Top Trails: Shenandoah National Park. Johnny Molloy
to Use Them) Many trails don’t require much navigation, meaning that a map and compass aren’t always as essential as water or food—but it can be a close judgment call. If the trail is remote or infrequently visited, a map and compass should be considered necessities.
A dedicated GPS receiver is also a useful trail companion. While it’s no substitute for a map and compass, a GPS, along with downloaded topographic maps, is good to have in your navigational toolbox. The drawback is batteries dying or the device otherwise becoming unusable.
Smartphone Much of the Blue Ridge and lowlands near towns and along the roads that cross Shenandoah have some level of cellular coverage. In many areas, however, especially in hollows and along streams, there is no service at all. In extreme circumstances, a smartphone can be a lifesaver as a GPS unit and communication device, but you shouldn’t depend on it—coverage is unpredictable, especially deep in the hollows. As with a dedicated GPS, smartphone batteries run out of juice eventually, so before you make a call or fire up your mapping app, make sure it’s warranted—a blister doesn’t justify a call to search-and-rescue.
Gear Depending on the remoteness and rigor of the trail, there are many additional useful items to consider: pocketknife, flashlight, fire source (waterproof matches, light, or flint), and a first aid kit. Every member of your party should carry the appropriate essential items described above; groups often split up or get separated along the trail. Solo hikers should be even more disciplined about preparation and carry more gear. Traveling solo is inherently more risky. This isn’t meant to discourage solo travel, but rather to emphasize the need for extra preparation.
Trail Etiquette
The overriding rule on the trail is Leave No Trace. This is especially applicable to the more popular hiking destinations in and about Shenandoah National Park, where certain waterfalls and overlooks will be visited by hundreds of hikers.
Never Litter If you carried it in, it’s even easier to carry it out, since it weighs less. Try picking up any litter you encounter and packing it out—it’s a rewarding feeling. Nature also litters, and I make it a habit to move at least a bit of debris from the trail, be it boulders, branches, or small trees. It is amazing just how large a tree a few sturdy hikers can move.
Don’t Build Campsites Constructing your own camp furniture or clearing the ground to place a tent or tarp transforms a pristine site into a human one—hardly a wilderness experience. Also, if you’re going cross-country, don’t mark your route. Let others do their own rewarding pathfinding just as you did.
Stay on the Trail Repeated shortcutting of switchbacks can lead to rapid erosion and time-consuming trail repair, costing taxpayer dollars. Also, because shortcuts are steeper and have an uneven, sometimes bouldery tread, they can be dangerous, particularly for an exhausted backpacker in a hurry to get down. Don’t risk broken bones or sprained ankles.
Share the Trail Shenandoah’s trails attract many visitors, so be prepared to share the trail with them. Commonly accepted trail etiquette dictates that hikers yield to equestrians and their stock, and that ascending and descending hikers keep to their respective right side as they pass each other. Short tourist trails host hundreds to thousands of visitors a day. You may meet an obnoxious person or two, but don’t become that person and spoil someone else’s day.
• Leave no trace—Never litter.
• Stay on the trail—Never cut switchbacks.
• Share the trail—Use courtesy and common sense.
• Leave it there—Don’t disturb plants or wildlife.
Salamander in repose on the Hazel River (see Trail 15)
Leave It There Removing or destroying plants, animals, and historical artifacts is both unethical and illegal.
CHAPTER 1
North District
11. Knob Mountain and Jeremys Run Loop
12. Neighbor Mountain and Jeremys Run Loop
Vista from outcrop near Overall Run Falls (Trail 5)
AREA OVERVIEW
North District
The North District encompasses the most northerly of Shenandoah’s three ranger districts that divide the park. This section stretches from Front Royal, the northernmost boundary of Shenandoah, to Thornton Gap in the south, where US 211 bisects the park east–west while connecting Luray to Sperryville. Traveling south from Front Royal, the Blue Ridge rises with proverbial Skyline Drive winding atop it. Dickey Ridge Visitor Center is often a hiker’s first stop. A popular walk starts here. South of Dickey Ridge, notable heights (Compton Peak among others) begin rising where you can see the Blue Ridge rising from adjacent lowlands.
The park widens near Mount Marshall, and then you reach Mathews Arm Campground. Here, several streams and ridges spill off both sides of the Blue Ridge, creating a large wildland. On the west side of the Blue Ridge you find Overall Run Falls—the park’s highest at 93 feet—tumbling over a ragged cliff. Remote Knob Mountain and Neighbor Mountain border ultrascenic Jeremys Run, with its big pools, waterfalls, swimming holes, and everywhere-you-look beauty. The Big Devils Stairs and Little Devils Stairs are boulder-covered, rugged gorges passable only by hikers. The Piney River cuts a secluded swath between Pignut Mountain and Piney Ridge, while the North Fork Thornton River Valley recalls pioneer history with its numerous homesites. Area streams have mostly trout, but some smallmouth bass. Sycamore, white pines, and mountain laurel, along with alder thickets, border the waterways. Shenandoah’s famous oak stands rise on drier ridges. Elevations range from 550 feet near Front Royal to almost 3,400 feet atop Mount Marshall in this, the smallest of the park’s three districts.
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