Revisiting a Favorite Trail

Do you have a piece of music that you love, one that you can listen to over and over, and never tire of it?  I'm not talking about a short song, but something with some length and depth to it that makes you want to concentrate, listen, and immerse yourself in the piece?  Something like Beethoven's Sixth ("Pastoral") Symphony or Mozart's 20th Piano Concerto in D Minor, perhaps?  Well, that is kind of how it was for me yesterday, hiking the Doyle's River Falls - Jones Run Trail yet again in Shenandoah National Park.  No matter how often I hike this trail, I don't tire of it. There is always something to see.  It always is peaceful.  And when the water is really flowing, like it was here at Big Falls on Jones Run, it's even more spectacular.

I hiked with a group of 18 (plus 3 of the four-legged variety).  There are two possible tracks, one of 6.5 miles and one of 8.5 miles.  I did the latter, and the track is shown here, starting and ending at the yellow circle and hiking clockwise.  I've always hiked counter-clockwise before, and enjoyed the change.  There is close to 2,000 feet elevation loss and gain on this hike.  Most of the gain is the final 1,300 foot climb out of the bottom of the Jones Run valley.

Here is the group at the start of the hike.  You've heard of a "Three dog night?"  Well, this was a "three dog hike!"

The first part of the hike is the "green tunnel" of the Appalachian Trail.  It's amazing how much more green it is than even just over two weeks ago on my Powell Mountain hike.

Our big group split into two smaller groups.  A group of 8 (plus the three dogs) took the shorter option.  The other 10 of us, shown here (with me taking the photo), split off and took the longer track.  In a bit, we further divided into a group of 4 faster hikers and the other six of us.  I am never gonna to be caught hiking in the fast group.

There is only one view on the hike, looking to the east.  Here it is.

After some more hiking along the AT, we got on to the Doyle's River Falls Trail, and started descending to the river.  Then, the hits started coming:

Upper Doyle's River Falls:

My group taking a break and enjoying the upper falls.

The upper part of the Upper Doyle's River Falls.  See the rocky edge between the upper and lower portion?  A couple came from the left and tried to cross there - very risky on the slippery rocks.  The man made it okay, but his companion slipped and fell and was fortunate not to get hurt.  She assured us that she was fine.

Lower Doyle's River Falls...

Here is Randy, one of our hike leaders, at a beautiful chute coming out of some rocks in the Doyle's River.

Hiking towards Big Falls on the Jones River, there are two massive yellow poplars.  You can get an idea of their size from this photo with two of the group.

As we climbed, the Jones River got more and more lovely,

until we reached the spectacular Big Falls.

At the top of Big Falls, looking down into the chasm...

The hits just kept coming,

but eventually, we climbed out of the river zone and were nearly back to the cars.  Beer and food at Blue Mountain Brewery awaited us.

I try to make note of the wildlife encountered.  Our group saw a large snake, but it was scared away before I saw it.  The other group saw a box turtle.  And while it's not possible to do real birding while hiking with a group. I did take note of the following birds at the least (I'm sure I forgot some, and there were some that I couldn't identify): eastern wood-pewee, great crested flycatcher, red-eyed vireo, ovenbird, black-and-white warbler, hooded warbler, black-throated green warbler, northern parula, scarlet tanager, tufted titmouse, and Acadian flycatcher.

Thanks to Leslie and Randy for leading such a great hike.  This was my second time hiking with this group, and it won't be my last.