Bear's Den trip; Part I
On Thursday morning my friend and I began our bike trip
to Bear's Den Hostel on the Washington and Old Dominion R.R.
Trail. Never having been very successful as a railroad, Va.
Power purchased the railroad right-of-way in 1968, after the
W & O.D. was on the verge of bankruptcy. The northern Va.
Regional Parks Authority made an agreement to share the right
of way as a trail with Va. Power. Unfortunately the unsightly,
massive powerlines of Va. Power therefore parallel the trail
to near Leesburg. The railroad once went all the way to Blue-
mont, Virginia, near the Appalachian Trail. However, in the
1940s the W & O.D. saved having to file for bankruptcy by
selling the portion of railroad right-of-way between Purcell-
ville and Bluemont. Thus, today's trail travels 45 miles from
Alexandria to Purcellville.
Our bike ride brought us quickly past the suburbs of
Vienna, Reston, and Herndon. In the Ashburn area my friend
got a flat tire. Being unprepared, I had brought a patch kit
but no bike pump. Fortunately, we were soon saved by a trail
angel. He was getting ready to hit the trail from the trail-
side parking lot and let us use both his pump and tire irons.
We chatted for awhile, with him reminiscing about the days
(only 10 yrs. ago!) when the whole section of trail between
the Loudoun-Fairfax line and Leesburg was countryside. It
was definitely rather awkward to stand on the front porch of
the Partlow Bros. country store overlooking a cow-filled
pasture with numerous townhomes crowded in the background.
I know that development around major cities is an inevitable
occurrence, but Loudoun is developing too fast. I have read
that an avg. of 1 new family moves into Loudoun Co. every
45 minutes! The funny thing is that the quality of life they
are seeking west of D.C. is deteriorating due to overcrowded
schools and an insufficient amount of police and fire depart-
ments.
Fortunately, for now most of Loudoun Co. west of Leesburg
is still quite rural. That, along with the end of the large
powerlines along the trail, made for a nice bike ride between
Leesburg and Purcellville. Many old farmhouses, signs warning
for crossing cows, and gravel road crossings typified the way
Loudoun has been for hundreds of years.
While approval for the W & O.D. to Round Hill is pending,
the trail currently ends in tiny Purcellville, Virginia. A
typical American village, Purcellville is a wonderful town.
The baseball field with its corn fields acting as a fence, a
diner at the center of town, and antique stores along Main
Street are all a part of the town. But once again, I could
not help but to notice the development along the edges of the
town. It makes me wonder how families who have spent generations in this town feel about these "outsiders" moving in. Or, do they even view them as outsiders at all?
Soon our bike route took us to Round Hill, Virginia via
Business Route 7. With no shoulder to ride on, this road made
for some rather unpleasant bicycling. Fortunately, it was
mostly downhill and we quickly arrived into Round Hill. This
town has all the same aspects of Purcellville, yet is probably
even a little smaller than the latter.
After traveling through several miles of hilly countryside
south of Round Hill, we made a right turn on to gravel Rte.
725. It seemed like every farmhouse along this road had a pet
dog, and a couple of those decided to chase us off their
properties. I guess that says what the dogs think about the
"outsiders" moving After traveling through western Loudoun's backroads, we
made our ascent of the Blue Ridge via the old Snickersville
Turnpike. Bluemont (once called Snickersville), sits at 700'
at the base of Snickers Gap and the Blue Ridge. It seems like
this is the only town along Route 7 that has escaped any sub-
urban sprawl. The only new building in town is the post
office, though even that has a roof that matches the historic
structures of the town. A small mill still makes tables and
chairs and the tiny Snickersville General Store offers both
the A.T. hiker and countryside biker with fresh sandwiches
and a variety of other pastries and candies.
After a steep climb up to the hostel via the former A.T.
route (Route 601/Blue Ridge Mtn. Rd.), we would soon be
rewarded with the excellent view from the Bear's Den Rocks.
The view from the rocks encompasses the northern Shenandoah
Valley, with Great North Mountain on the horizon and
Massanutten Mountain visible far to the south. A small
portion of the Shenandoah River is also visible.
Bear's Den Hostel was actually a summer home of a prominent
Washington doctor and his wife, who was an opera singer.
It was built in the 1930s and they lived there until passing
away around 1950. After changing hands several times, the
PATC bought the hostel (I guess many of you know this already), and handed it over to the ATC Trust for Lands.
So ever since the mid-1980s the hostel has been offering
lodging to hostellers, hikers, bikers, and any other outdoors
enthusiasts. An old cottage on the approximately 1/2 sq. mile
property has been renovated as well by the hard-working Dave
Appell, an ATC volunteer. Almost everyday last year Dave
worked to bring the ruins into a cottage with electricity,
new tiling, new roof, and a whole new chimney. I have helped
him on several occassions and encourage everyone to do the
same (hostel stay is free with a day's work at the cottage!).
