GWNF Interpretive Trails: A Couple of Easy Day Hikes

On Saturday, once my chores were done and since we had a warm day, I decided to head up to Massanutten Mountain and do a little hike. I set out to do Bird Knob starting at the GWNF visitor center on US 211 at New Market Gap, and would decide once I was there whether I had adequate daylight to complete the hike – and indeed decided against it once I was there.

Instead, after a short visit around the (permanently closed) visitor center, I walked along both of the interpretive trails in this vicinity. In GWNF, there are six of these interpretive trails, including the Charcoal Trail near Elizabeth Furnace; Discovery Way Trail, just off of US 211 in New Market Gap; Wildflower Trail, also in New Market Gap; Pig Iron Trail near Elizabeth Furnace; Lion’s Tale Trail, on Crisman Hollow Road; and the Story Book Trail, also on Crisman Hollow, which I have mentioned here several times.

I started by taking a walk around the parking area of the visitor center – I have been trying to get by here when it was open for some time now – and finally noticed the sign about its permanent closure. There are a couple of fixtures left in a state of neglect, including this large area of benches at the Discovery Way trailhead – more on the trail in a moment.

For history in this area, the Fairfax Line was surveyed through here in the mid 1600’s and passes near Bird Knob – this line marks the early land grant to Lord Fairfax, lands that became known as Virginia’s Northern Neck. This segment is a straight line that extends to the headwaters of the Potomac River.

A second historical note was a Civil War encampment of General Stonewall Jackson, as noted on this interpretive marker. Page Valley and the greater Shenandoah Valley were witness to many of Jackson’s exploits, and New Market Gap is no exception.

After exploring these features, I walked over to the Wildflower Trail, which was marked with the enticing sign at the beginning of this post. As described in one of the PATC guides:

“This east-west trail descends from the Visitor Center to an abandoned picnic area, sharing some of its tread with the Massanutten South Trail. Signs explain the effect of people and creatures on forest health. The trail is noted for its display of wildflowers in season, especially pink lady slippers in May. The trail tread is crushed stone.”

There were no wildflowers in sight on my trip (we may come back to see them in the spring), and US 211 is visible through the trees during the winter, so it’s quite noisy. This is also the trailhead to Bird Knob, so one point of interest is the intersection with the route to the summit, which is also where Wildflower connects with the greater Massanutten Trail.


After I walked back to the trailhead, I found the sign for the Discovery Trail – I was also doing some work learning how to use my new altimeter watch, and roughly was able to verify the altitude gain of 200 feet over the course of this hike…more to follow on that part of the day. As described in the PATC guide:

“This shaded spur trail leaves from the far end of the parking lot. It offers explanations of items found along forest trails.”

It would be an understatement to say I was disappointed with this experience. The only interpretive guidance was found on the trailhead sign, although it is clear that the trail once had a lot to offer. Here are photos of the sign posts that used to hold information along the way, as well as a shot of a bird house that is mounted on a tree, and an abandoned, not finished, millstone.

This trail is paved, so it could make for a nice family outing. It terminates in a ravine, slightly uphill from the end of the Wildflower Trail. At the higher altitude, there are several large stones that have tumbled down the mountain side over the millennia. It is a quiet place and the pause there was restful, even if it was hard to contain my disappointed in seeing this trail with so much to offer in such a state of neglect.

I had a nice time up on the mountain despite the disappointment. Combined with an earlier walk around the neighborhood at the Hawksbill Cabin, I managed over 10K steps that day, measured on my new Timex pedometer – and I am very close to my goal of averaging 5K per day for the month of January. But could I recommend these trails? Not really – not without some much needed maintenance and rework of the interpretive information.

The Lifestyle Device

Back in October, I was cleaning out a desk drawer and found an old iPod Nano. I was given it by a past employer during a management retreat. Although at first I winced at that reminder of a stage of my career I am well past, I remembered that I had purchased about 200 songs from iTunes, and subscribed to a couple of podcasts and the like during 2007, when I was using it pretty actively.

There is even a label here on the Hawksbill Cabin blog for the playlists, although it is not often used. So I decided to update the Nano with a new one, shown here. There are a lot of upgraded features, and using it has gotten me interested in figuring out ways to do even more with it…making it a true “lifestyle device.”

First of all, the device has a pedometer on it, which I’ve been using for the last six weeks or so. A pedometer can really let you know how little exercise you get in your daily activities, if you tend to let them slide by. On the other hand, one of the things we know from business is “what gets measured gets managed” and since I have begun using the feature I know that I average 3,000 steps a day, an increase over what I was doing when I first bought the Nano.

And I want to do more, now that I see the results every day. It’s part of a New Year’s resolution to get myself up to 5,000 a day, and use that platform as a way for other lifestyle changes. I won’t be shy about the reason for my sudden interest in this topic, either: this year I heard about or saw two heart attacks that happened to my colleagues in the workplace – fortunately both survived, but I took a lesson away that I’ve got to pay more attention to my health, beginning with more exercise.

It’s ironic that Apple and Nike have brought this matter to my attention, since I have also been trying to observe more closely my consumer behavior. They jointly developed the application – obviously to sell shoes and other stuff – but for now, I’m going to use it as I mentioned, to get myself to a stable platform of increased activity before developing some new goals. I’m introducing a new label with this post, “stepping,” to keep track of how it’s going.

Now, about other lifestyle enhancements the Nano facilitates. Besides getting some of my music back into rotation, the Nano also has a camera, video cam, and recorder. I haven’t figured out what to do with these items yet, since I use the Moto Phone Cam exclusively for the blog – later this year I may change over to the iPhone when contract time is up, though. I’ve also used the phone to listen to two Audiobooks, this is a great feature when I have found time, and I welcomed the opportunity to reconnect with some podcasts like “Indiefeed,” which showcases independent music.

I may find ways to do more with the Nano – I think it is a pretty incredible lifestyle device. Maybe a Hawksbill Cabin podcast series, definitely keeping up with the Audiobooks. But for now, babysteps, and that means using this pedometer to improve my health.

…and here’s to a healthy 2010 to all of our readers here at Hawksbill Cabin.