Half Moon Lookout: Lots of Flowers on Great North Mountain

Sunday was one of those perfect June days that almost never happens:  low humidity, highs around 80 and bright and sunny.  We went out with a friend to the Great North Mountain area to do a 10 mile circuit including Half Moon Mountain.  We certainly didn't expect solitude on Half Moon Mountain, but we got it.  We saw one small group of Boy Scouts twice (they were doing the loop in the opposite direction).  I also didn't expect to find quite as many flowers as we did.  I saw four that were new to me.

From the parking lot, the Bucktail Trail follows an old roadbed around the mountain.  The already easy ascent was made easier by me stopping and taking pictures of flowers every few feet.  After about a couple of miles, the trail left the roadbed, turned east and began climbing along Halfmoon Run.  There wasn't a lot of water in the run, so the stream crossings were easy.  At the very top of the valley, the trail follows the streambed itself for a short distance before climbing steeply to the top of the gap.  It wasn't quite as steep as some of the craziness we've seen in Pennsylvania recently, but it was definitely a respectable climb. 

From the gap, we continued climbing up to the top of Halfmoon Mountain, where there are ruins of an old fire tower.  Ripe blueberries slowed our ascent, but they were worth it. We took a break at the top and enjoyed the view to the south of the Trout Run Valley.  Returning to the gap, we picked up the Halfmoon Trail and began the walk back to the car. The rest of the hike was easy - just weaving in and out of drainages along the side of the mountain.  At one point, we could hear crows across the valley making a fuss and crows near us answering them.  This continued for several minutes before the ones near us joined the crows across the valley.  I'm not sure what they were all upset about, but much drama ensued.  We could hear the ruckus as we walked for the next ten minutes.

Another beautiful Sunday in the woods.

Pictures (click to enlarge):

A butterfly on top of Cirsium discolor (Field Thistle).

 Asclepias syriaca (Common Milkweed)

 Solanum carolinense (Horse Nettle) on the Bucktail Trail

 Chrysogonum virginianum (Golden Star) along Halfmoon Run.

 Scutellaria incana (Downy Skullcap) along Halfmoon Run.

Looking south from Halfmoon Mountain over the Trout Run Valley towards Big Schloss and Tibbet Knob.

 The ruins of the lookout on Halfmoon Mountain.

Aralia hispida (Bristly Sasparilla).  This was one of the flowers I hadn't seen before this trip.  Click to enlarge this one:  There is a small caterpillar and a number of other insects that can be seen on the flower.

Great North Mountain: Falls Ridge-Laurel Run Loop

The end of last week was so warm and pleasant.  It was too bad that it didn't last at least one day into the weekend.  That being said, 50 degrees and windy is better than 20 degrees (which is still much better than 35 degrees and raining).  We spent the weekend with friends in Bayse, Virginia, which gave us the opportunity to hike in the Great North Mountain area. 

Getting up, having a leisurely breakfast (our friend made fresh scones!), and then driving just 15 minutes to the trailhead for a full day of hiking was a rare treat.   When we left the house in the morning, the wind was already screaming in the valley, which meant that it would be gale force on the ridge.  We opted for a loop that would only keep us on the ridge top for about two miles.  The Falls Ridge trail follows an old roadbed between two parcels of land with numerous "Keep Out" and "No Trespassing" signs on either side.  After crossing a logging road, it climbs steeply up to the top of the first ridge.  There are switchbacks, which help, but it is still pretty steep.  We stopped to have lunch once the trail leveled out.  In the sun and sheltered from the wind, it was quite pleasant out.

We soon reached the North Mountain Trail, where we turned north towards the Laurel Run Trail.  The trail follows the ridgeline, which left us pretty exposed to the wind.  We made good time, though, crossing a couple of meadows along the way.  A band of cliffs formed the east side of the last hill we had to climb.  There were several overlooks along the cliffs, giving us a great view of the Shenandoah Valley.  We could see two fires burning in the valley, one of them large.  Given the dry conditions and the wind, we were not very surprised to see them.

We were happy to begin our descent on the Laurel Run Trail.  We were quickly below the worst of the wind.  We found a frozen little pond just below the ridge top, which was a surprise, considering how warm it had been.  The last part of the hike is 2.5 miles along a logging road, primarily crossing clearcuts.  It wasn't one of the more pleasant sections of trail I have ever hiked.  The wind was stronger in the clearcuts than it was on the wooded ridge and it kicked up dust and debris every time it gusted.  It is too bad that you have to walk that section to make a loop out of the rest of the trails (at least from the trailhead we used).

