A Trout Stream Runs Through It

Tessie and I took our regular walk along the Hawksbill Greenway in Luray on Sunday morning.  We often end up on the section where the old swimming holes are, near the train trestle - and frequently, we'll run into folks casting in the stream along the banks.

This always serves to remind me that Hawksbill Creek is recognized by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries as a heritage trout stream.  This is a program that provides a scheduled stream stock day for the first Saturday in April.  It creates the feel of an old-timey opening day, and the towns across the state that share in the program will often hold events to observe "Trout Heritage Day."

Luray had one - it's all over the PNC, with quite a few big fish taken.  There was an angler who had a couple of pan fillers with him when we walked by.  But most of the morning fisherman were just there casting, enjoying a fine morning and hoping for a rise.

Nice day altogether.  I love this time of year.

The Urban Trout Stream

About mid-October, during the walks that Tessie and I take, I started to notice more and more folks along the banks of Hawksbill Creek, some doing traditional flyfishing and others simply casting along with rod and reel. Then I realized that we'd entered the season where that stream is stocked - from about October 15 through June 15.  The water is not really cold enough for trout for the rest of the year and so it's not stocked then.

(A schedule of stream stocking dates is maintained by the state of Virginia here:  http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/stock/)

Small fish are nearly always visible in the stream along the Hawksbill Greenway, and some of the murals illustrate the species you can find there, namely sunfish, bass and trout.  On the day I took these photos, apparently the stream had just been stocked, and obviously the leaves were still up - it was early in the fall.  But I saw a number of keepers in the creels.

On a walk a few weeks back Mary and I ran into our friends from Appalachian Outdoors Adventures working over the creek on a Sunday morning.  They weren't having any luck this morning, but Howard broke out his phone to show us a couple of recent catches - big ones, each one easily filling the pan for two people!

I guess it's time to break out my copy of A River Runs Through It again to have a look.  And maybe to be on the lookout for a trout dinner somewhere soon!

Doyles River/Jones Run: A "75 @ 75" Hike

Jones Run Waterfall - 42 feet.

Knowing that I had a big hike planned for the upcoming Saturday, and because I’d planned to take that hike with neighbor Dan, who not only recently had completed a half marathon and is a GIS specialist at the Park, but also is one of the few people on the planet who has walked every footstep of Skyline Drive, I went looking for a warm-up hike on Wednesday, September 7. I chose the Doyles River/Jones Run combination because of its length and elevation, and because all of the waterfalls on that trail would give an interesting destination. Incidentally, I’ve hike the entire circuit of this trail before, you can find it under the “Day Hikes: Moderate” label.

Google Earth route for this hike.

When I do warm-up hikes like this, they don’t necessarily have to meet the rigorous qualifications I’ve set for “75 @ 75” hikes, although this one, at 5.8 miles and 1,120 total elevation gain, certainly met the requirement (a combination of at least five miles in length and 500 feet of net elevation gain). I thought that two days of rest between the warm-up and the actual hike would be enough, but my legs still stung from the lactic acid on Saturday morning as we made our way to the Wildcat Ridge trailhead for the main hike – which I’ll review later this week.

Before getting to the details of this one, I want to make a note about how I calculated elevation on this one. Normally, I’ll just take an altimeter reading on my Casio Pathfinder along the way of any given hike, catching the highest and the lowest point s. When I make the blog post about that hike, I simply subtract the lowest from the highest for net elevation, and that’s what I report – which typically will vary, for several reasons, including barometric pressure variations or the fact I don’t count “pointless ups and downs,” or PUDS, in my calculations.

Casio Pathfinder check point.

Elevation reference point.

In this case, I knew I was in for a descent from the trailhead down to the confluence of Doyles River and Jones Run, and then another climb to the Jones Run falls. As shown on the photos of the park markers, the altitude of these three locations were 2,200 feet, 1,480 feet, and 1,880 feet, respectively, giving a total climb of 1,120 feet. For reference, the 580 meters read out on my Casio translates to 1,798 feet, 400 or so feet off of actual, which is a typical variance due to the barometric method used by the watch – by the way, the operator’s manual suggests taking this kind of reading for reference early in the hike.

