Hiking the A.T. at Rockfish Gap

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Hi Blog!

We made it to Greenwood, Virginia, just south of Shenandoah National Park. As we raced our way north ahead of Covid-19 campground closures, we gave ourselves one day at each stop in order to gather information for future visits (and get some exercise). Unfortunately, by the time we got to Virginia, the Shenandoah visitor centers were all closed. However, the park itself was still open which gave us easy access to the Appalachian Trial at Rockfish Gap.

It's hard to believe that just a few short days ago, we were at the start of the Appalachian Trail on Springer Mountain, Georgia. What took us just a few days, takes an A.T. thru hiker weeks and weeks.

This section of the A.T. traverses Afton Mountain. Some 600 million years ago, lava flows deposited a thick layer of volcanic rock that metamorphosed into Catoctin greenstone, the primary component of Afton Mountain. The green color comes from the minerals chlorite and epidote. We couldn't help but stop and admire the pretty green rocks.  Curiously, as the rock erodes, it makes red soil due to the iron content of the rock.

On our way up the trail, we only passed a single hiker and a group of three. We expected that, with everything closed, there would be more folks out on the trail. We kept our distance and only stopped to chat with theses fun guys.

We are racing north so fast, Spring is having a hard time catching up with us. We did notice these little beauties along the trail.

These buds are just budding.

The Appalachian Trail is nothing if not rocky!

Pictured below are the remains of what was once a majestic mountain range, with altitudes comparable to the Rocky Mountains. Virginia had an amazingly violent geologic history that included several continental collisions, the most recent of which was with North Africa some 300 million years ago. The Blue Ridge, Virginia’s geologic backbone, was the product of an event that moved rocks from Richmond to Afton. Could these be some of those rocks?

After about two miles, we began looking for a lunch spot. We were hoping to find a height of land with some views. We noticed these yellow blazes and checked our GPS. It showed a forest service road not too far off trail. We decided to bushwack and see if we could find it.

As we climbed higher, we noticed a mowed field.

We checked the GPS. It showed we were still in the George Washington National Forest. However, it was obvious that this field was being tended.

We noticed a tree stand and David couldn't resist the urge to climb up and see what he could see.

The overcast sky made it difficult to get any good photos of the surrounding area.

[Ed.: It wasn't until after we returned home that we discovered we were trespassing! The road we thought was a forest service road was actually a private road leading to Royal Orchard Castle pictured below. Lucky for us, we escaped detection.]

We decided the open field with views in the distance would make a nice lunch spot. We pulled up a couple cut log pieces and began our picnic.

After lunch, we decided to climb up to the height of land.

If you would like to see what we saw, click the link to this 360 degree video from the height of land at our lunch spot.

Climbing down from the height of land, we wove our way through a maze of unusually shaped rocks:

We retraced our bushwhack back to the Appalachian Trail, and retraced our steps south, back along the trail.  All in all, it made a great little outing -- we stretched our legs, breathed good oxygen, and communed with nature.  There's no doubt our spirits benefited in these times of stress and anxiety.

As we drove back to our campground, we stopped at one of the scenic overlooks along I-64 to take in this view of Rockfish Valley.

Tomorrow, we hope to arrive at our campground in Pennsylvania. We plan to stay put for at least a month (maybe more). Not sure how much blogging we'll do. If we come up with some new recipes or fun socially distant outings, we'll be sure to share them with you.

In the meantime, stay healthy my friends!