A.T. Hike - Ashby Gap into Sky Meadows State Park

Poor Baxter cat had to have surgery this morning to repair an inside-out eyelid.  We dropped him off at the animal hospital yesterday afternoon.  We had been planning to be available to help our son Matt with a furniture delivery today, but he was able to handle it within the constraints of his work, so we weren't needed there.  Rather than sit around and wait for a call from the vet about's Baxter's status, we decided to hike another section of the Appalachian Trail.  Because rain threatened this afternoon, we got an early start and planned to hit the trail at 9:30 am.

This time we chose a section to the north of our recent hikes, heading south from Ashby Gap.  As it turned out, the better part of our hike led us up to the ridgeline of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia's Sky Meadows State Park.  The park has 10.5 miles of bridle trails, 22 miles of hiking trails, 9 miles of bike trails and Appalachian Trail access. Covering 1,860-acres, it has scenic views, woodlands and the rolling pastures of a historic farm that captures the colonial through modern life of the Crooked Run Valley. 

According to the park's website, the settlement of the area can be attributed to nearby Ashby's Gap, which gave settlers access to the Shenandoah Valley.  In 1731, Lord Fairfax sold a 7,883-acre tract of land just south of Ashby’s Gap to James Ball. Abner Settle of nearby Paris bought 148 acres and built Mount Bleak House in the 1840's.  In 1868 Mount Bleak became the property of George M. Slater, who had been one of Mosby's Rangers under Confederate Col. John S. Mosby during the Civil War (the life story of John Mosby is an amazing tale in itself). In 1975, Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia, purchased and donated a 1,132-acre tract to the Commonwealth of Virginia for the development of a state park. Another 248 acres were acquired in 1987, thus providing a corridor to the Appalachian Trail. The name Sky Meadows comes from former owner Robert Hadow, who named the property "Skye Farm" after an island in Scotland.  However, what seemed to be a fanciful name has now become very appropriate because, along and just below the Appalachian Trail, the park boasts a number of spectacular meadows that seem to reach the sky because they are perched up on the ridgeline, overlooking the Virginia Piedmont.

We knew none of this when we planned our hike, and every bit of it made for one happy surprise after another as we hiked deeper into the park.

Here we are at the innocuous, unsigned trailhead, which is marked only by a blue blaze signifying an access trail, at Ashby Gap:

It wasn't long before we reached the junction with the Appalachian Trail proper:

We hiked down to Highway 17, crossed it, and then found our way into the woods.  The sign might have suggested that we were going the wrong way, but David knew where we were heading:

Just as we entered the woods, we spotted two signs, obviously directed at through-hikers, advising of the distance to the nearest A.T. shelters.  This sign was devoted to shelters southbound from our positions.  It lists the Manassas Gap Shelter as being 9.8 miles south.  We had just been there a couple days ago!

We immediately encountered this well-maintained fence, which marked the boundary of Sky Meadows State Park.  From here on, we were on park land, and the Trail was in spectacular condition, due to the loving care not only of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, which looks after this section of the A.T., but also Virginia's state parks agency and the staff of Sky Meadows State Park, who are very diligent in maintaining the park's trails.

The stretch immediately south of Highway 17 passes through wetlands, and the A.T. Trail Gods were kind enough to provide hikers with boardwalks where necessary to keep feet dry:

We were soon in the depths of the forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Since logging, perhaps 100 years ago, this forest boasts some early evergreen trees, which have processed into deciduous forest boasting what appear to be beech, oak and maple trees, among others.  Most of the trees seem to be of similar age, which attests to the clear-cut logging that preceded their growth:

If you had any doubt that Autumn is already riding in, just take a look at this sycamore leaf being admired by David:

After about 1.5 miles of steady climbing, we reached the ridge and walked into our first sky meadow!  We thought we understood how Dorothy & Co. must have felt when they came out of the woods into the field of poppies on the way to the City of Oz:

The wildflowers now are colorful and varied:

We're not sure what berries these are, but we can tell you that local black bears like them, because we encountered some bear scat containing some of these beauties:

Even the thistle is in its highest glory:

At the 2 mile mark, we reached this junction of the Appalachian Trail, running north-south along the Blue Ridge, and the Ambassador Whitehouse Trail, which led down to the Whitehouse Overlook and the Sky Meadows State Park Visitor Center.  It was not yet time for lunch, so we decided to hike further along the A.T., then return to this spot and venture down to the overlook for our lunch.

From this junction, we hiked the 0.4 mile Ambassador Whitehouse Trail (named for Charles S. Whitehouse, a local Virginian who, among many other achievements and distinctions, was Ambassador to Thailand and Loas.  It took us down to the Piedmont Memorial Overlook:

The Piedmont Memorial Overlook sits on 50 acres owned by The Piedmont Environmental Council, and is part of a corridor of the Blue Ridge Mountains that is permanently protected by Sky Meadows State Park, the G. Richard Thompson Wildlife Management Area, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, and private land under conservation easement.  From The Piedmont Memorial Overlook, atop the Blue Ridge Mountains in Fauquier County, you look out at the heart of the northern Virginia Piedmont, a verdant agricultural landscape stretching 17 miles between the Bull Run Mountains to the east and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west. To the south lies the Crooked Run Valley, extending toward Delaplane. To the north lies Clarke and Loudoun counties.  The Overlook sits on top of Paris mountain, and provides what some call "the quintessential Virginia vista."

The overlook was the high point of our hike.  We stopped there to eat our lunch, and then had a wonderful 2.5 mile hike back to our trailhead, before driving back to the real world. 

As we returned to the Jeep, we received a call from the vet. Baxter did great during his surgery. They are very hopeful that his eye has been repaired.