Hiking Trip - Actually Made It This Time!
Oct. 14th, 2009 09:52 amAfter my last hiking trip flopped, I decided to try the same hike again on Sunday, Tibbet Knob. It's only 3 miles total length, but it remains one of the most difficult hikes I've ever tackled, and I've only done it once before. So, I've been itching to climb it again.
Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be going to Wolf Gap on weekends anymore. For being a relatively unknown recreation area, it gets an absurd amount of activity on Saturdays and Sundays, and large quantities of people always manage to spoil the experience for me. When I went, arriving around 11:30am, it was so packed that I couldn't find a parking space. The parking lot (with a whopping 18 spaces) was completely packed, with all available side-of-the-road pull-offs occupied as well. There's an undeveloped camping area across the main road from the campground, but its vehicle trail is really rough, practically 4WD-only. While I probably could've gotten my car up it enough to park there, I wasn't in a hurry to try, since the driveway is around blind curves from both directions. Eventually, I decided to park in a camping spot, which is technically against the rules, but no one arrives to set up camp on a Sunday, and I chose the worst spot in the campground (incidentally, also nearly the only one unoccupied).
After getting my gear ready and departing, I hit another snag caused by the huge number of people. The trail I wanted started in the aforementioned undeveloped campground (basically just a chunk o' forest with clearings and a few fire rings to designate "real" spots), which was also nearly full. This wasn't a huge deal, since the trail is well-blazed, but some inconsiderate group (presumably a church youth group) decided to set up camp right on top of the trail. And, they were all still there. I guess I can understand their mistake, since they were in a pretty decent-sized clearing, but they obviously didn't know anything about undeveloped campgrounds - if there isn't already a fire ring, you're not supposed to make a new one, and thus it's probably not supposed to be a campsite. So, I had a large group with their tents set up in a ring, plus a dozen cars and a few seemingly-aggressive dogs, blocking my trail. I stopped at the edge of their area, since it's rude to walk through someone's campsite regardless of how inappropriately-placed it is, and tried to get someone's permission. No luck, the only people around were either too far to hear me, or seemed to be ignoring me. Whatever, I'll just walk around.
Unfortunately, that was much easier said than done. Due to the terrain and the arrangement of this group's tents, I couldn't go right around in either direction, I had to keep going further and further away/uphill to stay on traversable terrain. Eventually, I ended up over a hundred yards away and still couldn't quite get back to where the trail was supposed to be. I always travel prepared for getting lost, armed with a compass and a good topo map of the area, but I didn't really want to dig that stuff out for a 100-yard discrepency when I still had a good idea of where I was (thus, not technically "lost").
After nearly an eighth of a mile of randomly walking through the woods, I found the trail. And, the trip finally began.
The hike was as difficult as I remembered, which is exactly what I was looking for, a challenging trip. In addition to the trail being overgrown, rocky, and practically non-existant over most of its length, it's incredibly steep. The total altitude gain is only 850ft, but nearly 700ft of that is in the last half-mile, and the last 100 vertical feet are a literal rock-climb. Thus, when I finally made it to the top, it felt like one of the most rewarding trips I'd ever had.
There was one positive moment involving other people. When I reached the first rock climb, I stopped to secure my bag/radio, have some water, and just mentally ready myself to do it. While I was standing there, a friendly young couple approached behind me. I said hi, they were chatty, and while they approached my position (not yet knowing what was in front of me), I asked if they'd hiked this trail before. They said "No, why?" as they rounded the corner, and I just pointed at the 25' wall in front of us. I've never seen such stunned looks, it kinda made me giggle inside. I reassured them (particularly the girlfriend, who seemed a breath away from wanting to turn back), and let them go up ahead of me; I'm very slow and careful at climbs like that, and if one of them did something stupid and fell, I'd already be there to render aid. Thankfully, they had no trouble.
In addition to the hike/climb itself being awesome, the conditions were perfect for photos. The sky was partly cloudy, the atmosphere wasn't hazy, and my timing was perfect to have the sun in the right spot. The summit of Tibbet Knob has a clearing on the east side, overlooking the eastern valley (the VA side), and a couple cliffs/rocky outcroppings on the west side, overlooking the western valley (the WV side). And, in order to get awesome shots with my polarizer, I need the sun behind me. So, when I made it to the top around 2pm, the sun was almost directly overhead and to the south, making conditions pretty awesome to photograph the western valley. Since it was the afternoon on the return trip, the eastern valley was easy too :-)
Unfortunately, humans managed to put a dent in my fun at the top, too. The aforementioned couple spent some time cuddling on the main cliff, and I felt a little weird standing 10 feet away to take pictures, so I went further down the peak to one of the other cliffs. On the way, I passed the backpacker campsite at the top, and caught a whiff of wood smoke, followed by the crackle of a burning log. Upon investigation, I discovered that the people who were camping there hadn't extinguished their fire, they just let it burn down, leaving a large smoldering log and some coals unattended. In a spot heavily populated by small spruce trees and evergreen scrub brush - ya know, stuff that burns like kerosene even when live and wet. So, being the wannabe-forest-ranger I am, I tried to take care of it without completely exhausting my water supply. Trying to put out a fairly hot fire with just 10oz of water doesn't even sound that easy on paper, and in practice, it's pretty much impossible. So, after seeing the first little splashes evapourate within seconds without dousing the smoldering log, I switched to plan B. I used as much water as I could spare to soak the perimeter of the fire ring, used an entire travel-sized bottle of baby powder to cover the coals (there weren't many) and the log, made sure the log was well within the fire ring, and scraped the area clear of dry needles/leaves for about a 6-foot radius. Not a perfect solution, but the best I could do while completely unprepared for fire control. And yes, I tried burying it with dirt, but at the top of a rocky cliff where grass can't even grow, unaided human hands can only scrape up the top half-inch of soil, if that; the rest is solid clay or rock.
Anyway, the return trip was fairly uneventful, but I did see a lady with her dog and her 6-year-old (approx.) daughter nearly at the top, they'd already made it past the first rock climb. Personally, I think you'd have to be downright psychotic or sadistic to try to bring a kid up that trail, it's a severe challenge even for adults, and how she got the dog up there I'll never know. Maybe it's part goat. I tried to ask, but the only English she seemed to speak was "hello".
Overall, an awesome trip, but I definitely enjoy hiking more on weekdays when the forest is nearly deserted by humans.
Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be going to Wolf Gap on weekends anymore. For being a relatively unknown recreation area, it gets an absurd amount of activity on Saturdays and Sundays, and large quantities of people always manage to spoil the experience for me. When I went, arriving around 11:30am, it was so packed that I couldn't find a parking space. The parking lot (with a whopping 18 spaces) was completely packed, with all available side-of-the-road pull-offs occupied as well. There's an undeveloped camping area across the main road from the campground, but its vehicle trail is really rough, practically 4WD-only. While I probably could've gotten my car up it enough to park there, I wasn't in a hurry to try, since the driveway is around blind curves from both directions. Eventually, I decided to park in a camping spot, which is technically against the rules, but no one arrives to set up camp on a Sunday, and I chose the worst spot in the campground (incidentally, also nearly the only one unoccupied).
After getting my gear ready and departing, I hit another snag caused by the huge number of people. The trail I wanted started in the aforementioned undeveloped campground (basically just a chunk o' forest with clearings and a few fire rings to designate "real" spots), which was also nearly full. This wasn't a huge deal, since the trail is well-blazed, but some inconsiderate group (presumably a church youth group) decided to set up camp right on top of the trail. And, they were all still there. I guess I can understand their mistake, since they were in a pretty decent-sized clearing, but they obviously didn't know anything about undeveloped campgrounds - if there isn't already a fire ring, you're not supposed to make a new one, and thus it's probably not supposed to be a campsite. So, I had a large group with their tents set up in a ring, plus a dozen cars and a few seemingly-aggressive dogs, blocking my trail. I stopped at the edge of their area, since it's rude to walk through someone's campsite regardless of how inappropriately-placed it is, and tried to get someone's permission. No luck, the only people around were either too far to hear me, or seemed to be ignoring me. Whatever, I'll just walk around.
