George Washington - Jefferson National Forest Backpacking - 11/12/2021 - 11/14/2021

Backpacking friends and family always talk about West Virginia with fondness.  I was anxious to find a trek that was convenient for a weekend trip and yet far away enough that it felt like an adventure.  My dad loaned me his signed copy of Michael V. Juskelis's book, "The Mid-Atlantic Hiker's Guide: West Virginia."  Dad was a frequent hiker with Mr. Juskelis so I knew it was a reliable source.  I began planning this hike in August when I became the new outdoor activity coordinator for my son Andrew's scout troop.  I was immediately attracted to the options described in George Washington-Jefferson National Forest in the Lee Ranger District due to its proximity to where we live.  Within a 3 hour drive from north of Baltimore, it offered rugged, rocky, and steep terrain with multiple rivers, streams, mountains, lookouts, and camping options.  I zeroed in on the Pond Run-Racer Camp Hollow Trail loop that includes portions of the Tuscarora Trail.  The Tuscarora Trail stretches for 250 miles through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.  Below is a map of our initial plan.

Our trip began immediately after Andrew arrived home from school on Friday.  Andrew, my nephew Luke, Andrew's friend Keegan, his dad Mike and I linked up and departed at 3:30 PM.  We knew traffic would be heavy and anticipated it would take a little over 3 hours to get to the trail head.  Also due to the time of year, we knew we would be hiking in the dark.  As expected, the traffic on the Baltimore Beltway was slow until we reached I-70.  In Frederick, I-70 slowed but we soon turned off onto 340 S towards Harpers Ferry and found a steady flow of traffic.  We stopped for dinner at Sheetz in Charlestown just before reaching I-81 to head south towards Winchester, VA.  The Sheetz was adjacent to the Charlestown Race Track and we saw all kinds of race track culture walking in and out of the store.  We were treated the rest of the way to some very animated banter by Andrew after he had finished a caffeinated beverage.

Eventually, we made it to Wardensville, WV and wiggled our way through the back roads and eventually the cinder roads of the National Forest.  The book was very precise about the trailhead being adjacent to a one-lane bridge and we knew exactly when we had arrived in the correct location.  We disembarked and were immediately surprised by the sound of Pond Run.  The recent rains clearly had swelled this watershed and we were in for something special.  We laced up our hiking shoes and made our last preparations before taking a quick group selfie in the dark and headed out on our journey at 7:40 PM (sorry my iPhone flash was not powerful enough to reach Mike and Keegan).

The blue-blazed Pond Run / Tuscarora Trail started on the south side of Route 5/1 Waites Run Road and on the North side of the one-lane bridge.  All three boys were working on their backpacking merit badge for scouts, of which I am a counselor.  Since this portion of trail was a relatively straight shot, I had each of them measure the bearing on their compasses from the trail head to our destination.  I continued having them check the bearing as we went to be sure we were trending in the correct direction.  After a short down hill section to reach the river bed, we hiked along the run for the majority of this segment.  The trail makes an abrupt change in incline to climb approximately 1200' to the campsite.  

The guide book indicated the trail crosses over Pond Run "several times."  Due to the heavy rains that passed through the area on Thursday night into Friday, the Run was swelled.  We were forced to improvise our way across as the typical path was not always obvious.  Ultimately we crossed Pond Run seven times and this served as an opening salvo on our journey to realize we were traversing some technical terrain.  I attempted some video of this effort but unfortunately it was simply too dark and our headlamps did not provide adequate lighting.  Ultimately, none of us escaped with completely dry feet and we wondered what we had gotten into.

We arrived at the campsite which was at the intersection of Tuscarora Trail and Halfmoon Trail just before 9 PM.  This 2.4 mile section took us under two hours and we were happy to set up camp and call it a night.  The campsite had plenty of room, many flat soft areas for pitching a tent, and a fire pit with log seating.  We elected to eat a snack before bed and quickly retired for the evening.  Andrew and Luke had their single man tents, Mike and Keegan shared a nice REI two-man tent, and I used a new Outdoor Research Helium Bivy Sack that I have been itching to test.  The wind was fairly stiff so the ~45 degree temperatures felt more like it was in the low 30s.  It was nice to slip into our warm sleeping bags for the night.

