Kaptainkriz

It’s September 24th, National Public Lands Day AND Family Hiking Day. We decided to go to Shenandoah National Park to complete another tiny section of the Appalachian Trail. We entered the park at Thornton Gap and found that park entrance was FREE for this excellent day!! That saved us $20 for the vehicle. We quickly filled out a Backcountry Camping Permit and were on our way to the parking area at Little Stony Man, right next to Skyland. We ate a not-so-quick breakfast at the restaurant and then started hiking the AT north. It was our plan to hike north along the AT to see the overlook at Little Stony Man along with an interesting small body of water up on the cliffs. From there, we planned the loop trail around the Stony Man summit and to bag the peak at that location. The trails are heavily used on this section and very easy. This first section is great for visitors as a day hike that takes just a few hours. The distance from the parking lot to Little Stony Man is 1.0 miles, with the side trail to Stony Man, another 0.5 Miles, for a total of 3 miles out and back. There were a bunch of rock climbers rappelling at Little Stony Man that were interesting to watch. After this section, we proceeded to backtrack south and continue past Skyland to Rock Spring Hut. On the way, you pass some cool horse stables, where there is a soda machine ($2), a garbage can, and as odd as it seems, a smoking area with chairs and a buttmaster. The stables are 0.8 miles south of Skyland. Rock Spring Hut is 5.2 Miles from Skyland. The Rock Spring Hut area is excellent, with at least 5 tent sites in addition to the shelter. There is also a cabin there right down the hill for PATC member use. The spring, although flowing, was a little sad. The PVC pipe had been dislodged and one needs to scoop to get any water. I put the diverter pipe back in and it was flowing pretty slowly, but usable. Fortunately, we refilled our water near the lower Hawksbill parking where the AT intersects a blue blaze to a very nice spring. This spring is 3.6 miles from Skyland. Of particular note on this hike was our first encounter with a wild bear. There were a couple of them, one small and one larger, right at the blue blaze trail from the AT to Rock Spring Hut. They were very shy and bounded off while I filmed them. Right at the hut were large deer that congregated there in the evening. There were at least five that seemed to just hang out with the hikers. By nightfall, there were 4 people in the shelter and 4 of the 5 tent sites filed. There was also a family that wandered down to the PATC cabin. On the way out, we summited Hawksbill, the highest point in the park, which is adorned with a stone lookout area. Too bad it was foggy, the view must be amazing, as the view from Little Stony Man was excellent the day before. Overall distance hiked on this trip was 12.5 miles.

A free permit is required to overnight in the park. More information can be found here: https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisi...