Seventh Annual Hike Off the Pie: Camp Ridge, Shenandoah National Park

Last year, for Hike off the Pie, we had intended to bushwhack up to a mountain called Pinnacle Peak, descend the west side of it and then hike up to Skyline Drive and descend back down to the car via Camp Ridge and the Nicholson Hollow Trail. It didn't quite work out that way, so this year, we decided to do the Camp Ridge portion of that hike. Also, different than last year: this year's Hike Off the Pie was held on Saturday, which meant that Michael got to come along!

We arrived in the Old Rag parking lot at 9 a.m. and it was already nearly full. There were people everywhere, including a group of what must have been 30 people. We packed up, showed the rangers our park pass and made our way to the Nicholson Hollow trailhead. As soon as we turned off of the road, we left all of the crowds behind. We saw a couple of fishermen and one family in the first mile and they were the last people we saw until we were within a quarter mile of Skyline Drive. The hike up went smoothly. We had lunch near some ruins at the junction of the Nicholson Hollow Trail and the Corbin Cutoff trail. We took the latter up Skyline Drive and the walked on the drive for about a third of a mile to the spot where the Camp Ridge Trail once intersected Skyline Drive.

We think we found a few blazes, which got us started the right direction, or at least it was a happy coincidence. There was initially a footpath, but quickly lost it in a thicket of mountain laurel, so we generally made our way out to Camp Ridge using the map. As we were making our way along, Michael spotted the path again and this time, we were able to follow it all the way out to the end of the ridge. It wasn't an easy walk: the mountain laurel put up a good fight. I don't know when the Camp Ridge Trail was last maintained, but it is pretty grown over now. We had a snack at the summit of the little ridge. Then we started down the south side of the ridge, slowly making our way down the steep slope to the Hughes River. For the record, bushwhacking down a steep hill is much worse than going up it. We got very lucky and met the Hughes river at a spot without steep banks, so we didn't have to bushwhack downstream to cross. At that spot, the Nicholson Hollow Trail was right next to the river as well, so we didn't have to slog uphill to find it. On our way down, we were plotting our next bushwhacking adventure on a nearby ridge.

We made it to the road just as the last light faded and back to the car just after dark. It was a great day and the weather was amazing for November.

The ruin of an old cabin on Corbin Cutoff trail. Logs have been removed and this is mostly the second story.

 The wall of the cabin.

 A butterfly on a log. Like I said, it was incredible weather. Even at 2500 feet, it was probably close to 60 degrees.

 An old stone wall on the Corbin Cutoff Trail. If you look closely, you can see a tree growing on top of it near the center of the picture.

 Old Rag from Skyline Drive

 Michael on the old Camp Ridge Trail. This was some of the less dense mountain laurel that we had to push through. I have a love-hate relationship with mountain laurel. In May and June, when it blooms, it is beautiful. The rest of the year, I feel as though it is trying to kill me.

 Oak leaves.

 Fungus growing on a tree.

 The old trail through the mountain laurel

 Puttyroot orchid leaves. These little guys are interesting. They bloom in the summer, but they only put up leaves in the winter, when there isn't any tree canopy to block the light.

 I grabbed this branch for blance when we were descending off of the ridge. It turned out to be covered with tiny prickly things. I have no idea what the branch is or if the prickly spikes are thorns or some kind of parasite.

The final descent to the Hughes River. 

Sixth Annual Hike Off the Pie: Pinnacle Peak

Friday was the sixth annual post-Thanksgiving Hike Off the Pie. This year's was a bit abbreviated because one member of our party wasn't feeling well, but it was still an interesting, challenging hike. We started in the Old Rag parking lot, which was more than half full when we arrived at 8 a.m. Seriously. We headed up the road along with many other people, but we left the crowds at the Nicholson Hollow trailhead, about halfway between the parking lot and the Old Rag trailhead. 

The Nicholson Hollow trail starts with a couple of potentially nasty creek crossings. Fortunately, we haven't had any rain in quite a while, so they weren't bad. We hiked a mile up Nicholson Hollow and then turn left, crossing the Hughes River, onto the Corbin Mountain Trail. As soon as you cross the river, the climbing begins. We saw a little bear in the distance (too far away to get a picture) at one point. When we reached the right switchback, we left the trail and headed up to the top of Pinnacle Peak. We definitely earned our pie making our way up the steep slope to the top of the mountain. Once on top, we found a nice spot under some pine trees for lunch. 

