About the "75@75" Project

Some of my regular hiking friends know this already, but I have made up a little project for myself as an observance of the 75th anniversary of Shenandoah National Park this year – the project is called “75@75,” and it involves hiking 75 miles in the Park this year, before the closings of the main facilities in November. I'll be documenting these hikes using the project name as a label.

Ideally, these hikes will be moderate or difficult, meaning (these are my own arbitrary definitions) that they are five miles or longer AND include a net elevation change of more than 500 feet – by net, I mean the elevation difference between the hike’s highest and lowest point is 500 feet, not counting PUDs (pointless ups and downs).

So far, between the Camp Hoover hike (7.5 miles and 1,500 feet) Chris and I did in April, which has already been reviewed here on the blog, and the Overall Run hike (6.5 miles and 1,300 feet) Tom and I did on Saturday - post to follow, I have approximately 14.0 miles towards my goal.

With almost 20% of my 75 mile goal already done, I took a few minutes on the brick terrace to outline the plan for completing the project.  Recognizing that this summer will be a busy time for my regular hiking group - especially for Chris and Tom, both are expecting, I'll go ahead and invite readers who might want to join me on the project to come along. 

So here you go, seven candidate hikes, plus a bonus hike, that would take my total miles to approximately 80 miles – a little extra in case of inaccuracies in the guide books.  They are listed by mile post and not in the order I want to do them, plus the eighth bonus hike if I'm having too much fun and time permits:

• Hike 1 - Bluff Trail/AT, mile post 17.6, distance 12.8 miles, altitude change 2,400. Includes two summits and some views, and about 5 miles on the AT.

• Hike 2 - Piney Branch/Piney Ridge, mile post 22.1, distance 8.3 miles, altitude change 1,700 feet. This one includes a mountain cemetery, old homesite, stream crossings, and a small waterfall.

• Hike 3 - Knob Mountain/Jeremy’s Run, mile post 24.1 (at the Elk Wallow Wayside), two versions either 11.7 or 14.0 miles, elevation from 2,600 to 2,800 feet. There’s a stream with cascades and a falls, and a summit.

• Hike 4 - Hazel Mountain, mile post 33.5, distance 5.3 miles and elevation change 1,070 feet (the easiest on this list!). No summit here, but it is interesting for a combination of a falls, cascade, and a small cave. Depending on when we go, maybe no spelunking – the snake scene in True Grit still creeps me out.

• Hike 5 - Pocosin Mission and South River Falls, mile post 59.5, distance 8.5 miles and elevation 1,800 feet. This combines the ruin of an old cabin and mission, and then takes in the South River Falls, which was one of Chris’s and my main training hikes for the Half Dome a few years ago.

• Hike 6 - Black Rock/Trayfoot Mountain Loop, mile post 84.8 or 87.4, distance approximately 10.0 miles and unestimated altitude change. This trail is shown on one of the Park’s maps, which include distances but not altitudes. This will take in the rock scramble at Black Rock, an old fire observation point on Trayfoot Mountain, and the hollow where the Black Rock Springs Hotel was located in the late 1800’s.

• Hike 7 - Riprap Hollow and Wildcat Ridge, mile post 90.0, 9.8 miles and 2,400 feet. Includes the two Civil War lookout points Chimney Rock and Cavalry Rock, 3 miles of AT section, cascades and a falls.

• Bonus Hike (8): Hannah Run and Hot-Short Mountain, mile post 35.1, 9.1 miles and 2,800 feet. This one includes ruins of mountaineer cabins (for Chris, it is near the Corbin Cabin area we did last year) and a stream.

I should note that I compiled this list from the Heatwole Guide, and his measured the total altitude change instead of the net approach I prefer…so keep that in mind.

My next hike on this series is scheduled for late May, and should be one of these, most likely one of the waterfall hikes, since they tend to dry up later in the summer.