Unfortunately, that was much easier said than done. Due to the terrain and the arrangement of this group's tents, I couldn't go right around in either direction, I had to keep going further and further away/uphill to stay on traversable terrain. Eventually, I ended up over a hundred yards away and still couldn't quite get back to where the trail was supposed to be. I always travel prepared for getting lost, armed with a compass and a good topo map of the area, but I didn't really want to dig that stuff out for a 100-yard discrepency when I still had a good idea of where I was (thus, not technically "lost").
After nearly an eighth of a mile of randomly walking through the woods, I found the trail. And, the trip finally began.
The hike was as difficult as I remembered, which is exactly what I was looking for, a challenging trip. In addition to the trail being overgrown, rocky, and practically non-existant over most of its length, it's incredibly steep. The total altitude gain is only 850ft, but nearly 700ft of that is in the last half-mile, and the last 100 vertical feet are a literal rock-climb. Thus, when I finally made it to the top, it felt like one of the most rewarding trips I'd ever had.
There was one positive moment involving other people. When I reached the first rock climb, I stopped to secure my bag/radio, have some water, and just mentally ready myself to do it. While I was standing there, a friendly young couple approached behind me. I said hi, they were chatty, and while they approached my position (not yet knowing what was in front of me), I asked if they'd hiked this trail before. They said "No, why?" as they rounded the corner, and I just pointed at the 25' wall in front of us. I've never seen such stunned looks, it kinda made me giggle inside. I reassured them (particularly the girlfriend, who seemed a breath away from wanting to turn back), and let them go up ahead of me; I'm very slow and careful at climbs like that, and if one of them did something stupid and fell, I'd already be there to render aid. Thankfully, they had no trouble.
In addition to the hike/climb itself being awesome, the conditions were perfect for photos. The sky was partly cloudy, the atmosphere wasn't hazy, and my timing was perfect to have the sun in the right spot. The summit of Tibbet Knob has a clearing on the east side, overlooking the eastern valley (the VA side), and a couple cliffs/rocky outcroppings on the west side, overlooking the western valley (the WV side). And, in order to get awesome shots with my polarizer, I need the sun behind me. So, when I made it to the top around 2pm, the sun was almost directly overhead and to the south, making conditions pretty awesome to photograph the western valley. Since it was the afternoon on the return trip, the eastern valley was easy too :-)
Unfortunately, humans managed to put a dent in my fun at the top, too. The aforementioned couple spent some time cuddling on the main cliff, and I felt a little weird standing 10 feet away to take pictures, so I went further down the peak to one of the other cliffs. On the way, I passed the backpacker campsite at the top, and caught a whiff of wood smoke, followed by the crackle of a burning log. Upon investigation, I discovered that the people who were camping there hadn't extinguished their fire, they just let it burn down, leaving a large smoldering log and some coals unattended. In a spot heavily populated by small spruce trees and evergreen scrub brush - ya know, stuff that burns like kerosene even when live and wet. So, being the wannabe-forest-ranger I am, I tried to take care of it without completely exhausting my water supply. Trying to put out a fairly hot fire with just 10oz of water doesn't even sound that easy on paper, and in practice, it's pretty much impossible. So, after seeing the first little splashes evapourate within seconds without dousing the smoldering log, I switched to plan B. I used as much water as I could spare to soak the perimeter of the fire ring, used an entire travel-sized bottle of baby powder to cover the coals (there weren't many) and the log, made sure the log was well within the fire ring, and scraped the area clear of dry needles/leaves for about a 6-foot radius. Not a perfect solution, but the best I could do while completely unprepared for fire control. And yes, I tried burying it with dirt, but at the top of a rocky cliff where grass can't even grow, unaided human hands can only scrape up the top half-inch of soil, if that; the rest is solid clay or rock.
Anyway, the return trip was fairly uneventful, but I did see a lady with her dog and her 6-year-old (approx.) daughter nearly at the top, they'd already made it past the first rock climb. Personally, I think you'd have to be downright psychotic or sadistic to try to bring a kid up that trail, it's a severe challenge even for adults, and how she got the dog up there I'll never know. Maybe it's part goat. I tried to ask, but the only English she seemed to speak was "hello".
Overall, an awesome trip, but I definitely enjoy hiking more on weekdays when the forest is nearly deserted by humans.