We collected at 9AM in sub-freezing weather expecting to find maybe 5 or 6 hearty souls up for a cold hike. Surprisingly, there were 16 of us at the high school meetup spot. Included in the total were dual hike leaders Iva Gillet and Jeff Monroe, as Iva had been pushing Jeff to quit talking so much about great hikes and start leading a few. Iva brought a few folks from the Outdoor Social Adventure Club, Megan McFadden and Steve Cohen. Dan Ralston brought his daughter Anne, who is preparing for a marathon, while finishing up her Ph.D. work with an internship in Charlottesville. Others included hike leaders Ken Moss, John Shannon, Andy Willgruber (who recently ascended to hike leader), and regular hikers Don Davis, Bill Holman, Dan Funkhouser, Liz Lyons, Rita Kieffer, Joanne Davis, and Dave Borszich.
Not on the list was Nancy Hall, due to meet the group at the top of the mountain, and Bryce Allison, who is one of the guys behind the best Virginia hiking website in existence: hikingupward.com. Bryce had asked online about hikes out near Harrisonburg that would be new ones for him, and we were excited to have him join us.
We stopped in Churchville so some folks could get provisions, then pulled into the trailhead parking lot at the exactly 10:30. After some quick introductions, we hit the trail. The trail starts through a beautiful ravine with healthy hemlock and large white oak. There were multiple stream crossings over water that had swelled due to rains earlier in the week, creating quite a challenge for those with shorter legs, though no one’s feet got wet.
About a mile into the hike, though, the trail left the ravine and started up the mountain slope at an amazingly consistent rate of 16%. We topped one ridge, walked along it, then traversed the western slope of the mountain (marveling at views of Shenandoah Mountain and the Deerfield Valley) until we reached Coalpit Knob and another ridge. After leveling out for a while, the trail soon had us back on a 16% grade until we reached the top of the mountain and the end of the trail. The trail's consistent climb had to be by design, and the trail was very nicely built and well maintained. There were very few blowdowns and there was evidence that some folks had taken saws to several large trees that once blocked the trail.
At the top of the mountain we all settled in for lunch. There was the usual sharing of food- pumpkin bread and molasses cookies, and chocolate. Due to the cold temperatures, we did not linger long at lunch. Bryce bid us farewell as he had to be back at JMU for his daughter's music performance, and not 5 minutes later we saw Nancy coming up the trail from the opposite side of the mountain, via the Crawford Knob Trail. We decided to go back the way we came rather than using Nancy's car for a shuttle, as the Crawford Knob trail she reported to be very rough, so we headed back down the mountain with Nancy after promising her we would give her a lift back to her car. Bryce later put several very nice photos of the hike on Hiking Upward's Facebook site for all to see. John Shannon had a brief period of fright when he realized his trusty GPS was missing. As with other technology lovers in our group, he was eager to retrieve the valuable devise, and fortunately was able to reclaim it without an extensive search in the cold temperatures.
The hike started out at an elevation of 1945 feet at the parking lot and rose to 3855 feet at our lunch spot. It lasted a hair over 4 hours including about an hour for stops, and was 7.5 miles long. It was the perfect length for a cold winter day with enough climbing to keep us warm. We enjoyed the lovely views which winter provides and the chance to stretch our legs with new and old friends.
Eric Bredo says the GPS needs John more than John needs the GPS.
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