This hike loops around the entire G. Richard Thompson Wildlife
Management Area and is one of our favorites in the winter months. Almost
8 miles in length and with an elevation remaining under 2,200
feet, you can still have a great hike when the daylight hours
are shorter.
NOTE: This area
is very popular during hunting
season, so make sure you wear some blaze
orange if you are hiking anytime from late November to the
end of January.
If you do this hike in nice weather a great way to top this hike off is to stop for lunch at Maxwell's Pub in Middleburg on the way back and grab a seat on their outdoor deck, which is dog friendly.
Start by walking up the dirt road to Lake
Thompson. Turn right
walking beside the lake and then veer right
uphill. You
will run into several large blow downs from tropical
storm Camille obstructing the trails.
Continue straight (which now becomes the AT) for 1.2 mile
where the trail branches,
stay left on the white blazed AT until crossing
the Lake Trail in another .3 miles.
Turn left on the VST (the AT is part of this)
and in 70 yards the AT will turn to your
right. Continue
straight on the VST for 1.2 miles as it winds
around Wildcat Hollow before passing some
ruins and a small trail on your
left. Continue straight
on the VST for another .7 miles where it reaches a small
shed and intersects a dirt road.
Turn right on the dirt road for .1 miles until the road
branches, veer left as you continue downhill for another
.9 miles. This section of the trail runs
alongside a fence and private property as it descends the
mountain.
A trail will intersect
from the left (private property with a red barn on your
right). Turn left downhill for 100 yards. Then turn right at
the four way trail junction.
In 150 yards, you will arrive back at
Thompson Lake. Continue straight back to the parking lot.
Interactive Hike Map BelowPrintable
Topo Hike Map (PDF) Hike route in Drag the map with your mouse using the icon Zoom with the controls on the left Click the icons in the map below for location shots
Calculate roughly how many calories you could burn on the GRT Wildlife Management Area hike:
=
Hiker
Reviews For The GRT Wildlife Management Area Hike (5 Most Recent)
My wife, 7-year-old son and I hike this route this weekend.
The Trilliums were impressive this past weekend. The forest floor, near the Upper Ted Lake parking area, was covered with them. The wild redbuds in bloom were impressive as well.
A thunderstorm rolled in over the mountain around 3:00PM. By luck we were less than 1/10 of a mile from the Manassas Gap Shelter on the A.T at the time when the worst of rain hit. We darted down the path to the shelter and found 13 other hikers at the shelter waiting out the storm. The 3 of us made 16 folks cramped into the shelter.
God bless the good people of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club for mainting these shelters. Although crowded, it was a great place to wait for the storm to pass. All of the hikers were very generous in sharing food, drink and stories. A group of 7 hikers from South Korea entertained all of us with music, including one who was hiking with his guitar in tow.
By:
Rating:
Date of Hike: Thursday, February 28, 2008
I had taken this hike with my wife and daughter in November 2006 and had a hard time finding the way. The first mistake was second guessing the Stone Wall Trail. There were so many downed trees and no sign that I thought it could not be the right way so we continued to walk on the Lake Trail until we came to the AT. The second problem was a new logging road. I was uncertain of the way until we saw the metal shed.
Last Thursday my wife Terri and I and two friends, Herb and Mary, parked one car at the parking lot below the lake then the four of us road to a parking lot near route 50 and started walking south on the AT. I made an extra effort to look for the Stone Wall Trail as it intersects the AT and I think I know where it is but it was not cleared, no signs, and I was not sure. This was our first early out to walk down to the lake and to the car. We continued to walk on the AT and we soon came to the intersection of the Lake Trail. We again elected to continue south and pick up this loop trail. I was shocked to see the trail was still unmarked.
After hiking this two times here is what I think you need to know to find your way. When you come to the logging road (This is the second dirt road on the AT) turn left and stay on it to the clear cut area with a great view. Walk straight towards a tree with blue paint then go slightly right down hill for about 100 yards then turn left on an unmarked trail. Ignor the blue painted trees. I think they are just survey lines. This trail will come to a dry steam bed that is the trail for about 100 feet. You will soon see the ruins of a small water dam? on the right then the metal shed on the left where there is a new great!! view to the east.
Also note the red barn where you turn left is now white?
This hike has a lot of character and solitude if its not hunting season. I am going to see if I can volunteer to care for and mark these trails.
By:
Rating:
Date of Hike: Sunday, February 24, 2008
We had a beautiful winter day to hike this trail. All in all it was a great trail, but our hike was somewhat spoiled by getting lost a few times. We've done about five of the recommended hikes so far, and this was the first time we had trouble following the directions. We ended up coming out of the woods onto a fairly busy road that according to a local is the AT for a while. We had to catch back up with the trail by some radio towers which we were lucky to find. I don't know if we missed a turn or if this was what we were supposed to do. Then it got worse where the loggers have been through and we saw another gentleman and both of us had a very difficult time finding the entrance to the trail. For approximately 2 miles we didn't know if we were even on the right trail. At the very end we wound up on the road again to hike the last quarter mile. It would have been a great hike except for the constant confusion.
By:
Rating:
Date of Hike: Sunday, February 24, 2008
We got a late start (12:00) and stayed on the Lake trail to where it intersects the AT to shave off a little mileage. This was a long steep slog, a couple of downed trees that were easy to get around, but as we were preparing for a multi-day trek in a few weeks we had fairly heavy backpacks and the uphill was brutal. The AT was pretty with patches of snow, but the trail overall is not very scenic. We likewise lost the trail at the logged area and attempted to pick it up by following blue blazes which led us through the tangled trees in a miserable circle. Unable to find the trail we were forced to return the way we came, which made for a 15 mile, 8 hour hike with the last two miles after dark. I think that HU should consider removing this hike from the site until it can be done reliably using only the maps and directions given here.
By:
Rating:
Date of Hike: Saturday, February 02, 2008
This was an okay hike, and I agree with everyone that it's pretty much just a walk through the woods, with no big views or scenery. One plus when we hiked was that there had been a big ice storm the day before and all the trees were coated in ice. It was eerily beautiful, that is until the sun broke through the clouds and ice chunks began raining down, but that was our fault in planning, not a problem with the hike.
The logging down near the southwestern boundaries of the hike was pretty unattractive. What I assume were heavy vehicles chewed up the dirt over a portion of the trail. This coupled with the wet weather the day before created one big mud pit for about 0.5 mile.
I will warn anyone against following the GPX file linked above too closely. Many of the waypoints are not within 200 ft of the trail. With some others they're so far off I believed we were hiking on the wrong trail. As far as I can tell we followed the written directions, and our experience matched up with the map above, but the route in the GPX file is way off in my opinion.
From HikingUpward.com: John thanks for the info on the inaccurate .gpx file, and also for the update version you provided. Both the .gdb and .gpx files here have been corrected.
icon 
After hiking this two times here is what I think you need to know to find your way. When you come to the logging road (This is the second dirt road on the AT) turn left and stay on it to the clear cut area with a great view. Walk straight towards a tree with blue paint then go slightly right down hill for about 100 yards then turn left on an unmarked trail. Ignor the blue painted trees. I think they are just survey lines. This trail will come to a dry steam bed that is the trail for about 100 feet. You will soon see the ruins of a small water dam? on the right then the metal shed on the left where there is a new great!! view to the east. 
