Final 2020 Shenandoah Hikes

 I thought I'd share a little about a few mountain hikes to wrap up the year.  The first of these I had already written a little about with my journal entry about the "Lazarus Woodpeckers."  This hike was on November 21 at the Corbin Cabin Loop in the Central Part of Shenandoah National Park, which is only about 4 miles but with over 1,200 feet of elevation descent and ascent.  It goes down steeply from the Skyline Drive to the Hughes River.  You cross the river, go by the cabin, and then ascend continually back to the Skyline Drive.  The last little bit back to the car is along the Appalachian Trail.

With COVID pandemic, people are flocking to the outdoors.  This hike is not even that popular, yet look at the trailhead parking.  I had tried to do this as a last minute group hike, but no one else wanted to go.  Good thing, because I was challenged to find a spot for just my car.  With the pandemic, we no longer car pool on hikes.

It was at this spot that I saw the "dead" woodpeckers that I had posted about.  The cabin had a couple camping out there, and they had a smoky fire going.  It would be fun to do sometime with a group, post-pandemic.

This is a view up the Hughes River as I was crossing it.

On the hike back up, I had a decent view of Stony Man, where I have hiked to a couple of times, mostly with the Road Scholar hiking groups that I led in 2019.

Life in incredible.  This lichen, a combination of at least three living things that can only survive together, just lives its life and survives in all weather conditions, oblivious to all of humankind's political strife and so forth.

My next two hikes were on December 2.  The first of these was with a group, and we hiked a pretty new trail, the Blue Ridge Tunnel Trail.  This trail goes along a former railway line through a nearly mile long tunnel built in the mid-19th century by impoverished Irish immigrants who were fleeing the Potato Famine.  Many of them died doing this difficult, backbreaking, and dangerous work.  The hike is an out and back, and totals about 4.5 miles.  It's mostly flat, with one long climb at the end before turning around and repeating it.

Here is the approach to the tunnel.  There is an active railway line to the left, so a high fence keeps people away from it.

Nearing the tunnel entrance:

In the tunnel.  It's almost pitch black inside, but I was able to mostly walk without a light because the floor is (mostly) level and rut-free.

The light at the end of the tunnel.

 There are several interpretive signs along this hike with interesting information about the history of the tunnel and its construction.  A nearby town, Crozet, is named after the engineer who designed it.

Near an entrance, water cascades down the rocks.

Here is a shot of returning to the tunnel entrance where we started.

After leaving the group at the conclusion to this hike, I drove into nearby Shenandoah National Park, drove to Beagles Gap, and hiked the Bear Den Fire Road.  I had hiked most of it a couple of years ago, but had a final four tenths of a mile to hike.  It was cold and windy with some ice patches along the way.  I took a tumble and landed on my butt when I slipped on one of them near the start of the hike. The hike is about 1.8 miles long with 950 feet of descent.  It goes through rugged mountain terrain.

The reason that I hadn't finished this trail when I hiked it before was because of two stream crossings.  I had not wanted to soak my boots.  This time, I brought my river shoes, although the cold water in December was miserable as I crossed the stream twice going down and twice coming back.

At the end of the trail, one reaches the park boundary and turns back for the 1.8 mile, 950 foot climb back to Beagle Gap.

After crossing the cold streams, I dried my feet with my fleece, put my boots on, and hiked back along the fire road.

Here is a view of the Shenandoah Valley from Beagles Gap.  It was cold and windy.  I ate my peanut butter sandwich in the car and starting drinking my piping hot mug of tea before heading for home after getting in two great hikes.

I did hike in the mountains one last time in 2020 after these hikes.  But this post is long enough, so I will write separately about that fun hike past the Black Rocks.

Richmond Slave Trail

Last Tuesday (April 9), I joined the group for the Old Dominion AT Club for another walk downtown, this time to cover part of the Richmond Slave Trail.  For a description of the entire trail, go to this older blog post.

For this hike, we focused on the part of the trail along the James River.  By the way, the expression "sold down the river?"  The river is the James, and the place was here.  Human beings in Virginia were sold by their owners to plantations way down south for many reasons - to earn a quick buck, because they were no longer needed, to get rid of a child of the plantation owner - along with their mother - to punish someone who was not fully cooperating.  Hard to believe, but all true.

