A few weeks back I posted about putting together a winter hike, inspired by a two-day outing that was described in “Blue Ridge Outdoors.” That hike took in sections of the Massanutten and Tuscarora Trails over in George Washington National Forest. Chris was interested and we thought might try the 20-mile hike , basing out of the cabin and using a car shuttle strategy to make it more efficient.
Winter’s getting away from us, and since I haven’t done any rigorous hiking in a few months (actually, in a couple of years…) we have downscaled our expectations. We now are planning to do Duncan Knob using one of the two routes described on the Hiking Upward site:
http://www.hikingupward.com/GWNF/DuncanKnob/
http://www.hikingupward.com/GWNF/DuncanKnobHollow/
The final choice between these two will depend on the weather Saturday, since the access road through Chrissman Hollow closes when inclement weather is expected. Right now the forecast shows a warming trend starting Thursday going through Sunday, high of 71 expected on Saturday, with the possibility of rain.
Chris and I used the Duncan Knob hike as part of our training “regimen” getting ready for the Half Dome Hike we did back in 2005. Because this hike had some good altitude changes, we thought that the climbing would help us – I’m sure it did. But because we were doing that in the summer, and the Hiking Upward site has copious photos of timber rattlers, we never did the rock scramble to the summit, which is our goal this time.
Chris has confirmed, and another friend, Tom, is planning on joining us. There may be one additional hiker. These guys all live in the Leesburg area, where they are close to the AT, but they’ve “hiked out” all the nearby trailheads and were looking for something “extra” to try.
Howard from Evergreen Outfitters is a Duncan Knob enthusiast and suggested that it would be a good season-starting alternative to the longer hike we were looking at. When I chatted with him recently, he shared a photo or two of a group camping at the summit. My group will take its time getting up and back – if we are lucky enough to have good weather for the full circuit on that first hike, we will probably need five hours or so to complete it, as opposed to the four hours shown on the site.
1 comment:
Jim,
I really wish I had the time to do the circuit with you guys! We are still hoping to do a long section of the Massanutten trail with an over nighter before Spring is here for real! Have fun and take some pics! Lookin forward to hearing about the adventure!
Cheers,
Howard
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