Let's Do This!
Yesterday I talked Shira into tackling an 11 mile hike
in Shenandoah. Between the hot weather and crowds, we wanted an
early start. Which meant that we left DC at 4:00am.
By 6:15am we'd arrived at Bootens Gap, the trail head, and already
seen countless deer and a family of turkeys (I assume the big ones were mommy, daddy
and the small ones were kids). The sun rose as we drove into the park and
we were feeling good. It was looking like we'd get in an epic hike
and still be back in DC by the late afternoon to run some
errands.
The route
(thanks HikingUpward!) called for us to cover
Cat Knob Trail, Jones Mountain Trail, Staunton River
Trail, Fork Mountain Trail and start and finish on the the Laurel
Prong Trail and a short section of the AT. Along the way we were
promised one view and a visit to a radio tower.
They're Not Problems, They're Opportunities
About 5 minutes into the trail we ran into, and solved, two
problems.
First, I immediately noticed a hot-spot my left heel. I tried to
tell myself that the rubbing would go away and soon I'd feel better,
but I knew that was a lie. In a few miles, the hot spot would be a
blister and for hours I'd be miserable. I stopped, applied a 1 inch
length of Leuko Tape over the blister and we were on our way. The
blister, incidentally, was due not to hiking gear but to the fact
that I'd walk to shul in fancy shoes the day before. And of course,
I haven't worn dress shoes in over a year. Curse you covid!
The Leuko Tape was like magic. One tiny strip kept me pain free the
entire hike. Long distance hikers / runners preach the value of
Leuko Tape and I've dispensed it to others before. But I think this
may be the first blister of my own that I've treated. Wow, this
stuff works.
The second gotcha was one that we'd struggled with on our last long
hike and apparently forgotten about. Shira
wanted quick access to the paper map, her phone (which has the digital
map) and trekking polls at the same time. The issue: she had no
pockets (curse women's pants!). On our last hike I
promised I'd set her up with a fanny pack (which are all the rage in
the backpacking
world), but quickly forgot that promise.
As a field expedient solution I emptied out a 1 quart Ziplock bag and attached the 3ft piece of
cordage I carry on my keychain to it. The result was a sort of neck
wallet thing that dangled from her bag's sternum strap. It held
the map and her phone perfectly and provided
easy access throughout the hike. She was quickly sold
on the solution and declared it more functional than a fanny
pack. By the end of the hike I started brainstorming about how I
could craft a more robust version, but she insisted that
she likes the Ziplock bag and string solution.
Let's Hike
We made our way through the first half of the hike without
incident. I found plenty of interesting plants to photograph and
review later for identification, as well as the usual
millipedes, ladybugs and caterpillars to stop and gawk at. We saw
some crazy fungi, including the the spooky looking ghost
pipe and what appeared to be chicken
of the woods (yum!).
The view at
Bear Church Rock didn't disappoint. Perhaps most importantly, the
day was hot and sunny but nearly all the hike was under cover, which made
it far more comfortable.
We saw signs that we missed mountain laurel and pink lady slipper blooming,
and we were too early for the
raspberries. Had we hit any of these at peek bloom
I would no doubt be raving as to how amazing this trail was.
We had solitude for most of the trail, seeing 3
or 4 groups of people the entire time. The quiet was nice, but no doubt contributed
to the overgrowth of the trail. This wouldn't normally be a
problem, but for some sections the overgrowth was made up of stinging nettle.
There was one section in particular when we found ourselves
walking through a trail that was getting choked out by waist high
stinging nettle. Ouch.
By the time we hit the Stauton River Trail, we knew that we'd have
to walk considerably longer than the 11 miles promised in the trail
description. Part of this was because we added an extra section
of the Cat Knob trail, but even with this addition we think the
distance of the route
is off.
My eyeballing of the map suggested the side trip to the radio tower
be a quick one. Of course I
was wrong. For nearly a mile we trudged up steep, rocky and
unstable ground in hot sun.
At the top, we found not just one radio tower, but a collection of
them. If you're a fan of radio towers (and who is?) this may be
exciting. For everyone else, this was probably more of a "so what?"
moment. Behind one of the radio towers there was a large boulder
which offered a nice view. Was this view worth the slog up and
knee busting walk down back to the trail head? Depends who you
ask. Me: heck yeah! Shira: are you kidding me? No.
Compared to the radio tower slog, the rest of the hike went by with
relative ease. Again, I misread the map bracing myself for a massive
uphill at the end, only to find that, yes the trail climbed back up
to the ridge but it wasn't brutal.
One Last Surprise
As we finished the last .5 mile on the AT, I started to think about
this blog post. Specially, about the wildlife we'd seen this
trip. Sure, we saw the deer and turkey in the morning, but other
than that, we hadn't seen much (not that millipedes and lady bugs
aren't special). As we rounded the corner, 500 feet from our car,
Shira stopped me: snake! Sure enough, overflowing onto the trail
was a big, black snake.
The first order of business was to get pics. Which I'm glad to
report I did. And then we had to consider how we were going to get past
this guy. By then, another couple had walked up behind us and we
discussed our options. Our talking alone didn't scare the snake
off, so we made more noise. That finally seemed to do the trick and
the snake started to slither back into the bushes. And when he did
we all heard the distinct rattle. In no great hurry, Mr. snake
retreated part-way into the undergrowth, where I could plainly see
his rattle. After a few more moments, he slithered a bit further
away from the trail and we made a break for it.
The Shenandoah
NPS website reports that there are 16 species of non-venomous
snakes and two species of venomous snakes in the park. The venomous include the copperhead and
timber rattlesnake. If the rattling sound and visible confirmation
of the rattle weren't enough, Google
Lens piled on with its assessment: we clearly encountered a timber rattlesnake.
Shira and I have seen plenty of snakes before, but this is our first
rattle snack and first venomous variety. This as an especially
interesting find because timber
rattlesnakes are a State endangered species.
This was a remarkably cool way to close out an outstanding day of
hiking.
The Final Take
In the end, we covered 15.1 miles with a total elevation gain of
3,822 feet. I consider the extra mileage a nice bonus, Shira thinks
this is a case of false advertising. Either way, it was one epic day
of hiking.
Overall the trail was pleasant, well marked, well shaded and had quality water sources. The
stinging nettle overgrowth was annoying, and for Shira was enough of
a reason to
avoid this hike. While I'm more positive about the trail, even I
I can't categorize this as a must-do tail. But that's more a measure of how spoiled we are
in Shenandoah, which offers countless trails to explore.
