car along the road.

Pictures (click to enlarge):

 A white fungus on a fallen branch.

 Leaves trapped under ice.

 Two members of our group following Cove Run towards the Tuscarora Trail.

 The Tuscarora Trail on top of Little North Mountain.

By the end of the hike, the clouds had settled down onto the mountain and we were hiking in the fog. This is the view to the east from the trail.