Here is our track, about 5.4 miles.  To do the route, we did part of the same trail twice, more or less.  We started and ended at the circle (left) and followed the direction indicated by the arrows - across the Potterfield Bridge, down the Canal Walk, across the Mayo Bridge, down the Slave Trail to the site of the Manchester Docks, reversing this section a bit closer to the river, and back to the start on the Flood Wall Trail.

Here are some pictures from the hike:

Richmond from the Potterfield Bridge:

Black vultures - we saw dozens of these large birds - on a rocky island in the river.

Much of the trail is urban, but this part was more of a path through woods.

Virginia bluebells.

View of the city from the Flood Wall trail, on which we hiked to get back to the starting point.

History is fascinating to me.  In this case, it is also tragic and awful.  The terrible events that the Richmond Slave Trail remembers actually happened, right here in the Land of the Free.  Best that we not forget about it.

Noland Trail

On March 18, two days after my latest hike into the Great Dismal Swamp, I led another trail club hike around Lake Maury in Newport News on the 5 mile Noland Trail.  Afterwords, we spent a couple of hours in the outstanding maritime museum there.  I recommend both of these highly.  Only two of us went.  I guess my hike description wasn't appealing enough.  But the two of us enjoyed the day to be sure!  And since we had both been on the Dismal Swamp hike, we kept our eyes pealed for green bears!

Here is a track of the hike, which we did in a clockwise direction.  The starting (and ending) point is at the Maritime Museum, which is indicated by the circle.  We had water views nearly half of the time.

The trail is extremely well maintained, and a pleasure to walk on.

Early in the hike, there is a good view back to the museum, and to the exact replica (on the outside) of the famous Civil War ironclad warship, the U.S.S. Monitor.

Here is an aerial view (arrow) of the Monitor replica.  The museum has an excellent exhibit on the Monitor and its famous foe, the C.S.S. Virginia (AKA Merrimack).

The path winds through forests,

over bridges,

and past lake shores.

At the halfway point, roughly, the bridge is guarded by four large lions.

Jeff and I weren't the only ones enjoying the decent spring weather.

By mid-March, spring is well underway in southeastern Virginia.

In the museum, I focused on the parts of the Monitor exhibition that I had not gotten to on my last visit.  It is amazing that they have recovered so many artifacts from the ship's graveyard off of Cape Hatteras, N.C. - including it's anchor:

Propeller:

and gun turret (shown here upside down in a tank where it is being treated for several decades before it can be put on display.)

The Monitor was perhaps the most revolutionary ship in military history, and probably the most revered - other than perhaps the U.S.S. Constitution - to US Navy vets.  I am glad that they have found its remains and are conserving many of the artifacts.

Where else can you get a hike and a visit to a world-class museum for a buck?  Yes, the Maritime Museum only costs a dollar admission.  It was a most enjoyable day of nature and history!

Cold Harbor Battlefield

A couple of days after the hike on the Virginia Capital Trail, the same group did a short 4 mile hike at the Cold Harbor Battlefield.  I've hiked there many times, and hesitated to publish another account, but decided to since it was with a group.  This hike was on October 31.

Cold Harbor was the scene of a horrific 12 day battle in June 1864.  It is a peaceable place now, and makes for a wonderful place to walk and commune with nature.  Here are a few photos from the hike.

We had a pretty good sized group, about 20 people, on the hike.  Here, a few of the group walk past an artillery piece.

At the time of the battle, most of the land was open like this.  Thousands of US soldiers attacked very well defended Confederate positions.  In one such attack, there were something like 7,000 Union casualties in about 20 minutes.

We stopped at about 10 historical markers that gave an account of the battle.  One of the group would read the placard to the rest of the group.  Here, a bridge was built to span original trench lines in an attempt to preserve them.

What was a bloody and terrible place in 1864 is now peaceful and serene, with natural beauty.  Most of the land is heavily forested.

There was a little pond along the way.  On prior walks, I saw lots of frogs here.

After the hike, I walked about a half mile to the national cemetery.  The men buried here, mostly dead soldiers killed in the battle and often unidentified, gave their lives for their country a long way from home.  It is important to remember their suffering and sacrifice.

You Can Have Mar a Lago - I'll Take This Presidential Retreat Any Time!