Morning arrived slowly due to the high winds; it was a noisy night.  At sunrise around 6:40 AM, our camp began to rise.  Andrew and Luke are always good about packing up their gear before making breakfast.  This morning was no exception.  We had strung up our food bags on a nearby tree in which Luke helped me lower down.  None of us had to refill water as we had packed enough fresh water and went to work preparing our meals.  Finally in the daylight, we could get a good look at our surroundings.  We had clearly missed the peak Fall foliage and could see through the trees in 360 degrees.  To our East was Mill Mountain with a peak 3,173'  which we would navigate around later in the day.  To our West was Halfmoon Mountain which includes a look-out at an elevation of 2,826'.  That was our first destination for the day.

Just before 9 AM, we finished packing and hiked to the West-Northwest along the Halfmoon Trail.  We planned an out-and-back section so we could witness the views from the lookout before embarking on our main trek of the day.  From our campsite, the trail dipped down into a small valley before climbing back up to the lookout.  Along the way, the boys practiced "staying found" by following along a map I provided to them.  We practiced looking at landmarks and also interpreting the real terrain with what they saw on the map.  It was fun seeing the light-bulbs go off in their heads as they were able to see their surroundings and relate the view around them with the paper in their hand.  We also encountered our first backpackers coming from the lookout.  

It took us about 50 minutes to hike the 1.3 miles and climb about 220'.  We had completely shook off any chill that might have been in our bones from the wind.  The stunning views of Trout Run Valley did not disappoint and we were greeted with waves of light snow flurries!  Looking to our left and running south was North Mountain.  Looking to our right running almost in parallel was Long Mountain.  The wind was raw and strong but we still elected to sit down and have a quick snack before heading back the way we came.  Being predominantly downhill, we were back at our starting point in half the time it took us to reach the lookout.

Just past our campsite, heading Southeast along Tuscarora Trail, we came to a boardwalk where we found a nice spring head and stream.  Each of us took time to fill-up and prepare for our late morning stroll to Sugar Knob.  Each of us had different strategies for water on this trip.  Andrew had two 32 oz Nalgene bottles.  One bottle had a built-in Epic Water Filter that essentially operates like a straw within the bottle while filtering the water.  Luke had two 32 oz. Nalgene bottles and he used my MSR TrailShot Water Filter.  This was our first time using this one and it was really light, compact, and very easy to operation (see video below).  Andrew also used this to fill his Nalgene bottles.  Mike and Keegan utilized water bottles that they filled with the TrailShot as well.  Unfortunately, Mike's filters on his HydraPak Katadyn bottles appeared to have "froze" up so they just refilled their bottles with the TrailShot.  I carried two 500-ml Salomon soft flasks with XA Filter Caps.  In hindsight, I wish I had brought one more to have some spare water for cooking or for our longer sections that lacked water. 

 

We continued South along the Tuscarora Trail for about a half mile to a junction.  We could continue along the Tuscarora Trail, however the route in the book took us along a 0.6 mile winding path on the Mill Mountain Trail.  This contour trail led us to the ridge line along Mill Mountain and offered us a view to the North of the valley below and to the East of Sugar Knob.  We skirted just under the peak of Mill Mountain and back to Tuscarora Trail and continued on a Southeasterly direction.  The Tuscarora Trail at this point had become an accessible forest road which was clearly rutted by vehicles and we encountered several mountain bikers.  After about a half mile, we reached the Sugar Knob campsites and continued down the Little Stony Run Trail to a cabin.  You can reserve the cabin through the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and unfortunately it was occupied when we arrived.  Therefore, we elected to double back and eat along the Tuscarora Trail at a nearby campsite.  

After eating some delicious meals, we refilled our water supply and headed back down Little Stony Run Trail to a nice spring head that was pouring abundant amounts of clear water.  We all topped off and strapped our packs down for our afternoon jaunt.  From Sugar Knob, we descended 400' down to the Racer Camp Hollow Valley below.  It was at this point we had the boys make a decision.  I had provided a plan and map to hike Northeast from this point along Racer Camp Hollow along the stream.  We would be at a lower elevation but potentially have to cross the stream several times.  Being that we were unfamiliar with the terrain and our fresh experience from the night before, crossing the stream with freezing temperatures over night was a bit daunting.  I offered an alternative route to continue along the Tuscarora Trail to climb Little Sluice Mountain to camp at White Rocks.  One concern we had was regarding the water options for the evening.  We encountered a group of back packers coming down from Little Sluice Mountain and I asked if there was any water source at White Rocks.  They indicated one was available about a half mile past the campsite. After much deliberation, the boys elected to go with the climb.   Mike and Keegan refilled their water supply at a nearby spring head and away we went.

