Warm-ups: Hawksbill and Calf Mountain Hikes

From the headline of this post, a casual reader might ask, "Warm-up for what?" Since most of the summer's heat and humidity has passed without me taking another 75@75 hike, I've been worried about losing traction on that goal. 

One of my hiking buddies agreed that we should make a goal of Old Rag (photo here from an overlook on Skyline Drive), and so we did, but I took the extra precaution of getting out on a couple of leg stretchers in the Park first: Hawksbill Mountain and Calf Mountain.  I've reviewed both trails before (check the Easy Day Hikes label at the end of this post), but I'll make a note of them again today.

Since Tuesday is market day at the farm, I'm often out of there by noon.  The weather was so good last week, and since I knew that the Friday Old Rag outing was fast approaching, I decided a quick hike to the summit of Hawksbill Mountain might be productive.  Off I went for a late afternoon trip.

I found myself practically skipping along from the Upper Hawksbill parking area. Heatwole lists the trail I took as 1.7 miles round trip and 690 feet of elevation gain; I think it's around 400 feet net, if that.  Definitely not an intermediate hike in my classification, where the distance needs to be five or more miles and net elevation gain of 500 feet or more.  Net elevation gain, as I am using the term, means the elevation difference between the hike’s highest and lowest points; Heatwole generally measures the aggregate elevation change as I understand it.

So all in all a pleasant little hike up the mountain, where I spent an hour or so up at the summit enjoying the cool breezes and chatting with two or three groups of tourists passing through on their summer vacations.  Here's a photo of the day use shelter near the summit of Hawksbill Mountain (incidentally, the highest peak in the Park, at 4,049 feet, per Heatwole).

Typically, I can expect a tough day at the farm on Wednesday, and last week was no exception...no fecal dust to show for the experience this week, but I do have a couple of spots where some poison ivy is showing up after some dirty work in the fields.  After that, I left with the thought that I might put together another short hike for Thursday to continue my preparation for Friday's Old Rag climb.

I haven't been down to Waynesboro in a while, so I decided I'd get a route together down in the South District of the Park - and take advantage of being there to get lunch at Scotto's (don't miss it when you are in Waynesboro - I like the baked ziti specialty), and to visit Rockfish Gap Outfitters, which is conveniently located on the road up to the Park entrance.

My destination was Calf Mountain.  Again, an easy little hike with minimal elevation gain (Heatwole lists a longer hike than I was after, although I probably hit much of the elevation he lists: 495 feet; but I took no measurements).

These first two photos from the Calf Mountain trip show why I enjoy this spot in the Park so much: the open former pasture where Skyline Drive passes through the middle, with the Appalachian Trail disecting it.

I first came here a couple of years ago, it was the first hike I took after we lost Gracie Dog to renal failure, so that outing had a purpose for grieving.  I guess nowadays when I am here I get a fond memory or two of our friend.  Maybe in the winter I'll take Tessie up here and she can be part of that whole thing too.

There are a couple of other reasons I like this hike - it's an easy outing, even if you head back into the woods, which I didn't; there are a couple of hilltops with low vegetation so there are nice views looking down on the Piedmont; and there are leftover traces of human use of this land in fruit trees and domesticated shrubs around the pasture and further back on the trail.

Mary thinks we've seen a grapevine gone feral in the woods there and I wouldn't be surprised.  But the readily visible and identifiable trees are the apples and peaches.  We visited last fall and caught site of a group of AT section hikers who had picked some of the fruit and sat in the shade eating it.  They told us it was very tasty...my guess is it is an heirloom variety that would be hard to get to grow true, but still would be worth trying.  I don't know how you might go about that, though.