On to the hike: I decided to start from the Doyles River side, since that was a section of the trail I had not been on, since Chris, Tom and I had cut back along the fire road on our previous hike. This meant my route would follow Doyles River most of the way to the confluence with Jones Run, then make a southwesterly turn to begin the climb up to the trail alongside that watercourse.

Doyles River lower falls.

Doyles River upper falls.

Three waterfalls are the feature of this trail, two on Doyles River and one on Jones Run – the Jones Run waterfall is among the ten highest in the Park, at 42 feet. Both streams flow down steep gorges, and there had been some strong rains recently, so the sound of many smaller waterfalls and cascades accompanied me on the walk on those trails. Both waterways are designated trout streams, so with your license you can enjoy catch-and-release and harvest fishing.

There is a PATC cabin not far down the route on the Doyles River side, there is a nice stream there also. I met a couple who were staying the Labor Day week at the cabin; their two lab mixes could not stay out of the water during the hikes. Later, coming back, there were three does drinking from the stream at this same place, I was downhill and downwind from them so they were surprised when I suddenly appeared only 10 feet away!

One of the plentiful cascades along this route.

“Shenandoah Secrets”, a PATC publication by Carolyn and Jack Reeder (Amazon link at the end of the post), mentions that there was a lot going on in this area before the Park was founded – lumber mills, two distilleries, and farms. There was even a dedicated rail line here to support the timber industry, but today it would be challenging to even find a trace of these, even though they are reported to have been located near the spring.

The Heatwole book speculates that Confederate General Jubal Early used this area for a strategic retreat to regroup and reinforce, since there were probably pastures in the area and the steep rocks cliffs would have made Union General Sheridan’s pursuit difficult. Heatwole acknowledges that this is conjecture, there’s no record at these locations; only the reporting that the events took place nearby.

While, this hike wasn’t one of the planned efforts from my “75 @ 75” project, it turns out that it qualifies, so I’ll count it; as of the last status report I still have about 25 miles to go before Thanksgiving to meet my goal…which I hope to exceed. The next hike I’ll review is the Wildcat Ridge/RipRap Hollow Trail; this trail was a warm-up for that one.

Amazon link to the PATC Shenandoah Secrets book:

Visiting Pagans

We had a very pleasant surprise on Sunday when our friends the Pagans dropped by – they had been in town overnight after a funeral in Winchester, and after a stop at the Caverns they came by to see us at the Hawksbill Cabin. With a hungry 2-year old in tow, we thought a stop by our neighbors at Wisteria Vineyards might be a good idea before we headed into town for lunch at Artisans Café.


Wisteria was featured in the PN&C recently, in an article that highlighted some new vines that Moussa and Sue have planted. We got a glass of Norton and Traminette to share among the adults while we took a stroll around the farm. Since the vineyard is so close to us, Mary and stop by there often, but there were some nice surprises in the barnyard this time.

One of the Romney ewes had a lamb with her, and there were some chicks running around with hens in the barnyard. So we had a big-eyed two-year old fully engaged with the animals – and a full recap of these activities over lunch once we were downtown. We also walked down the little road between the fields to the back of the property, which borders on Upper Hawksbill Creek just down from the Beaver Run confluence (Beaver Run forms one border of our property to the south of the vineyard).

By the way, to my surprise, this section of the Hawksbill definitely looks like it could hold trout, although I didn’t study it long enough to see if there were any. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that some of the fry from downstream stocking have made their way up and naturalized, although that may be a stretch given summer temperatures in these fields.

We ended our visit in town at Artisans, where Mary and I had also lunched the previous day. The little one had the grilled cheese and fries – a lunch that looked pretty good to me too – which she drenched with ketchup. Not a bad outing and I hope we sent her away tired for their drive back to Potomac.

I’ve posted on Wisteria before and I want to say again how much we enjoy Sue and Moussa’s hospitality. Here’s a quick note, referencing the PN&C article, on the two wines we had while we were out this weekend:

• Norton – dry red from a native Virginian grape, spicy aromas, deep ruby color with full finish.
• Traminette – Dry white wine with a rose-petal nose and palate, crisp and light with a delicate finish.

Catherine Furnace, a GWNF Point of Interest

On Tuesday morning, after the countertops were delivered, I knew I would have a little time on my hands, so I took a short drive to run some errands. I planned the route so I could take a short detour into the GWNF, where I have been considering a future hike into the forest – this ridge that rises up above the Shenandoah Speedway, in fact.

Seeing the short front ridge covered in forest, I’ve often wondered whether you had to trek into there with two ascents, first over the short front ridge and then climbing to the peaks, or if there was a forest road that might provide access to a trailhead back there. I scoured the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club Map H for clues, finding that just as there is Crissman Hollow Road in the north half of Massanutten Mountain, there is Cub Run Road in the south half.

This route also has a historical attraction. It is the site of Catherine Furnace, a blast furnace dating to the early 1800’s, where pig iron was forged. From here it was carted down to the South Fork of the Shenandoah, and barged to Harper’s Ferry, where it was used in a variety of industries. By the Civil War, the Massanutten furnaces were in decline; they were reactivated during the war and the pig iron was taken by train to Richmond for armaments.

There is a rich history of the industry, which drew from local workers and the surrounding lands for resources to operate. In a future post, I may revisit what I’ve found so far, meanwhile, here is a photo of the furnace, and a stretch of Cub Run that passes by it. For the record, Cub Run is a stocked trout stream.

Apparently, Cub Run Road used to involve at-grade stream crossings. My PATC guide advised on careful navigation through here, as the crossings were nearly invisible from the approach – I was prepared to turn the Impala around at any moment if I encountered this kind of difficulty.

To my surprise, I found these new bridges, clearly constructed during the summer (maybe with stimulus money?) so no problems for me going up the Cub Run Hollow. I think this one is at Pitt Spring Run, for those following along on PATC Map H. And not to be forgotten, it is a forest road, and the GWNF is actively logged.

The little crests on the ridge are part of Third Mountain, which rises to 3,080 feet above sea level. The peak is called Morgan Knob, and there is a neighboring, unnamed summit of 3,045 on the ridge. It appears that the summit requires bushwhacking a route, as I don’t see trails marked on the PATC maps.

The last photo here is a campsite I stopped by for a look around. The campsites in the southern half are described as hunters’ camps, and with the season just getting underway it’s my bet that there is intense competition for them. This is near “Lokey Hollow” on the map.

Another interesting point is how close this is to Hawksbill Cabin – I’ve already mentioned that I made this stop while running errands. In fact, the state road leading up into GWNF is in nearby Newport, a small crossroads settlement (it may be a town, I think there is a small post office in the store there) that is between Stanley and Shenandoah. Newport is right on the South Fork, about a mile and half from the River’s Bend Ranch, which I have written about before.

Valley Landmark: Murray's Fly Shop

Murray’s Fly Shop is right next to Sal’s in Edinburg. I first learned about the place when we drove over the Massanutten Ridge a few weeks back and found the Burnside Dam (http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2009/02/burnshire-dam-near-woodstock.html); my web research included a blog post that mentioned Murray’s. So I was very pleased that we just happened to find it on another Sunday drive.

Fly shops are the quintessential “do what you love” businesses. You can tell this from the street, but it is reinforced when you read his catalog: “…I am often asked to help select outfits for various types of fly fishing” starts a page about complete set ups, and “...I choose the terrestrial pattern and size to match the naturals I see along the stream” on another featuring terrestrial dry flies.

I’ve been interested in learning to fly fish for some time. Mary and I took a lesson from an Orvis school at the Homestead a few years ago – still have the photos on my desk – and we’ve taken a walk along some nice trout streams over the last couple of years, enough so that I even have a label for those entries here on the blog (trout streams).


Murray’s offers lessons, books and gear. The two-day schools for trout run on weekdays from April to May, and are two days long. They’re conducted on the Rapidan River inside of SNP. His smallmouth bass schools are done on weekends from June to July in Edinburg, and the fishing is done on either the north or south fork.

Besides the web-site (http://www.murraysflyshop.com/), there is a print catalog, and a blog, plus the regular updates are done via pod cast.

I’ll close the entry with a note from his site about the pod casts:

“…The enhanced weekly report covers streams in and surrounding Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, including; The Shenandoah National Park, George Washington/ Jefferson National Forests, the North and South Forks of the Shenandoah River, the James River and unique events on other streams i.e. Shad run on the Rappahannock River.”

Summer Flowers - Curly Willow

Actually this entry is about a tree...this photo is one of a curly willow in the backyard in Alexandria. The story here is that this tree has been grown from a branch, really no more than a twig, that was part of the decoration in a flower arrangement we received a few years ago. From that, we have a tree of nearly ten feet in five or six years.

These trees have been planted recently at the Hains Point Golf Course in DC, and at a neighboring apartment complex in Alexandria, and they have all grown fast and succeeded in their environments.

My plan is to start a few cuttings of this and plant them near the stream at Beaver Run, which runs through one of our lots and cuts across in front of us at the bottom of the hill. This stream collects a lot of water from the neighboring hills and eventually feeds Hawksbill Creek, the Shenandoah, the Potomac, and ultimately Chesapeake Bay. I want to put a couple of good riparian plants in there to help protect the watershed.

There's more info on the watershed topic at http://www.purewaterforum.org/?p=93 -

Rapidan Camp Hike - Wrap

Continuing with our July 5 hike... After passing Big Rock Falls, it is only a short distance into Rapidan Camp. This historical site sits in a relatively flat area at the confluence of the Laurel and Mills Prongs, and is also where the Rapidan River starts.

The Hoovers chose this site based on three criteria: 1) the retreat needed to be within 100 miles of Washington, DC; 2) the minimum altitude was to be above 2,500 feet to eliminate mosquitoes; and 3) a trout stream had to be immediately accessible. They bought the land with their own money and paid for many of the improvements, augmented by the Marines who built some of the improvements as training.

We walked down to the “Brown House,” or Presidential Cabin, where we sat in these chairs, overlooking the rustic bridge, and had some sandwiches. The bridge is rebuilt, but there are pictures of Hoover posing on it. Also, the chairs are of the original design, and the publications say that Hoover often sat out on this deck enjoying the stream.

One other note about this spot, Roosevelt visited the camp as the Hoovers had dedicated it to successor Presidents. The camp was difficult for Roosevelt to get to, and get around in. But it is said that he sat in this spot to consider whether or not to use the site for his own retreats; he preferred Georgia, New York, and Maryland for this purpose and never returned.

The only President after Hoover to use the cabin was Jimmy Carter, in fact, who was here in 1979.

Over the four years of Hoover’s term, he spent most summer weekends here.

Notable visitors included the Prime Minister of England, who was on a state visit to discuss naval arms limitations. This cabin is known as the Prime Minister Cabin and includes excellent interpretive displays.

Also, as the Depression advanced, Hoover was very involved in arranging financing for bank rescues during his stays here.

Finally, the large outdoor fireplace here and in the first photo above was used for photographs and for gatherings in the evening. As luck would have it, my phone cam shot illustrates how the design of this fireplace was repeated in the cabins and other buildings. The camp was used during three seasons eventually, but it immediately fell into disuse at the end of the Hoover administration.

We bought a little history book at the Big Meadow ranger store and I read it Sunday. The camp had as many as 22 structures for guests at one time, but only three remain. There was an entire separate camp for the Marines who stayed in the Park while the Hoovers were there. Also, as they got to know some of the mountain people in the area, the Hoovers built a schoolhouse to educate them.

The property was eventually used by the Boy Scouts in the 1950’s, but without a swimming pool, it wasn’t as well used as some of the other properties they had access to, and the facility was eventually turned over to the National Park Service for management. Today there is a volunteer who resides on-site in “The Creel,” one of the original buildings.

There is a good review of the hike on Hiking Upward (http://www.hikingupward.com/ - search for Camp Hoover) and of course additional historical information at Wikipedia.

Hike Recap - July 5, Rapidan Camp in SNP

On July 5, we realized that we hadn’t been on a hike for a few weeks, so we consulted our easy day hikes book for a referral. We’ve done a number of the hikes there already, but there are plenty to go…and for reference, while it is entitled easy day hikes, some are rigorous – the title refers to the time frame of the hikes, meaning these do not require an overnight backpacking trek.

We chose the Rapidan Camp hike as our destination for the day. It has an interesting historical objective among its features: the hike descends along a stream to the summer White House used by Herbert Hoover. Tomorrow’s post will discuss this objective.

We parked at Milam Gap, just a few miles south of Big Meadows in the SNP, and found the trailhead across Skyline Drive. Some readers may not be familiar with hiking in the SNP – frequently, and especially with these easy day hikes – the trip either immediately descends down the mountains, with the return consisting of a climb back up (sometimes it’s steep as in Dark Hollow Falls); or you begin with a climb and the return is downhill (as with Hawksbill Summit). It isn’t always this way, but it frequently is.

As we got underway, among the first sites was this fern glade. We have been talking about naturalizing the cabin’s front lawn…when I think of that, the picture that comes to mind is like this one. Although I may be wrong, my recollection is that this sort of environment is only encountered on the east side slopes of the Park, probably has something to do with the leeward direction and the rainfall in the woods.

A feature of this hike is the fact that it follows Laurel Prong – a small stream that is highlighted as a trout fishing destination (catch and release only!). Laurel Prong joins Mill Prong (interesting they are prongs here, not forks) and at the confluence becomes the Rapidan River – and that is where the little camp was sited for Hoover.

Here are a couple of the stream crossings on the hike – the route we chose featured three crossings such as these.

Finally, at the bottom of the route, and 500 yards or so from the camp, there is Big Rock Falls, shown in the photo at the top of this entry. This is a small waterfall compared to others nearby in this section of the Park, but it is among the most scenic.

Tomorrow’s post will go into some detail about the camp itself. It was a very interesting destination for us. And this is a hike we will take again – there is opportunity for extending it over some varied scenery and crossing other streams in a longer circuit hike, as opposed to the out-and-back we did.

NJ Road Trip part 2

Just a quick wrap on the write up on NJ trout streams - here's a photo of Mary and Larry looking out at some of the pools in the river we visited and hiked. Since we were taking our walk in the afternoon, after 3pm, the sun had started to descend in the sky, and some of the trout were beginning to rise in front of rocks in the stream.

We saw a couple get into a little skirmish for a prime spot, and the river started to come alive in general. Alas the limitations of the motocam - the zooms of the fish did not come out, nor did the photo of the lounging snake, perched on a rock in the river. (Sorry, but a wiki search has not revealed the species of the uniquely colored, reddish brown snake...)

Also, a treat - one of Larry's paintings. He is a landscape painter whose work has focused on the Cape Cod area for a few years. He was putting his summer trip to the Cape together and showed us the canvases that will be on display in the galleries this summer. The road trip up will take place this week - besides the drive and load in and out of paintings, there is a significant surfing stop (he is a long time surfer, having started in the late 60's and early 70's down on the shore - Long Branch area, which is close by Asbury Park for Springsteen fans.

Here is a bio with some additional paintings: http://www.kendallartgallery.com/bio-szycher.htm

I have one more post about the road trip, will add it later in the week.

Road Trip: New Jersey

We've been trying to put together a visit to NJ over the last few months, and finally worked it out over the weekend. We went for a visit to Mary's cousin Larry's, staying with him and his family in the Summit/Morristown area.


We had a wonderful visit with them.





Two years ago now, Mary and I went trout fishing down in Warm Springs, VA - we enjoyed it, took a little two hour lesson and each hooked a little trout, which we threw back.


Larry is an avid trout fisherman - while the weather was too warm to do any fishing, he took us around to a couple of his streams and showed his equipment - first photo above. This first stream is actually walking distance from the house...pretty nice benefit.


On Sunday, we drove a bit away and visited a farm (next post) and another trout stream, part of a trout conservation area. It was a really charming area and reminded me somewhat of Sperryville, VA. The next photo is of the trout conservation poster in that area, identifying the river and location.

We took a walk along the conserved part of the stream, about 3/4 mile in length. In the rocky places there were a number of brown trout - 8 to 10 inchers - hunting in the current. Across the stream, you could see deep shaded pools that Larry told us had the big fish - those the locals have named in the past.


This area also has a number of B&Bs operated by fish guides, where the establishment owns the riverbanks and reserves it for guests. Also, there was this excellent little reel store - the white sign showing all the conditions and expected hatches for the day.

Although the temps reached the high '90's on Sunday, by the time we walked out of the stream area, 4pm, the trout were beginning to rise and feed. Fishermen were showing up in their cars as the daytrippers were moving out.

Bold stream, forest views

Last Sunday during the rain, we took a drive with Chris, who was visiting for the day. We'd planned to work on the downed trees, but Mickey had taken care of that so we had free time.

We decided to drive through the George Washington National Forest over to Edinburg, Virginia - just north of New Market on the other side of the Massanautten Mountains.



There is a bold trout stream that runs through the woods, with a couple of choice campsites there along the way. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Now, the State of Virginia stocks these waters, as indicated on the poster below. The part of Hawksbill Creek that runs through Luray is also stocked, as are a few others nearby. I've heard they are pretty much fished out within two days of stocking. More info on the stocking program, including a stream by stream schedule, is at http://www.dgif.state.va.us/fishing/stock/troutstock.cfm ...it turns out that Hawksbill Creek was just stocked this week.

Bridge Construction - part 2

Just as traffic was moved onto the new span over Overall Run, which I posted about yesterday, I started noticing heavy construction equipment moving into place at Jeremy’s Run, which is in Page County and only 10 miles north of Luray. Mary and I were concerned at what appeared to be a widening of US 340 – and impending development – a constant concern in what is mostly farm country.

There are also some pretty rigorous and spectacular hikes along these two tributaries of the Shenandoah – here’s a photo of the only waterfall on Jeremy’s Run. There are two 10-mile plus hikes along this stream that feature climbs, stream crossings, and other adventures.

It turns out that the JR bridge is a deck truss bridge, similar to the span that collapsed in Minneapolis last summer. It's a coincidence that the bridge needs to be replaced due to age on the heels of the other bridge's collapse. Page County transportation officials recently announced a $7.7 million VDOT project to construct a replacement, to be completed in 2009. In this case, the old span (built in 1938) will be demolished, unlike the one at Overall.

Bridge Construction

Since we changed our normal driving route to the cabin - we take I-66 to Front Royal and US 340 down, there has been an ongoing bridge construction project at Overall, right on the border of Warren and Page Counties. There have never been traffic jams here, although you must slow down because of the tight constraints on the road there.


This new route replaced how we used to drive out last summer - we may return to the old route as summer approaches - we used to take I-66 to 647 at Marshall, then US 211 over the ridge at SNP. Since this route goes through Thoroughfare Gap, a major park entry, we did encounter traffic there from time to time.


In any case, the bridge construction is nearly complete - the new bridge deck has been opened, but there are some final lane changes that need to be completed. According to the local Northern Virginia Daily, "The two-lane bridge about 10 miles south of Front Royal was needed because of the age and condition of the existing span."



Here is a photo from the paper of the new bridge.



Also of interest, 'The contractor won't destroy the old bridge because of its historical significance..."The Overall bridge is just one of two steel, arch truss bridges left [in the state]," said Bob Chidress, VDOT Luray assistant residency administrator, in January. "The other one is in Jeremy's Run in Page County."'


Passing under the bridge is Overall Run, which has headwaters in SNP and flows into the South Fork of the Shenandoah right next to the bridge. There is a popular waterfall hike in the Park that follows Overall Run, and Virginia DOT has included a pedestrian observation platform in the construction at the new bridge.