The old dirt road to the cottage, once called the Summit Road, actually predates 601 and possibly went up to a turn-of-the-century(ca. 1900) hotel near the current Bear's Den Hostel.
The two caretakers, Melody Blaney and Patti Landovek, have
also done a great job maintaining the hostel and its grounds.
They have built two or three small nature trails on the hostel property and do a great job with the landscaping along
the property.
Another guy who lives in the hostel is Wolfgang, or "Wolf."
He works at the mill in Bluemont when he is not living in
distant Oregon and usually bikes all the way to the hostel each spring.
Anyway, about the trip. My friend and I awoke to a day of
clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid-60s on Friday.
We hiked a hilly 5.5 miles south on the AT. Since 601 takes
up the ridge crest, the AT goes over the side ridges and into
all the side ridges. The good part about this is that the
trail therefore passes several nice creeks. With the previous
days' rains, Spout Run had so much water in it that there were
several large cascading falls (though all 3 feet or less).
The water was a foot deep so we actually decided to take off
our socks and shoes and walk through the water. It was quite
chilly, but refreshingly so (or at least I thought so- my
friend said the water temperature couldn't have been higher
than about 50). The views were mediocre, definitely incompar-
able to the views from Bear's Den Rocks. As for the condition
of the trail through here, there were virtually no blowdowns
or eroded sections of trail. Some of the steep downhill
sections had some excellent check dams that eased some of the
pressure on the knees. Thumbs up to the trail maintainer of
this section!
After stopping for a quick water break at the Sam Moore
Shelter, it was up again, then down again. Fent Wiley Hollow
featured water with less volume, though there were several
of them here, including one that was gushing completely
underneath the rocks. Buzzard Hill was a short but rather
tough climb as well. But the next hollow made it all worth-
while. After taking a few shots of the old wine cellar at
the bottom of Buzzard Hill, we descended to a major falls in
the wooded Reservoir Hollow. The falls don't even seem to have
a name but, with all the recent rains, must have been at least
ten feet high. Several other large cascades, each under 5
feet, were both upstream and downstream from the falls. If
it would have been a little warmer (the water and air temper-
ature), it would have been an excellent place to wade in
one of the many small pools of water. Having no name and
not being widely popular by any means, I felt as if I had
found my own secluded waterfall nestled away in the woods.
The 150+ yards to the falls was in itself a bushwack to the
falls. I highly recommend a visit to these falls, being only
a half-mile or so from gravel 605, Ashby Hollow, and the
"secret" Mount Weather. There is also a huge rock outcrop
above the falls that also makes for an interesting birds-eye
type view of the falls.
Being low on water, my friend and I decided to take Va.
605 to 601, and follow the former A.T. route on a generally
downhill course back to the hostel. Once in a while a
telephone pole or tree would still show an faded white blaze,
but the old side trail to a former shelter was nowhere to be
found. On the contrary, a driveway to a new house now seems
have gotten rid of any trace of the old Three Springs Shelter.
It's too bad that even way up on the forested mountain tops
beautiful mountain homes are being built. And yes, I do
call many of the beauiful, as I myself would be hypocritical
enough to not hesitate to live in one of these homes myself.
However, I could see that the eastward view towards D.C. was
relatively hazy considering the fact that a cold front had
passed through. It made me think back to the time when some-
one told me that the Washington Monument is sometimes visible
from Old Rag. Does anyone know if that statement is still
valid, because I would highly doubt it.
After staring our hike at 9:30am, we had made good timing
and after 12+ miles arrived back at the hostel just before 2pm. That evening I met the first thru-hiker of the season,
Trudge from Portland, ME. He was going south from Harper's
Ferry and was going to do a flip-flop of the A.T. He decided
that in that way he could avoid most of the crowds and travel
through better weather conditions through the duration of his
hike. I guess this makes sense, as March in the mid-Atlantic
portion of the A.T. is usually more bearable than the 6000'+
mountainous terrain of the Smokies and adjacent terrain. Maybe
that's what I'll do if I ever get around to hiking the trail.
Anyone have any opinions on doing a flip-flop hike versus
going north or south on the trail? I would think that it is
easier to gain endurance by starting in the lower elevations.
On Saturday I decided to bike back home. My friend said
he had a lot of homework to do before going back to school
the next day. My original plan was to work with Bruce Clen-
daniel and Chris Brunton up at Blackburn that day, but I
had quite a 'bit of work myself to keep me busy on Sunday.
I regret not seeing the great people at Blackburn once again
but all in all I had a great trip.
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Outline:
Bear's Den Trip: Part II by Phil Schols, Mar 27, 20:15
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