The Tuscarora Trail continued to be a fairly tame forest road heading East-Northeast and calmly traversed the contours.  There were only a couple areas of steep trail to reach the ridge line of Little Sluice Mountain.  All told, we reached the highest elevation of the trip at about 3,010' and traveled about a mile along the ridgeline before reaching the white-blazed White Rocks Trail.  The mountain top was shaped in a saddle and it was not abundantly apparent that we were going to reach anything spectacular.  We reached a campsite and we were all a bit disappointed to see several back packs laying on the ground.  We looked around for another area to camp and fortunately found some areas that worked for us.  Mike, Keegan, Andrew, and Luke's tents would be on some awkward pitches and my bivy was set up on a side trail that led to nowhere.  In the middle was a nice fire pit in which the boys were chomping at the bit to get going in starting a fire. 

I immediately became restless that "White Rocks" might have been a let down as I was expecting to be at the peak of the mountain with terrific views towards the west for the setting sun.  I started to explore around the site and found that there were some cliffs nearby but seemed to be blocked by a fair amount of trees.  However, after a few minutes of working my way around, I looked through the trees and saw a large white rock outcropping and knew that we were in the right place!  As I approached the base of the White Rocks, I scrambled up about 25' to the outcropping of rock and walked out to the cliff's edge and was presented with a marvelous view that extended nearly 180 degrees looking into Virginia from varying points along the rock line.  Starting with Capola Mountain to the East, then Tea Mountain beyond that, and then both were swallowed up by Little North Mountain beyond them.  I returned to the campsite to report what I found and collected the group so we could go back and enjoy the view of the setting sun before dinner.

As darkness fell, we busied ourselves with collecting wood for a fire and made our dinner.  The boys enjoyed their time building the fire despite the winds.  They had diminished a fair amount but sudden gusts were still prevalent.  While fixing dinner, a wind gust sent the fire outside the ring and started to consume Andrew's gloves that were drying a bit too close.  They were our only casualty of the outing.

 

This was going to be our coldest night on the trail with predicted temperatures in the low 30s.  At around 7 PM, everyone seemed tired and we each made our way back to our sleeping quarters to end the night.  Sleep was still fairly difficult to come for all of us as the cold was indeed setting in.  Additionally, the slope of the tents were not helping.  It was a long night for all!

As soon as it was light, our site stirred and wasted no time in packing and preparing breakfast.  We were anxious to get going and warm up!  I rose fairly quickly as I wanted to see if I could get some pictures of the sunrise before getting everything organized.  Boy was I happy I did that!

It definitely fell below freezing as some of the water remaining in our bottles was frozen and it took longer to boil than usual.  Toes and noses were numb and the warm meal, coffee, and hot chocolate helped to resurrect our bodies.  We were packed and back on the trail before 8:30 AM.  We had to double back up the White Rocks Trail and back to Tuscarora Trail.  As expected based on the reports by the backpackers we saw the afternoon before, there was a spring head about a quarter mile down the trail.  I was the only one out of water and filled a single flask quickly and continued on.  We continued to descend and reached the start of Old Mailpath and turned left.  This was the end of our journey on the Tuscarora Trail.

Old Mailpath continued to descend all the way down past Racer Camp Hollow Trail and down to Waites Run.  We finally reached Waites Run Road that ran along Wilson Cove and led us back to our parked vehicle.  Even though we were on a road, the views were no less spectacular along the rushing river.  There was a beautiful lake called Wilson Cove at the base of all three mountain watersheds that we traversed. There were also tremendous rock falls and cliffs running along the roadway.  This was the first time the entire trip that we were able to walk 2 or 3 abreast.  The boys chatted their way up the lane as Mike and I marveled at the great views back up the valley to the mountains we had previously navigated.  In no time, we reached my car and the end of our adventure.  

Here are the statistics from my Garmin files of all three days:

Overall, everyone did a great job of managing their gear, adjusting to the changing weather conditions, and navigating the terrain.  I would rate this as a challenging hike despite the distances being short.  This was also a "recon" mission for a trip I have to plan for Andrew's scout troop in May.  There are some adjustments to be made, but I believe this will be a challenging hike for the scouts.  Some scouts will no doubt struggle, but it will feel like an accomplishment for all.  

We packed the car and headed up the road for our three hour drive back home.  We enjoyed the views we were not able to see when we began our trip driving in the dark.  The Washington-Jefferson National Forest is definitely a wonderful place and will no doubt remain on our list for future trips.  For Andrew and Luke, this was their second three-day hike towards their badge while Keegan is just starting his badge requirements.  However, Keegan is no beginner, he and Mike have done a ton of backpacking all over the country and we look forward to many trips with them in the future.