Petites Gap to James River on the AT - April 20, 2019

submitted by Barbara Martin

Thirteen hikers in two groups, one lead by Barbara Martin and the other by Michael Seth, enjoyed a beautiful hike from Petites Gap to the James River on April.  There had been warnings of rain, high winds and lower temperatures, but the hikers were blessed with gorgeous sunny weather the whole way. We had a short climb to Highcock Knob, enjoying a multitude of wildflowers.  But it wasn't just wildflowers. We saw incredible views then walked along a lovely stream with more wildflowers, coming out along the James River and crossing the famous James Footbridge to end our hike. Thank you to Susanna Williams, Brooks Fulton, Margaret Helber, Pam Heinrich, Lynn Hatch, Sharon Celsor-Hughes, John Brandt, Nancy Handley, Marian Stiles, Peggy B and  Penet Moss for making this hike memorable. Hats off to Michael Seth for assisting as second hike leader.

Massanutten Roaring Run - April 13, 2019

submitted by Michael Seth

Jeff Monroe, Mike Hammer, Barbara Martin, Nancy Handley, Iva Gillet, Peggy Byrd, Marian Styles and Mike Smith met hike leader Michael Seth at the Food Lion in Elkton at 10 am.  There were accompanied by two canines. The hike was supposed to be Crisman Hollow-Duncan Knob but a prescribed burn on Wednesday closed Crisman Hollow Road necessitating a last minute change to Roaring Run.  It was a nine mile hike. Four miles and 1800’ up the Roaring Run Trail, then five miles easy gradual downhill along the Massanutten Trail and Big Mountain Road.

In three cars we took the 20 minute drive to Catherine Furnace.  The three Mikes in the lead car, two with Iva and two with Jeff. Iva was the last car, then disappeared and miraculous appeared ahead of everyone (she took a shortcut). The weather was better than the forecast, with sunny skies in the morning and mostly cloudy in the afternoon, temperatures in the lower seventies.

After several people read the historical marker and admired the civil war era iron furnace we began our hike following the purple blazed Roaring Run Trail.  We had one challenging stream crossing at the beginning. There was no consensus as to the best place to cross but everyone somehow managed to make it with dry feet.  The trail was a bit muddy at first but as we ascended became drier. We were treated to some views to the east. We had lunch at the top. Mike Smith was busy identifying birds-pine warblers, a titmouse, while the others were eating and chatting. Everyone received a bag of nuts & M & Ms as an award for making it to the top.

After lunch it was almost all downhill. We walked along the Massanutten Trail which is just runs along a forest road, only the orange blazes suggest that it is a trail. The two dogs briefly became excited when a deer ran across.   Then we returned to our cars vis Big Mountain Road that runs along the cascading Cub Run. We found two copperheads in the road-both dead. Along the way we saw hepaticas, spring-beauties, yellow corydalis, star chickweed, common and bicolor birdsfoot violets, pussytoes, pennycrest, speedwells, rock cress, and a vast forest of horsetails.  Mike Hammer, Mike Seth, Marian, Iva, and Peggy briefly stopped at a shale barren noted for fossils. Marian seemed excited about finding one but after five minutes of turning over stones and not finding even a dinosaur footprint, she and the others gave up. Jeff and Barbara arrived at the cars first, followed by the failed fossil hunters and then Nancy and Mike Smith.

PATC Members and Volunteers - Helping in SNP and the Blue Ridge Parkway

The first ice storm occurred on November 14, shearing off tree tops and toppling hundreds, if not thousands of trees on the Blue Ridge Parkway/Jefferson National Forest and the Skyline Drive/Shenandoah National Park.  Shortly after, the federal government shutdown closed Shenandoah National Park for 6 weeks.  Then additional natural events, including the ice storm of  February 10, exacerbated the amount of debris littering the trails and roadways.  Park personnel have been working diligently to tackle the 900+ trees downed from Swift Run Gap to Rockfish Gap.  Private contractors and additional help from George Washington Parkway crews have worked for weeks and months to haul away branches and trees, and to remove broken limbs in the canopies.  And volunteers have put in countless hours to do their part - swamping branches, trees, and blow downs along the Appalachian Trail and the hundreds of side trails.  We thank all of the SNP and NFS personnel, private contractors, and the volunteers, many who are PATC trail overseers and members from the Charlottesville Chapter, Southern Shenandoah Valley Chapter, and beyond. To name a few of those volunteers that we are aware of: Jean Enzbrenner, Gary Flynn, Brooks Fulton, Margaret Helber, Jim Fye, Jeff Monroe, Lindsay Brown, Marit Anderson, Mark Perschel, Bill Holman, Mark Walkup, John Stacy, Barry Buschow, Stephanie Danahy, Lynn and Malcom Cameron, Lori Silvestri, Jean Stephens, Tom Engle, Don Blume, Richard Hottel, J. and B. Todd. It has been a long hard winter, but slowly the trails are improving. We hope the SNP southern section will be open soon!