From Pinnacle Peak, the original plan was to drop down to the west to the Indian Run Trail. We made a slight error in bearing right a little too quickly at the beginning of our descent, which put us descending the north flank of Pinnacle Peak instead of the west side of it. The downside of that is that the mountain is pretty darn steep on its north side. We also got to pick our way across a few boulder fields. The upside is that it was really pretty. Once we started descending, we knew that we were trending too far to the north. We kept trying to work our way around to the west, but we were trying to avoid climbing too far back up and the landscape kept drawing us back north. In retrospect, we should have stayed up on the ridge longer. In the end, we wound up coming out on the upper Nicholson Hollow Trail (much to the surprise of two hikers who were coming up the trail). By this time, given that one person was feeling progressively worse, we decided to head for the car. We did about 7.5 miles and had a great hike. The bushwhack definitely still qualified as epic.

 The first crossing of the Hughes River.

 A fan-shaped fungus on a downed log.

 A single tree holding on to its leaves.

 One of the steeper sections of the bushwhack.

 An assassin bug on a leaf.

 The home site visible from the Nicholson Trail.

 The Nicholson Hollow Trail below Hannah Run Trail.

An inchworm. This little guy had been riding on my bandanna. Not needing an inchworm for a pet, I turn it loose on this tree.

Epic Day on Robertson Mountain and Stony Man

Epic.  That is the only word that can describe what transpired yesterday.  We planned to hike Old Rag and Robertson Mountain in a figure eight, which would have been a long hike (~14 miles) with quite a bit of climbing and, of course, the Old Rag rock scramble.  We ended up hiking almost 21 miles with more than 4500 feet of climbing.  Michael and I broke our personal distance records by 4 and 3 miles, respectively.  And we never did hike Old Rag.  

We were late meeting Horizontal Tread and another friend due to a traffic hangup on the beltway, so we didn’t get to the parking lot until 8:30.  By that time, it was already half full. We all agreed that, rather than starting with Old Rag, we should end the day there so we would still avoid the inevitable lines.  Then there was a suggestion to add Stony Man Mountain to the mix, making what promised to be a challenging day into a truly epic day.  

We spread the map out and picked a long route that would take us over Robertson Mountain, down into Nicholson Hollow, up to Stony Man, and back down with a side trip over Old Rag (the full route is below the pictures for anyone who is interested).  Phew!  I’m worn out just typing that.  What I failed to do in the parking lot, was a quick tally of the mileage.  In the long run, that was probably good, because, had I realized what we had just planned, I likely would have pushed for something shorter.

Anyway, the flowers were blooming along the Weakley Hollow Road and we were grateful for overcast skies on the climb up to Robertson.  We took a break for lunch at the summit of Robertson. The hike up the Old Rag Fire Road and to the saddle on Indian Run Trail went by quickly.  Indian Run Trail is just as steep as I remembered it, but going down wasn’t as bad as climbing it and the Nicholson Hollow Trail up to Skyline Drive was a pretty easy climb. In contrast to the crowds on Old Rag, by the time we reached Skyline Drive, at the top of the Nicholson Hollow Trail, we had seen a grand total of 8 people.  

By this time it was sunny and probably around 80 degrees.  Since it has been cool for the last couple of weeks, the heat was bothering me a little.  The trees high on the ridge haven’t really begun to leaf out, so there is little shade.  I stopped at one point to pour some water over my head, which did help. In July, I would be grateful for 80 degrees, but it is April. We took a break in the Stony Man Overlook parking area before heading south to Little Stony Man and then on to Stony Man Mountain.  

By the time we reached Skyland resort, it was after 4 pm and we still had a lot of hiking left to do.  We took stock of where we were and how far we had to go and realized we just didn’t have enough time, on a Sunday evening to do Old Rag.  Even without it, we still had 8 miles to hike.  We also decided to get dinner at Skyland, which would give us a longer break and the chance to rehydrate.  Sitting there, waiting for a menu, I finally did that quick tally of how far we had come:  12.5 miles.  That was kind of a startling moment.  Dinner was good and we drained more than a pitcher of iced tea.  