Pictures (click to enlarge):

Moss and Mountain Laurel on the North Mountain Trail.

Part of the band of cliffs on the North Mountain Trail.

The frozen pond on the Laurel Run Trail.

Ice on the pond.

 Water flowing over leaves in Laurel Run.

The Shenandoah Valley from an overlook along the North Mountain Trail.  Click to enlarge.  This is the first panoramic I've made using an automatic tool in a photo editor.  There are a few artifacts in it (such as the diagonal dark areas in the sky), but overall, it turned out pretty well.  It is made from six individual photos.  The large fire is visible near the center of the panorama.

Great North Mountain - Walking in Two States

I spent the weekend in Bayse, Virginia with two good friends, eating good food and getting a nice long hike in on Saturday.  It was a nice treat to wake up Saturday morning and linger over coffee before driving 15 minutes to the trailhead.  Much better than rising at six and drinking coffee on the two hour drive to the trailhead, which is what we normally do. 

Great North Mountain is in the George Washington National Forest.  The Great North Mountain Trail is a long trail running a number of miles along the spine of the ridge west of I-81, following the West Virginia/Virginia state line in many places.  To reach the Great North Mountain Trail, we hiked 2.75 miles up the Falls Ridge Trail.  The relatively steep (but nothing like last week) trail starts off following an old roadbed and passes an old broken down DC Transit bus.  It makes a right turn at the junction with the purple-blazed Fat Mountain Trail.  It is easy to miss the junction because there is a low berm blocking the view of the Falls Ridge trail.  The trail quickly narrows and up high on the ridge, it is so overgrown with mountain laurel that wearing shorts would be a bad idea.

We had lunch on some rocks at the junction with the Great North Mountain trail.  Although it was bright, sunny and relatively warm on the rocks, the wind had a cold edge to it, reminding us that it is still March.  After lunch, we turned south and followed the relatively easy trail along the ridge (and the state line) for almost 4.25 miles.  There were actually a few remaining snowbanks in the shady spots.  We stopped at an overlook where we could see all the way from Signal Knob to Hawksbill in Shenandoah National Park and further south.

When we reached a set of radio towers, and began our descent off the ridge with a one-mile road walk.  Coltsfoot was blooming in the ditches.  We also saw a neat old homesite, complete with a little pond.  All that remained was the stone chimney, a rock wall, and a lot of daffodils.

Then we arrived at the gasline cut.  The best things I can say about it are:  there was a good view, and at least we didn't have to hike up it.  It was as steep was what we hiked last week, if not as long.  There isn't really a trail and the gravel isn't really packed down, so you pretty much just stumble down the mountain.  The pictures below don't do it justice.  I would guess that, in the summer, the gasline cut is an overgrown, thorny, tick-infested mess - not that those things would keep me away.  At the bottom of the hill, the Laurel Run Connector Trail is marked on the left by about six blue-blazed trees and two large cairns.

The Laurel Run Connector Trail follows a roadbed and is marked with blue blazes.  The logging operations apparently also use blue blazing, although a different shape, to mark trees.  If you weren't familiar with what the blazes are supposed to look like, it could make for an interesting hike:  Seemingly every other tree is marked with some blue paint, often stretching far into the woods away from the trail.  After a couple of miles, we turned right on the Fat Mountain Trail, passing a pretty little stream before returning to the truck.  In 11.7 miles, we only saw one other person the entire day - a PATC trail maintainer.

Pictures (click to enlarge):

Lichens on the rocks where we had lunch.

A snowbank near the top of the ridge.

White rocks on the Great North Mountain trail.

A bracket fungus on a decaying log.  The fungus grew around the blade of grass.

Tussilago farfara (Coltsfoot - non-native) growing in a ditch.

Daffodils near the road.

Hiking down the gasline cut.  The ridge in the far distance is Mansanutten West and you can see Signal Knob at the far end of it.  The junction with the Laurel Run Connector Trail is in the small clearing near the middle of the photo.

Small waterfall on the Fat Mountain Trail.

Another look at the gasline cut from the road.  We hiked from just below the curve to the bottom.