The Brandywine Recreation Area, on the border of Virginia and West Virginia, has two totally different hikes within its borders. The strenuous High Knob hike up to a spectacular 360° view at the fire tower, and the Saw Mill loop which is an easy 3.7 mile walk along two of the areas creeks.
The Brandywine Recreation area is a perfect spot to go for the weekend. With a man made beach on Brandywine Lake plus 32 campsites, clean bathrooms and hot showers, and potable water throughout the camping area. Also, if you come with a large group there is a group/overflow camping spot with picnic tables and fire rings at the back of the main camping facilities. Please Note: Both hikes are rated for camping because of the camping facilities at the Brandywine Recreation Area, not for campsites on the trails.
High Knob Fire Tower:
This hike is rated strenuous because of the steep grade of the trail. The trail does not make any switchbacks on its 2.9 mile climb to the fire tower.
The High Knob trail starts at the right front of the Group Campground. Start up the yellow blazed High Knob trail as it steeply climbs for the first 0.2 miles before becoming an easier grade along the ridge. The trail will again become very steep for the last 0.5 miles then reach the intersection of the Shenandoah Mountain Trail.
Saw Mill Loop:
The Saw Loop is an easy walk in the woods compared to the hard climb up to High Knob. There are several open wildlife clearings as well as two seasonal creeks.
From the back loop of the campground follow the purple blazed Saw Mill Loop trail for 0.3 miles to the beginning of the loop portion of the hike. From here turn right and follow the loop 3.1 miles back to the same point. On the first part of the loop Hawes Creek is on your left, then cross a small ridge on the back side of the loop and follow a feeder stream back to the beginning of the loop before turning right for the 0.3 miles back to the hike start point.
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 Mouse-over the icons in the map below for location shots
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Hiker
Reviews For The Brandywine Recreation Area Hike (5 Most Recent)
The High Knob trail is a beast! You are basically hiking 3 miles up the spine of a ridge from the campsite all the way to the WVa., Va. border. It was one never ending hill! Once you get to the fire tower it is totally worth it though. Great 360 degree view. The campsite is really awesome too. We will be heading back!
By:
Richmond Hikers
Rating:
Date of Hike: Saturday, October 08, 2011
SAW MILL TRAIL DANGERS: POORLY BLAZED, POORLY MAINTAINED
We are two very experienced hikers and looked forward to hiking Saw Mill Trail. Before we went on this camping trip, we looked for trail information online (Forest Service Web site, Hiking Upward Web site, etc). We thought this 3.6-mile woodland trail would be relatively easy. But the poor choice of blaze color (faint violet against murky grey tree bark), the unusually long distances between blazes, many trail crossings into steep and rocky streambeds, and many large tree windfalls made it a challenging obstacle course. This trail looks as though it has not been maintained for many years.
Because of the poor trail conditions, we lost the trail at least 5 times during the hike and only managed to find our way back to the trail after one of us scouted ahead while the other stood behind where the trail gave out.
This dark, rocky trail is poorly described in the site brochure, giving few clues to the trail's actual terrain, or the accurate number of stream bed crossings (see enclosed). The trail map is crudely sketched and all but worthless, except that gives a broad concept of trail loop and direction.
Thankfully we had printed out a good topo map from www.hikingupward.com and brought our compass and knew how to use it. A novice hiker without these way finding aids or who had them but didn't know how to use them could easily get lost on trail.
If hiking trails have become badly degraded (due to storm damage or lost trail blazes), and there is no plan to maintain them, they become an "attractive nuisance" to unsuspecting hikers. The Saw Mill Trail should be closed until these issues can be resolved.
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Rating:
Date of Hike: Thursday, August 11, 2011
Started the hike to High Knob at 5:30 pm and was back at 8:30. It is a tough climb even with hiking sticks. I think this hike can be extended on Shenandoah Mtn Trail to Bother Knob, then it will be a whole-day activity. The campground is awesome: abundant water, clean bathrooms, and of course the lake!
By:
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Date of Hike: Saturday, September 18, 2010
Hiked to High Knob on a warm, sunny, Saturday afternoon with my wife. I liked this one due to the combination of great views and historical marker, all on the ridge dividing Virginia and W. Virginia. You can see from Harrisonburg east all the way to all the nothingness that is to the west (I counted back 7 major ridges), and you also get a rare view of the historic Sugar Grove naval/air force communications base (I'm pretty sure that's what it is, but don't quote me on it) that is nestled deep in the forest.
Some notable points are
1 - Give yourself an hour there, and hour back, and at least 30 minutes at the top. You can do it much faster, but this is a good general rule for this hike.
2 - There is one place where you get to a service road that goes onto some private property. It's not exactly clear where to go once you get to this road, but turn right on the road until you see a blazing to your left. If you keep going on the road, you'll see a "private property" sign and know you've gone too far. Otherwise the trail is well marked.
3 - the flies can be pretty bad at the top of the fire tower, so buyer beware here. And it gets hit with lightning a lot, so watch out for lightning (obviously).
For the historically inclined, I'd recommend reading up on the Sugar Grove base (lots of history here), the history and restoration of the High Knob Fire Tower, and the town of Brandywine.
By:
Rating:
Date of Hike: Monday, August 09, 2010
Definitely a 5-star difficulty, but worth it for the 5-star view at the top. The air was a bit hot as my husband and I began the hike, but as we climbed higher there was a cooler breeze. The first ascent was moderately steep, then the path leveled off for a while. Then came a long ascent (the .5 mile one) that was steeper than the first. It didn't seem like it was going to end--just one hill after another. We are both fairly fit, but for a while I wasn't sure I wanted to go all the way. But we persevered, going slowly so we could catch our breath. The terrain was rocky only in a few places and followed the ridge of the mountain for quite a bit. Once we reached the Shenandoah Mountain Trail there was still another ascent over more rocky terrain. The directions on the website were helpful at this point. The view at the top was truly awe-inspiring, so much so that I would be willing to do the hike again some other time of the year to see the differences between the seasons. The 360-degree view makes it different from a lot of the other views. The descent was much easier we used walking sticks to brace ourselves on the steep portions, but still had to be careful of loose rocks. We had the whole hike to ourselves and were able to do it in about 3 hours. We heard some rustling in the distance but saw no bears--just a few butterflies, bees and flies.
for camping because of the camping facilities at the Brandywine Recreation Area, not for campsites on the trails.
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