Refreshed, we made good time down the long, quiet fire roads back to the car, catching glimpses of Old Rag in the sunset along the way.  We made it back to the car just after dark.  It took us 11 1/2 hours, but that also included almost 1 1/2 hours at Skyland, so we made reasonably good time.  The amazing thing is that I feel pretty good today: just a little stiff and a little footsore.

Pictures (click to enlarge):

Uvularia perfoliata (Perfoliate Bellwort) on the Weakley Hollow Fire Road.

 Orobranche uniflora (One-Flower Cancerroot)

 Galearis spectabilis (Showy Orchis)

 Mitella diphylla (Miterwort) on the Indian Run Trail.

 Michael and the Stony Man Overlook parking area with Stony Man in the background.

 Viola pedata (Birds Foot Violet)

 Green creeping up the valleys from the top of Stony Man.

 Phlox subulata (Moss Phlox)

 The sign on Skyline Drive at Skyland Resort. 

 Shadows growing long on the Old Rag Fire Road.

Old Rag at sunset from the Old Rag Fire Road.

The full route that we actually hiked:  1) Weakley Hollow Fire Road to Robertson Mountain; 2) Up and over Robertson Mountain and then up the Old Rag Fire Road to the Corbin Mountain Trail; 3) Corbin Mountain Trail to Indian Run Trail; 4) Indian Run Trail to Nicholson Hollow Trail, following that up to Skyline Drive; 5) a short walk south on Skyline Drive to pick up the Appalachian Trail south 6) Appalachian Trail across Little Stony Man to Stony Man Mountain, where we took the Stony Man Summit Trail to the top; 7) Skyland Horse Trail to Skyland Resort; 8) the Skyland Big Meadows Horse Trail to Old Rag Fire Road to Post Office Junction; and (finally) 9) back to the car via the Weakley Hollow Fire Road.

Corbin Mountain and Robertson Mountain: A Sunset Hike

We got a rather late start on Saturday.  We had to pick up our weekly vegetable box from the local farmers' market before we left town and our friend was a few minutes late.  We did not start hiking until after 11:30 a.m.  This hike, like the one we did two weeks ago, starts at the Old Rag Fee Station.  The station was predictably busy, but we left the crowd when we turned off on the trail to Nicholson Hollow.  We hiked the mile to the junction with the Corbin Mountain Trail, which is one of the few trails we had not hiked in the area.  We took a left on Corbin Mountain, crossed the Hughes River, and took a quick break for lunch. 

Less than a mile up the trail, we spotted a small waterfall on a tributary of the Hughes River, just off the trail.   There was an old footpath leading to the top of it, but getting below it involved a scramble down the ravine.  Below the first waterfall was a second, smaller cascade, shown above, so I scrambled down to it, and managed to grab some greenbriar in the process.

Once back on trail, we began the serious climbing.  Hannah Run and Robertson Mountain Trails get all the attention for being difficult climbs, but the Corbin Mountain Trail (below) is no slouch.  Although not quite as steep as either of those, it is plenty steep in places and the climbing is sustained over a longer distance.  The trail wound around, through a pretty little valley with the ruins of an old farm, before climbing again.  Several times, we thought we were at the top of the ridge, only to turn a corner and find the trail ascending a slope in front of us.  The trail finally leveled out and we reached the junction with the Indian Run Trail. 

Since the days are so short right now, even though it was only 3 p.m., the sun was already low in the sky.  It was apparent that we were going to be hiking out in the dark, but we wanted to finish the Robertson Mountain trail while we still had some light.  We hurried up the trail to the junction with the Old Rag Fire Road, where we turned left towards the Robertson Mountain Trail. 

The climb to the summit of Robertson Mountain from the Weakley Hollow Fire Road is one of the steepest in the park, but coming from the Old Rag Fire road, it is a quick, pretty moderate climb through mountain laurel of less than a mile.  I love Robertson Mountain.  The summit has a nice view of Old Rag and Weakley Hollow, there are a few rocks to scramble around on, and few people hike it.  We spent quite a bit of time taking pictures of the sunset.  Of course, then we had to descend that steep, leaf covered, rocky trail in the fading light.  We went as fast as we could, which wasn't that fast, and just made it to the Weakley Hollow Fire Road as it got too dark to see the trail easily.

 An old tree on the summit of Robertson.

Bootshot over Weakley Hollow.

Fork Mountain from the summit of Robertson.

Dried Hylotelephium telephioides (Wild Live-Forever) on Robertson

Looking north from Robertson towards the Hazel Mountain area.

Old Rag in the fading light on the way down the Robertson Trail.

Return to Fall: Hannah Run and Hot Short Mountain Trails

After last weekend's hike through the blowing snow, this weekend was like turning the clock back one season.  The leaves were still on the trees in the valley and the air was chilly, but a few patches of snow high on the ridges were the only evidence of winter's presence just a week ago.

When we arrived at the Old Rag parking lot at 9:15 a.m., we had to park on the back fence because it was already 95% full.  We got ready to go as quickly as possible and wished the fee station rangers well on what was going to be a very, very busy day on Old Rag.  Where we were going, however, was as quiet as it gets in Shenandoah National Park in the fall.  We walked up the road towards Old Rag amidst the crowds for about half a mile before turning off onto the Nicholson Hollow Trail where we left the madness behind.  It was shaping up to be a perfect day.  The morning started out quite chilly, but was warming up as the sun rose.  The trail was lined with red and gold leaves shining in the morning sun. 

The Hughes River was quite a bit higher than when we hiked the Nicholson Hollow Trail in July and all of the side runs and streams were full.  We hiked past the junction with the Hot Short Mountain Trail and the Hannah Run Trail to a nice waterfall on the Hughes River.  While I was taking pictures a relatively large group passed us and crossed the river.  One of the party messed up the rock hop and wound up in the river, but fortunately, he appeared to be ok.

We returned down the Nicholson Hollow Trail to the Hannah Run Trail.  The Hannah Run Trail has a reputation as one of the steeper trails in Shenandoah.  Since this was our first time on it, we were interested in comparing it to some of the other steeper ones like Sam's Ridge or Robertson Mountain.  The first mile or so climbs fairly gently - a pleasant walk through the woods along Hannah Run.  Then the trail turns away from the run and gets a little steeper, but still nothing outlandish.  We passed some interesting old farm terraces and chimneys along the way.  Then we turned a corner and the trail descended quickly back to the stream.  As we got closer to the bottom, we could see the trail on the other side of the stream.  It basically went straight up the side of the ridge.  It didn't take too long to get to the top of it, but it was definitely a thigh-burner.  I would say it is definitely steeper than Sam's Ridge, but the steep part isn't quite as long. 

Near the top of the ridge, we made a Boy Scout Leader very happy.  At the bottom of the Hannah Run Trail, something caught my eye and I found a compass, knife, whistle, a light, and some safety pins.  It looked like someone had everything fall out of their pocket.  We knew a Boy Scout Troop had gone up the Hannah Run Trail before us while we were at the waterfall, so we picked everything up, hoping that we would catch them.  When we had nearly reached the top of the ridge, we found them and asked if they had lost anything.  Their leader was very happy to get the contents of his lanyard back.

At the top of the ridge, we turned right on the Catlett Mountain Trail for a pleasant mile's walk to the Hazel Mountain Trail.  There were patches of snow on the ground from last week's storm and no leaves on the trees at that elevation.  We turned right again on the Hazel Mountain Trail and then again on the Hot Short Mountain Trail.  At a couple of spots on the way down, we had a nice view of the valley and Old Rag to the south.  Further down, we walked between two well-built stone walls from before the area was a park.  By the time we reached the Nicholson Hollow Trail again, the sun had gone behind the ridge, even though it was only 3:45.  We stopped a few more times to take pictures of the river and then finished the easy walk back to the car.  It was an incredibly nice, quiet fall day on trail.

Pictures (click to enlarge):

 Red and gold leaves on the Hannah Run Trail

Aster sp.  (Aster).  This one was not, apparently, bothered by last weekend's snow very much.

This shot does not even do justice to the steepest part of the Hannah Run Trail. 

 An old saw blade in front of a chimney.

One of the signposts along the way.

Maple leaves.

A maple leaf on the snow on the Catlett Mountain Trail.

Old Rag from the Hot Short Mountain Trail.

The lower part of the Hot Short Mountain Trail.

A small waterfall on the Hughes River

Our canine escort (a neighbor's dog that we took care of for the weekend).  She was very, very disappointed to not be allowed to chase a deer on the other side of the river.

Another view of the Hughes River.

The Old Rag parking lot at 4:30 p.m.  It was still 3/4 full and the neighbor's lot was nearly full.