The crew that cleaned up Wildcat Ridge Trail

Clearing the section from Blackrock Hut Parking Area on the AT to the Blacwater Hut Access Trail

Working with the Blue and White Trail Crew with crosscut saws on the Turk Mt. Summit Trail

Joining forces with the Southern Shenandoah Valley Chapter to remove debris from Pinefield Gap to Ivy Creek Overlook

Mark and Marit just got their SNP chainsaw certification, so they can now help saw in the park.  Yay!

submitted by Marit Anderson

Big Butt/Forge Mountain Loop - March 17, 2019

submitted by Jeff Monroe

A combined group of the RATC and PATC-Charlottesville Chapter met at the Goshen WMA parking lot to explore some of the trails few people see – south of Rt. 39 in the Goshen Wildlife Management area.  Jeff Monroe brought a crew from the north, including Jim Fye (who turned back early due to a foot issue), Ann Hays and John Brandt. RATC Hikers included Josiah Leonard, Jenny Steding, Wilma Vargas, co-lead Dave Horst, and co-lead Jeff Monroe.

The route took hikers over the summit of Forge Mountain to a fantastic overlook, then past a powerline cut and over Cooper’s Knob to a dirt road that was once the access road to a fire tower on the summit of Big Butt Mountain that no longer exists.  The group followed the road to the 3451 foot high Big Butt Mountain summit at 5.9 miles.

On the way back, the group followed a trail none of them had ever hiked, which turned out to basically be an occasionally blazed bushwhack.  They followed a steep slope down under the powerlines, then a brutal climb back up to Forge Mountain. From there, they retraced their steps to the parking area for a hike that totaled 12.8 miles with 4075 feet elevation gain.

Hike route details: http://www.wanderingvirginia.com/2019/03/forge-mountain-trail-goshen-wma.html

Massanutten Kaylor Knob Hike - March 9, 2019

submitted by Michael Seth

At 10 am Dan Ryan, Marie Moss, Anne Colgate, Lynn Hatch, Nancy Handley, Sharon Celsor-Hughes, Barbara Martin, Fabien Heinen (who drove from Pennsylvania to join us), Paul Boisen, John Brandt, hike leader Michael Seth and PATC-Charlottesville President Jeff Monroe met at the Food Lion Parking lot in Elkton and then headed for the Massanutten Resort (entrance is about a 5 minute drive).

The original plan for this hike was to do a 9 mile loop from Cub Run Road which included hiking 4 miles along an abandoned trail.  High streams during an attempted pre-hike required the implementation of Plan B -an 8 mile circuit on the Fridley Gap Trail not far away.  But on Saturday morning icy roads made this impossible so we went to Plan C- a hike to Kaylor Knob from inside the Massanutten Resort.

We drove up Del Webb Drive to the lookout at the top where Jim Fye met us.  Then we hiked 2.3 miles along the trail from the resort to Kaylor Knob, Jim acted as sweep.  Most of it was on a private trail open to the public. The hike leader explained it was an easy ridge walk with good views east and west.  The credibility of both statements were shortly challenged. After a few minutes, where another trail forks off to the left, a sign warned that the Kaylor Knob trail was “extremely difficult.”  The hike leader explained that this was to scare non hikers from the park and can be ignored. And there was no views due to the thick fog. But he trees and bushes were covered by the previous day’s snow and it was quite pretty.

We had lunch at Kaylor knob.  Unfortunately the view had to be imagined in since it was still foggy.  Then we walked the 1.8 mile Second Mountain Trail to Boones Run. This is the trail Michael Seth is supposed to maintain and that Paul Boisen the PATC District Manager for South Massanutten is supposed to see that he does.  Several people joined Jim including Paul, Jeff, Dan and John as he crossed Boones Run and walked the quarter mile to Boones Run Shelter. Others elected to turn around at the stream. Ann Colgate led the way back up- a good 1200 ascent.  On the way several of the sharped eyed hikers Lynn and Sharon spotted the old CCC marker on the trail.

We returned to our cars around 4:00.  By this that time the fog had mostly lifted and there were some nice views.