The president, a very wealthy individual, was very well known to Americans and others well before being elected, and was regarded as a hugely successful business man.  He was swept into office with high hopes of things to come, but his administration soured rather quickly.  He was hounded and vilified by the press, became very unpopular, and needed a place to escape from the politics and heat of Washington.  He especially wanted to get away from the press and pursue the personal things that he took pleasure in as a respite from the demands of the presidency.  So he would go to his personal retreat as often as he could.

Are we talking President Trump, Mar a Lago, and golfing outings?  No, we are talking about President Herbert Hoover, Rapidan Camp, and fishing, hiking, and conversations with friends up in the mountains of Virginia.  President Hoover and First Lady Lou Hoover wanted a rural retreat that was (1) close enough to Washington, DC for weekend retreats (2) above 2,000 feet elevation to reduce mosquito populations and have cool summer nights and (3) near good trout fishing.  Rapidan Camp, now often called Camp Hoover, fit the bill precisely.  It is where Mill Prong and Laurel Prong flow together to form the Rapidan River, and is a beautiful spot.  And yesterday, on a lovely day in the mountains, I led a group of eight from the Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club on a 8.1 mile circuit hike there.  When Shenandoah National Park was created, the President and First Lady donated the camp and their land to the National Park Service.

This hike is right smack in the middle of the park, our trailhead being at mile 52.8 of the 105 mile long Skyline Drive.  Here is the track from the hike, captured by my Garmin inReach.  The orange arrow is the trailhead at Milam Gap, the purple arrow represents the counter-clockwise direction of travel, and the red arrow is the location of Camp Hoover (and our lunch break).  If you do the hike in this direction and start in the morning, you will end up at the camp at lunchtime and have less than two miles (uphill) to return to your car.

The first part of the hike is a mellow walk down the Appalachian Trail over Hazeltop, the third highest point in the park.  After that, one leaves the AT to hike the rest of the circuit on the Jones Mountain, Laurel Prong, and Mill Prong Trails.  Here is our merry group of eight about half way into the hike.

The woods along the way are thick and provide a cool shade.  We didn't encounter wildlife, unless you consider the dozen or so AT through hikers heading north to Mount Katahdin in Northern Maine.  We did hear numerous birds, including wood thrush, hooded warbler, eastern wood pewee, downy woodpecker, and eastern towhee.  It was close to 99 back in Richmond, but I don't think it got above the low 80's in the mountains.  Nearly 90 years later, the Hoovers' beloved spot still works its healing magic.  Maybe the current president should visit, eh?

When I was last here in April a year ago, there were lots of wildflowers.  On this hike, there were not as many but we did see some, like this Turk's cap, and columbine.

After hiking about 6 miles, we got to the camp about 11:40, and half of the deck was in the shade.  We ate lunch sitting in chairs in the shade while listening to the twin streams entwining to form the Rapidan.  The president loved to fish and must have spent many blissful hours here.  They also loved to entertain company and engage in spirited conversations, and became active in charitable causes that benefited the local people, who were generally quite poor.

One of the real attractions of this hike is the historic buildings, and the fact that the President actually did work while he was here.  Several of the building still stand, including the Hoovers' residence, called the "Brown House:"

and the "Prime Minister's Cabin," where the Prime Minister of Great Britain once stayed during naval armament negotiations.

You can go into the Prime Minister's Cabin and see the displays.

I can only imagine how it must have felt to come up here and escape the pressures of the job.  The Press Corps were not allowed near the place and had to stay miles away.  The babbling streams are peaceful and soothing to the ears, eyes, and brain,

and to the feet.

On the hike out, there is a beautiful little waterfall and pool.  It was very tempting to go in there for a cool dip, but we decided to save that for a future hike.

After the hike, six of us went to the Big Meadows Wayside for a bit.  It was too tempting to not get the blackberry milkshake, so I did enjoy one.  We watched happy thru-hikers, sans packs, munching down on burgers, fries, and drinks.

We didn't really see wildlife on the hike to speak of, but on the drive out, we did spot this doe and her fawn along the Skyline Drive.

I really enjoyed this hike with a fine group of fellow hikers, and look forward to another one.  I am glad that the president and his wife enjoyed this little peace of heaven while they could, and am appreciative that we, the people can also enjoy it for as long as there is a United States.  Although this is not a political blog, I will leave us with some words of wisdom from the former president that we would each do well to reflect on: