Calf Mountain Revisited: An Easy Shenandoah National Park Day Hike

Last Labor Day, as I was tooling through the hikes in my copy of the Best Easy Day Hikes book (Amazon link below), one of my favorites turned out to be this short hike in the southern district of the Park.  At the Beagle Gap sign and the 99.5 mile post, the trail head is less than 10 miles from the Rockfish Gap entrance; but you have to know about it before you arrive because maps aren't available at the entrance stations for this part of the Park.

This area still shows traces of the old farms that used to populate this ridge - in the cleared land that was a pasture, and in the orchards that still bear fruit - and witness - to the way of life that used to hold sway.  Near the parking area there is a stand of peach trees that has fruit at this time of year, and there is an apple orchard with perhaps a dozen or so trees in the old pasture - which also is crowded with staghorn sumac, with its blazing top at this time of year.

Mary and I set out eastward for about three quarters of a mile to the first summit of Calf Mountain.  We encountered some weekend backpackers on the route who had picked a few of the apples (mostly Macintosh by our reckoning) and were cheerfully crunching on them as we passed.  When I asked how they were, the response was, "They're awesome, dude!  We got 'em from the tree just around the bend, a branch leans down over the trail."

Sure enough, that tree was there, but everyone of the trees was in pretty easy reach if you were so inclined.  We also saw some grape vines mixed in the woods - none of the photos were worth keeping though.  We were interested in knowing what variety these might be and if collecting a cutting (keeping in mind that Park service regulations must be followed for this) might be worthwhile for a Virginia vineyard. 

After our short walk eastward, we crossed Skyline Drive to make a symmetrical walk to one of the other summits of Calf Mountain (as far as I can tell from my readings in the guides, there are three).  We didn't go as far as the radar towers, and we didn't find the Park boundary (one of the things to know about the Park down here is that it is very narrow - a some points the AT wanders in and out of the Park onto private land, although it is owned by a conservancy).

While on the westward side there weren't as many fruit trees, we found a little rocky outcropping and meadow to adventure out to not far off of the trail  We were rewarded with a view to the east; our guess was that we were looking down at Crozet or Albemarle, in the direction of Charlottesville. 

We may have gone a total of three miles, and it is a very easy hike - the entire route is on the AT so it's all pretty well maintained.  Because of the fruit trees, I think this one is best done in the fall.