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| By:
IanMTB
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Rating:  |
Date of Hike: Sunday, June 20, 2010 |
Though it was challenging, my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed this hike. The payoff at the top was well worth it. The rocky overlook is a great place to have lunch, relax and take in the great views. We did not encounter a single soul on this hike other than two turkeys and three bears (one along Skyline, one at the overlook where we parked, and one on our return ascent).
The climbs are long, steep and frequent. We were dog tired and completely satisfied at the end - that's why we do this, right? Eat well before the hike, bring plenty of water, and enjoy!
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| By:
J. Davidson
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Date of Hike: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 |
| A nice hike, but I question the ratings on Difficulty and Views. I had hiked Buzzard Hill twice the previous week and found it to be more difficult, but it is rated lower. One fairly nice view from near the top, but not as nice as the view from the lookout where I parked. I imagine the views are quite nice in late fall and in winter.
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| By:
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Rating: |
Date of Hike: Sunday, May 31, 2009 |
| Three weeks ago strong winds wrecked our car camping trip, depositing first our picnic canopy and then our 10X10 Kelty tent upside down into the woods behind our campsite. Wisely MRSHyker and I bailed out w/o doing the scheduled hike but returned three weeks later for a do over. We had severe thunder storms the night before but the hike day was pretty nice although the initial high humidity made the views a bit hazy and the climbs a little harder. P-Hyker and I were on the trail before 9:00. Although the views are probably cleared in the winter, during this time of the year the Mountain Laurel is in its prime. There has to be a near perpetual tunnel of them for 1.5 out of the 2.2 mile out-and-back part of the circuit. My personal preference is to hike "up" streams whenever possible so we did the loop portion in the opposite direction as described here. Since P-Hyker (our dog) was with me we didn't climb up on the cliffs for the real spectactular views but still caught a nice panorama of the surrounding mountains and the Shenandoah valley. We caught some more views during our descent to Gap Run. I made the first crossing w/o getting my boots wet. P-Hyker didn't mind and really enjoyed laying in the cool water at every crossing. As a matter of fact She seemed to want to walk up or down the stream instead of the trail. Since I didn't bring my trekking poles I elected to just wade across the rest of the crossings for safety sake. I learned how to be happy hiking in wet boots a long time ago. Most of them were over my boot tops anyway. At one point we lost the trail at stream's edge. It was flooded by higher than usual water levels. The final climb out of the drainage was pretty steep but short. After a recovery break at the Rocky Mount Trail junction and another more gradual climb we finished the hike with a nice casual stroll back through the Mountain Laurel tunnels. The steaks and wine tasted exceptionally good that night. As of this last trip I can say that I've hiked every hike (save 2 nature hikes) in the PATC "Circuit Hikes in Shenandoah National Park" plus several of my own design. It's time to find some other unexplored hiking adventures!
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| By:
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Date of Hike: Monday, May 04, 2009 |
| We left out on the trail head in the rain and fog, asking ourselves if we were foolish or brave! . All the great views were obstructed by fog, but the red eft newts and wildflowers seemed to love the rain. I was sure glad for my frogg toggs! Gap Run was swollen, and the crossings were challenging in places, but we managed to not fall in. Our camping spot on the gap run lulled us to sleep and provided beautiful scenery for our cup of morning joe. There were some steep climbs and I am glad we decided to make it a 2 day hike. We averaged about 50 minuets a mile. Towhee popped his hiking cherry, and is looking forward to his next trip out. We had a great time walking through the clouds!
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| By:
Mary and Mabel
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Rating: |
Date of Hike: Friday, July 18, 2008 |
This is one of the good circuit hikes in the Southern Section. I saw a timber rattler by the creek. Fortunately it had just eaten and was sluggish! Two weeks ago I saw another timber rattler on Trayfoot (I don't know why this hike isn't in the list of SNP hikes) that one rattled at me.
Heard on bear but the underbrush was too thick to see.
I am glad I took plenty of water because it was a hot day, but a fun hike.
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| By:
Chris
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Date of Hike: Monday, October 22, 2007 |
This was a fantastic hike. I didn't see a single person on the trial all day, probably because it was a weekday. I do wish that I had realized that this was going to be a considerably strenuous hike before I left, however. I completed the hike in just over 5 hours but ended up sleeping the entire next day because of it.
As far as difficulty goes, this one is probably about 20 - 30% more so than Old Rag, depending on how much time you allot yourself.
I definitely recommend camping on the little creek that runs through the far end of the circuit.
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| By:
ironmanjt
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Rating: |
Date of Hike: Saturday, April 21, 2007 |
| Perfect day in the area. As far as solitude goes, we didn't see a single person on the entire hike. Considering this was the first really nice day of the spring, I think that says alot about this hike. The climb up Rocky Mount about halfway through the hike is quite difficult, gaining around 1800 feet in under two miles. I didn't think the views lived up to the '4' billing, but were close. I'm also not sure how streams got a '1' as there were several (admittedly small) streams that had to be crossed - but easy to do so on the rocks without getting wet. I'll definitely return to this one.
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| By:
clenore
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Date of Hike: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 |
| I've done this one a couple of times now. If you want a hike with lots of variety, lots of wildlife, and no other hikers, this is a great loop. It's not really all that hard, and if you want to make it an overnight, the Gap Run campsite is nice. There's water in Gap Run even during drought, so you don't have to carry a lot of it in. The views from the white rock cliffs at the top are good, and it's a lunch spot you won't have to share with anyone--unlike Blackrock, Old Rag, and such. If you spend the night, do hang your food properly. I saw three bears the first time I hiked the loop, and you can see where they've turned up big rocks all over the place looking for grubs. I've also heard that the rangers put 'bear baits' of some sort in the area a while back to get a population count. I've heard bobcats along the Gap Run trail, too.
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| By:
Travis
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Rating: |
Date of Hike: Sunday, April 10, 1910 |
| This is now one of my favorite hikes in the southern part of the park. The ratings provided for this hike seem pretty accurate - I did the hike using the provided directions. The weather for the day was sunny and fairly calm with a slight breeze - absolutely beautiful. I departed Skyline Drive at 8:30am with the temperature at 42° and arrived back at my car at 1:30pm with the temperature at 58° per my car's thermometer. That five hours broke down into approximately four hours of trail time with about an hour's worth of breaks. I would definitely recommend doing this hike on a cool day if possible as the most strenuous sections are dry and some sections are fairly exposed. If you do this hike on a warm day carry plenty of water. I carried 90 oz which was more than enough but on a hot day would be about right. I would also recommend doing the hike while the leaves are out of the trees as this allowed for lots of partial views along the ridge and on the ascent/descent of Rocky Mount. I saw a total of five people on the hike with three of those being PATC members out doing some trail maintenance. They asked if I had seen anyone else out which at that point I had not. I asked them how many people they figured were at Old Rag - they just snickered. One thing that did strike me was what good shape the trail was in. Given all the snow and wind this winter there were only a few blow downs and all were easy to deal with. All in all this is a great and challenging but manageable hike. I wouldn't hesitate to do this hike again.
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